Oh, this is going to be one of those gossip columns, which is pretty much something your intrepid author can’t stand to write about or even hear about. All the Pop and glitter and reality TV drives me crazy.

Like it is more normal to want to watch tall guys bounce an orange ball and run up and down a wooden floor? Ok, you got me there.

So here is the news…Khloe Kardashian and that would be Kim’s sister is getting married to her boyfriend and he plays for the Lakers.

Khloe Kardashian marries boyfriend Lamar Odom

Their Dad is super decathlete Bruce Jenner.

Khloe, Kourtney, and Kim Kardashian

In man talk, that would be Lamar Odom, one of the guys that the Lakers got in the Shaq trade to Miami and recently resigned to a hefty 30 million plus dollar contract to most likely be a 6th man, is now married to Kim Kardashian’s sister Khloe. Kim is the one with the butt, you know about that.

Only with money can you plan a wedding in two weeks, but they did it.

How the Kardashians planned Khloe’s wedding in just two weeks!

So what is the big surprise? They dated for 1 month. A match made in Heaven.

Oh, and for hoop news, Kobe and Vanessa Bryant were there!

Now for some Olympic news, Khloe’s dad, Bruce Jenner, was also there!
Image: Zuma Press

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The Lakers picked up Ron Artest and say what you want about the guy, he can be a terrific basketball player and the Lakers are hoping by surrounding him with strong minds and a solid coach and a winning tradition that they will be able to contain the rest of Ron Artest.

The ace in the hole for the Lakers would have been Lamar Odom. Only Lamar is thinking about going to Miami to play with Dwyane Wade, instead and he may do it for less money and more respect.

Lamar Odom to Miami?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, because the Lakers will need Odom to repeat. No Odom and things get a lot more interesting in the West.

According to Wojnarowski, one source said that the Odom-to-Miami deal is “Close, but it’s not done.” It would be a huge pickup for the HEAT should they pull it off, and a huge loss for the Lakers. Kobe Bryant has said all along he thought Odom would end up back in Tinsletown, but now it’s pretty much anybody’s guess. Either way, he’s going to win some ball games, though it seems more likely the Lakers would give him the better shot at another ring.
source

Image: Zuma Press

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It just went from bad to worse as Lamar Odom goes from finding out the NBA is a little tight on money this year to finding out that the NBA has money, but won’t give it to him. Or maybe you should say he won’t take the money. The Los Angeles Lakers offered Lamar Odom a very reasonable 30 million dollars for 3 years or an even more reasonable 36 million for 4 years and what did Lamar do, but turn it down.

Then it got ugly.

In addition, Buss is believed to be miffed that Odom’s agent has started negotiations with the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat, neither of whom can offer the versatile forward more than the mid-level exception ($5.8 million for next season).

Dallas owner Mark Cuban told a reporter from NBA-TV that he spoke with agent Jeff Schwartz on Monday. There also have been persistent rumors that the Heat is interested in Odom. The Heat dealt Odom to the Lakers in 2004.

source

All that money and the chance to play with Kobe and Lamar turns it down.

The Lakers took that as a slap in the face and pulled the deals off the table. Do they want Lamar? Yes. Can Dallas or Miami lure him away? No. Sounds like a shell game to me.

Photo source Newscom

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Lamar Odom was a key part to the Los Angeles Lakers winning it all. The versatile forward that came to the Lakers in the Shaquille O’Neal trade with the Miami Heat had an outstanding season.

So why isn’t he getting a big fat raise like all the other free agents?

Lamar Odom is getting knocked around in the free agent market

Simple, Lamar Odom will soon be 30 years old and this is the new NBA where money actually matters.

But unless you’ve lost all contact with the outside world in the past 12 months, it’s pretty obvious things around the country have changed rather dramatically since then.

Which is how Odom, who was off helping the Lakers win the franchise’s 15th NBA title by selflessly agreeing to come off the bench most of the season, finds himself unemployed July 12 and coming to grips with the fact he probably will have to accept a contract of around $8 million a season.

“This is just a time where austerity is somewhat warranted,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said last week in a radio interview with KLAC-AM (570). “I don’t think there’s a whole lot we can do about it. We just have to suffer the consequences of the time right now and go through this. Everybody is tightening their belt a little bit.”
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So even after sacrificing for the Lakers to win the NBA title and having a great year, Lamar Odom will most likely take a pay cut. The times have changed my friend and even the NBA finds the going rough.

Image: Zuma Press

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Boston Celtics rule the world or at least the NBA World.

Paul Pierce is MVP and played fantastic.

