The Los Angeles Lakers have always embodied Hollywood. They are glitz and glamour, celebrities and championships, swimming pools and movie stars. And part of the gig of being Hollywood’s best, from Magic to Wilt To Shaq to Kobe, has been being on fashion’s cutting edge, all the time. From classic suits to workout gear to casual wear (including, yep, suspenders!), part of being among the Lakers’ starring cast has always meant embracing the styles on the cutting edge. No matter how they look in retrospect.
What’s your favorite look of all-time? Let us know in the comments section, and don’t forget to continue the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #NBAStyle…
You may have noticed it’s the offseason, which means we have plenty of time to sit around and think about many of the things that make it fun to be an NBA fan. Here at All Ball, we’ll be passing the time until the start of the season with a new series, the Fave Five. Each week we’ll count down a list of the five best, or worst … somethings. We’ll try to get creative with it. Plus we’re taking requests! If you have a suggestion for a Fave Five post, give us a shout and you may see it appear in this space over the next several weeks.
Who is going to win the Super Bowl this year? The World Series? Your guess is as good as mine. In the NFL and MLB, who wins from year to year is totally unpredictable. In football it’s about who is lucky and who is healthy; in baseball it’s who is lucky and who gets great pitching.
The NBA is different. There are very, very few Cinderella stories in professional basketball. For my money, the 2011 Mavericks and the 2004 Pistons are the only surprise champions I’ve seen in the NBA in my lifetime.
The best teams almost always prevail. Which is why when we think of the teams who have come up short since the start of the 2000s, the answers are pretty obvious.
Let’s take a look:
5. 2011 San Antonio Spurs
What happened: The Spurs got off to a ridiculous start to the season (they were 29-4 at one point), and for a while there was talk that they might flirt with 70 wins. They cooled a bit down the stretch, but still finished the regular season as the top seed in the Western Conference with a record of 61-21.
The draw in the West looked pretty good, as they faced the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round. Talk about a mismatch – the Spurs, four-time NBA champions, versus the Grizz, who to that point had not won a single playoff game in franchise history in three previous appearances. So naturally they advanced to face HEY WAIT A MINUTE!
Memphis shocked San Antonio in six games, and the Spurs went home as only the fourth No. 1 seed to ever lose to a No. 8 seed*.
* The Bulls became the fifth this past season, but methinks that might have turned out differently had Derrick Rose been healthy.
Why they disappointed: I’ll be honest. I don’t really think of this Spurs team as being all that much of a disappointment. Some of that is due to the fact that the Grizzlies turned out to be a pretty good team, and some (maybe a lot) is due to the fact that Manu Ginobili hurt his elbow the final game of the season and was severely limited in the series. Still, 1 seeds don’t lose to 8 seeds, so here they are.
While the frontcourt of the Nuggets are hard at work on Western Conference domination, head coach George Karl finds time to pal around with the Original Wailers (formed by Bob Marley):
From musing about the greatest defender he’s ever coached to being invited on stage by a legendary (in this writer’s estimation) Jamaican band, Karl is living the life.
If you aren’t watching the Onion Sports Dome Tuesday nights on Comedy Central (during Fan Night commercial breaks, obviously), you are missing a hilarious skewering of the world of sports.
Nice appearance by Gary Payton as well.
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Catch up on every single game-winning buzzer beater during the season and see how it rates on the Horry Scale.
