PAYING HOMAGE

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, former Laker,
was by far one of the best basketball
players who ever lived. Not to be ignored,
(but took 13 years to finally honor him
when it comes to identification, a statue
outside of Staples Center, is now set
to join Lakers icons Magic Johnson, Jerry
West and Chick Hearn).
It's about time. What took so long?
Staples Center opened in 1999 and now
we are just getting around to giving the
Big Fella his statue?
Possibly we all paid so much attention to
Michael Jordan we forgot who the real giant
of Basketball is. Yes, we give our hearts to
Magic and our respect to Kobe Bryant. We
give our soul to West and all the while are
we forgetting the 7 footer who kept to himself
while re-writing the NBA record book and
revolutionizing the center position?
How did this intelligent awe-inspiring 7 ft.
center with the un-blockable, beautifully
conceived sky hook go from being the best
high school player to nearly be overlooked
in a sport whose record book he dominates?
He won 3 NCAA titles at UCLA and 6 NBA
championships between the Milwaukee Bucks
and Lakers and has won as many MVF trophies
as Michael Jordan. Quite a bunch of accomplishments!
Yes, finally, the man deserves his statue because
he certainly is one to be right up there on top.

And, lastly today, let's not forget a big man that
worked for the past 30 years as a fun loving and humanity
pleasing, smiling person. Always willing to stop and listen
to you plus pass on a word of praise. Artie Williams
of local channel 7 news for ABC has passed away this week.
A photographer everybody working there felt a closeness to.

Artie died while partaking in a sport he dearly loved, Scuba Diving.
He was a very noticeable fan of our Lakers team. His Celebration
of Life - memorial service, took place August 28th.
Many farewells and even a few jokes were said.
Today we bid farewell and thank him for all of his
kindnesses, loyalties and joviality.
Babs Wells

NOOZ, OLD AND NEW:

Laker Star, Kobe Bryant turned 34 on Thursday,

August 23rd. He will be in the company of some

mighty great players this upcoming Basketball

Season..namely, Pau Gasol, formerly of Spain,

Steve Nash, formerly a Phoenix, AZ Sun player

and Dwight Howard with the Orlando FL Magic.

Howard, however, is recovering from surgery so

will not be on the playing court floor until probably

late October. Lamar Odom, formerly with the Lakers,

seems to now have been signed on to play with the

L.A. Clippers team and Andrew Bynum, another

of our tall Lakers, is already being courted into

his new team in Philadelphia. This then, is our

fearsome four to be reckoned with certainly.

They do make up quite a formidable team and

are deeper and more skilled as well as more versatile.

So the deal seems to have made sense and will be

giving us all a reason to be ever thankful for these

seasoned players. To have been given a second chance

at upgrading the roster, is hopefully enough

to win the world championship, said Barkley, a former

NBA player and current TNT commentator. Dwight

Howard, alone, is the most athletic big man in the

NBA so it stands to reason, the 4 players will make

the very most of this opportunity for winning another

ring. Magic Johnson said that now, this puts the Lakers

right in the championship hunt and in fact, will be a

better playing team even than Oklahoma. "If the Lakers

are smart, they are better than the Thunder," Magic Johnson

quoted. By the way, in reserve, Mitch Kupchak took two

significant steps to insure the team's bench has more punch

too, signing on forward Antawn Jamison and re-signed

forward Jordan Hill last month.

We have just learned that former deputy commissioner

for the NBA, Simon Gourdine, who became the highest

ranking black executive in professional sports in the

1970's and who served as executive director of the league's

players union, died on August 16 at age 72.

He had undergone back surgery and following that, he lost

his life. Surprisingly, he had no basketball experience. He had

been a lawyer and had worked in many posts with the N.Y.

government including commissioner of consumer affairs under

Mayor Edward I.Koch, deputy police commissioner and chairman

of the city's Civil Service Commission. Gourdine joined the NBA

as its' legal counsel in 1970. He helped forge collective bargaining

agreement with the players union in 1976 and 1979, then he

resigned at the end of 1981. Many of the former players and folks

around bargaining tables will remember him. Rest peacefully now.

Babs Wells

Olympics and Laker Stars

With the affirmation that we indeed have

our new tall Center, Dwight Howard on

the Lakers team, along with Pau Gasol,

Kobe Bryant and now new Steve Nash too,

it ought to be one of the most fun seasons

ever for the team and all of the fans.

Healing from a disc procedure (back surgery in LA),

Howard is looking forward to joining the

other stars and co-players for a whole lot

of fun and eager plays as well as winning

games. Howard calls himself "Superman",

so he says he is going to finally get his cape

out of storage and get it ironed.

Kobe spoke with him early on and the two

men have a great friendship so it will only be 

enhanced when practice and the season opens.

Speaking of Kobe, he really enabled the USA Olympic

playing team to win over Spain.. At one time during

the game, they were only one point ahead and it

was touch and go for awhile, However, the game ended

with USA's winning score of: 107 - 100.

LeBron James and Kevin Durant made so many

points between them, USA was fairly confident

of winning and yes, in London, they won the

2012 gold on Sunday. They more or less were

the dominating team all during the Olympics.

So we now say goodbye to London and also to

Andrew Bynum, who will be joining the team

in Philadelphia. We also say farewell to the 2

backup forwards, Christian Eyenga and Josh

McRoberts. Yes, we do wish them both well.

Now on to bigger and better things for us all!

Babs Wells

LOCK IN TO MORE NEWS!

Olympics have thrilled us and kept us ever so

pleased with all of the events TV shows us.

None more so than our very own USA Men's

Basketball team. Winning the preliminary

games each and every time. Kobe finally

even got into the game with his star quality.

Overwhelming Australia, he made a three-

pointer that wow'ed the spectators and gave

the team a huge winning score of 119-86.

He made 6, 3-pointers in the second half!

On a night when LaBron James had the first

Olympic triple-double by a U.S. player, the

story had Bryant awakening from his Olympics

slumber. This 5 time Champion has even said

this team could have beaten the Dream Team

and on the 20th. anniversary of that squad's

gold-medal win, he put on the kind of show that

makes his claim hard to dismiss. Bryant scored all

of his 20 points after halftime, finally delivering

the kind of game expected of him in London.

In fact, he had insisted his time would come and

none of his teammates ever really doubted it.

The Americans beat the Argentinians 126-97

in the final game of pool play, yet on some nights

they did not need much from Bryant with the

other players pulling their own weight so well.

Now today there appears to be some valid talks

regarding trades and in these statements it is

looking ever more so that the Lakers will acquire

from Florida, the one they have been hoping for.

Dwight Howard. In getting him, it is looking like

after 7 years with Andrew Bynum on Laker team,

Drew would be going to Philadelphia. Howard had

earlier said he really wanted to play with the Nets.

LA Lakers seem far more likely for him now.

ESPN is the source telling us about this trade.

A scheduled conference call today has been put

in place for confirmation of this deal. Howard averaged

20.6 points and 14.5 rebounds in 54 regular season

games for Orlando last season. In 8 seasons with the

Magic, he averaged 18.4 points and 13.0 rebounds.

This sounds so good so lets' be thinking positive readers!

Babs Wells