Kevin Garnett reminds us that anything is possible.

Defense rules and the Lakers better get one.

Redlasso gives us this video from after the final seconds.

source RedLasso

Kevin Garnett was so emotional that he was crying one moment and shouting out the next moment. Boston absolutely dominated the last game of the series.

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Paul Pierce cannot be stopped. Not by Kobe. Not by anyone.

Image details: NBA Finals Game 6: Los Angeles Lakers v Boston Celtics served by picapp.com

Sam Posey or SAM missile. He just keeps burying 3’s.

Paul Pierce, not Kevin Garnett. It is the Paul Pierce series. Hey, Kevin is averaging a double double, but it does not matter. Paul Pierce is dominating.

Pierce had waited for his chance to be one of those generational Boston sports icons, and the Celtics had stopped surrounding him with a fighting chance. It was getting late in his prime, late in his patience. He watched Tom Brady win his Super Bowls and David Ortiz his World Series, and he could take it no more. This town is the best in the world for winners, and just the worst for everyone else.

These forever New England stars are remembered for the most clutch championship performances. Pierce was the forgotten, dismissed talent, a victim of unfair circumstance when the city never had less tolerance for losing causes.

Suddenly now, Pierce returns for Game 6 in these NBA Finals on Tuesday within a victory of a championship, within a whisper of his wildest dreams. Maybe the regular season belonged to Kevin Garnett for the Celtics, but the playoffs belong to Pierce. History is closing fast.

source

Phil Jackson has a pink top of his head. What is that?

Pau Gasol racks up the stats, but plays soft most of the time. Lakers need Andrew Bynum.

Kobe Bryant can’t score on 5 Celtics at once. They are playing great defense. Kobe will get his, but it will take a lot of shots.

Boston by 23. Is this a series of big leads by both teams or what?

Ray Allen had his eye poked in the first quarter and has done nothing since.

Halftime.

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Kobe Bryant is ready, but is Pau Gasol ready?

Image details: NBA Finals Game 4: Boston Celtics v Los Angeles Lakers served by picapp.com

The Lakers blew it in game 4. A 24 point lead and still they did not win. The Celtics stepped up the defense and Paul Pierce went crazy on offense and that was it.

The Lakers have to face game 5 as a game to get respect.

Let me lay it out for you.

First off your leader has to be cool. Kobe Bryant is the ultimate cool right now.

Bryant insists the Lakers have moved on since their Game 4 collapse. There’s no time to dwell on what happened, all that counts now is what happens next.

“We’ve got to take care of business on Sunday,” said Bryant, who spent much of the past two days relaxing at home with his family. “So what are we going to do? How am I going to get my teammates in the right frame of mind, make sure they’re energetic, and that’s what it’s been all about.”

Bryant said he spent much of the past two days reading a Harry Potter book to his daughters.

“It was awesome,” he said. “He had more problems dealing with Voldemort than what we have dealing with the media and the Celtics.”

source

Lord Voldemort? Hmm, that would be interesting.

Garnett goes up for a rebound and what is this? Lord Voldemort has pulled out his wand and, oh my gosh, the ball just exploded. Did you see that? Kevin Garnett is just lying on the floor in a crumpled heap.

Anyway, secondly you cannot think beyond this next game.

The finals are in a 2 – 3 – 2 format. The Lakers almost came from 20 down to win game 2, but did not. The Celtics came from behind to win game 4. That made the series 3 -1. Hopeless is the major feeling right now. No NBA team has come back from 3 -1.

Even if the Lakers can get up for game 5 after the major disappointment of game 4, they would still face game 6 and 7 in the house of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen. Not to mention the ghosts of Celtics past like Red Auerbach and Larry Bird. It is human nature to just not believe you can win all three games in a row, but you can always convince yourself to win the next game, the one right in front of you.

Third the Lakers have to play a complete game with enthusiasm. Derek Fisher is a veteran and understands the playoffs, but does Pau Gasol or is he and his other teammates just happy to be there?

Fourth, Kobe Bryant has to get hot. He cannot just dribble into the paint and dish off. If he is the best player in the league and Phil Jackson is such a good coach, then a new strategy has to be devised to make Boston unable to stop Kobe. Right now Boston is over playing one side of the court and it is working. LA has to find a way to get down low or get open shots on the weak side.

Back to game 5. The Lakers need this game for respect, and then if they lose in Boston, they lose in Boston and that is that.

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Paul Pierce, with a lot of help, put the clamps on Kobe Bryant

Image details: NBA Finals Game 4: Boston Celtics v Los Angeles Lakers served by picapp.com

The Lakers are done. They had a 24 point lead in the second quarter over the Boston Celtics.

Even in the 3rd quarter the Celtics were down 20 points.

Then the Lakers stopped scoring.

What was it? It was Celtic defense and Paul Pierce scoring.

It didn’t help that Kobe was being locked down by Pierce. Kobe just could not get his jumper going at all. Every time Kobe drove to the middle of the floor, he was met with a welcoming committee from Boston and most of the time had to pass off to an outside shooter. That is fine, but then the Celtics would recover fast enough to cover the outside shooter as well.

Sam Posey made a couple of clutch 3 pointers late in the game and had 18 points. It seems that there is a new Boston bench star in every game.

Kevin Garnett had a very quiet 16 points and 11 boards. Paul Pierce was very dynamic especially late in the game with 20 points in spite of missing all 3 of his 3 pointers.

Kendrick Perkins left the game with a strained shoulder. We will have to wait and see how bad that is. Paul Pierce tweaked his ankle late in the game, but continued to play.

The Lakers wasted a brilliant game by Lamar Odom, who had 19 points on 8 for 11 shooting and 10 boards.

At one point in the third quarter, they flashed a graphic saying the Lakers had missed 9 shots in a row.

Where do the Lakers go from here? Game 5 is in LA and then the last two games are in Boston. No team has ever come back from a 3 -1 deficit. It is hard to imagine the Lakers winning the next 3 games with 2 of them in Boston.

It will be interesting to see the two team’s mindset for game 5.

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Can Paul Pierce take his injured knee and guard Kobe Bryant and still score points?

Image details: NBA Finals Game 1: Los Angeles Lakers v Boston Celtics served by picapp.com

Doc Rivers is cautiously optimistic about his two injured starters.

Pierce (sprained right knee) and Perkins (sprained left ankle) spent much of the media-access portion of practice riding stationary bikes, and coach Doc Rivers indicated he was more optimistic about Pierce’s chances of playing against the Lakers than he was about Perkins’s, even though the fifth-year center said he figured to be about 75-80 percent.

“There’s still aching in it right now, but it’s all right,” Perkins said of his ankle.

As for Pierce? “The swelling is down a little,” he said, after showing up at a news conference wearing a multilayered sleeve on his knee. “Still some stiffness, can’t quite all the way bend it like I want to, but it’s definitely a step forward.”
source

In a classic, don’t say what you want to say comment, Derek Fisher of the Lakers had this to say about Paul Pierce.

“It obviously changes their personnel,” said Lakers guard Derek Fisher. “Paul is a very talented player. He’s their go-to guy in a lot of situations, so, for whatever reason, if he doesn’t play, then a lot of things change. It doesn’t mean that they’re any worse.

“I mean, they went on a 6-0 run while he was out, so I was pretty happy to see him come back,” Fisher added. “We played them pretty even after that, but that 6-point difference after he left continued to change the momentum of the game.”

If either Perkins of Pierce are missing for game two, the Celtics are a considerably weaker team. The pressure would be on Kevin Garnett, big time, to score and rebound. Who would guard Kobe Bryant? Sam Posey? Who would keep Gasol off the boards?

Even if they do come back, how effective will Paul Pierce and Kendrick Perkins be?

Coach Rivers will remain cautiously optimistic!

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NBA Finals – Let the games begin!

This series is unlike most series in a very dramatic way. Neither team has earned their way into the NBA Finals in the ordinary sense.

Hey, before you get all defensive, hear me out.

That earlier sentence did not say that either team did not deserve to be there. Both teams deserve to be there.

Will Kobe Bryant triumph over Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen?

Image details: Boston Celtics v Los Angeles Lakers served by picapp.com

Just to be clear (Because my wife claims my ways to be wishy washy), my contention was that My Pistons (Authors note: exposing my personal loyalties) were the best team to beat a team from the West.

The problem with the Pistons is how poorly they matched up with the Celtics. Thus the Celtics would ultimately triumph over My Pistons.

In the West, it was Lakers all the way. Once Pau Gasol was added to the team to replace the missing height of Andrew Bynum, and to add another scorer that could shoot and occasionally post up, to Kobe Bryant, then it was clear that the Lakers would prevail.

Pick: Lakers over Celtics in 6.

What does everyone else think?

Willl the Lakers struggle with Kevin Garnett?

Will the Celtics struggle with Kobe Bryant?

What about the old rivalry in the sixties and who was Elgin Baylor?

Why Charles Barkley is choosing the Lakers!

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