Basketball

2016 Sports Resolutions

January 2, 2016 — Leave a comment

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As we begin 2016, people are making resolutions and breaking them as you read this. I have some of my own personal resolutions, but those aren’t as fun as sports resolutions. As a sports fan, you have unlimited entertainment daily, whether it’s front office drama or spectacular catches. And I feel a responsibility to make sure I’m being the best sports fan I can be. So, here are the things I’m resolving to do to ensure that my fandom is as epic as the sports I love.

  1. Publish weekly: Clearly I post irregularly, and for that I apologize. I have been trying to figure out what I want the mission of this blog to be, and now I know. Kobe Montana will be a place to get intelligent opinions that span sports and pop culture. I want to make you think about why you feel the way you do about teams, players, and sports in general. I look forward to posing questions and answering them together every Friday.
  2. Watch every Lakers game, no matter how painful: man, the Lakers are painful to watch this year. Even during the D’Antoni days, I faithfully watched every game. But after a few years, it’s hard to want to watch a whole game when there’s something else on, like a Lord of the Rings marathon. But this is Kobe Bryant’s last year playing basketball, and moreso, I’m being a shitty fan by not rooting for the purple and gold every game.
  3. Be more engaged on Twitter: Did you know I’m on Twitter? @KobeMontana1. Apparently, a 9 year old took @KobeMontana and hasn’t tweeted since 2013. 200
    Anyways, hit me up there and let’s talk shop.
  4. Finally finish The Book of Basketball: I’ve been reading Bill Simmons’ Book of Basketball for years. Seriously, it’s disgraceful how long it’s taken me. This year, I resolve to finish the tome and be a million times smarter for it. Okay, fine, in reality I’ll retain a few fun facts to toss around at the office, but that’s worth it, right?

 

Happy New Year! Bless up!

Nick Young Loves Instagram When The Los Angeles Lakers Win

November 17, 2015 — Leave a comment

So, we all know Nick ‘Swaggy P’ Young loves the spotlight. Which means that’s exactly how he celebrated the Los Angeles Lakers’ win over the season. Mind you, it was only their second win, but it was Swaggy’s best game so far.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-Io0xOuGP3/

He shot 1.00 from the three, and was 4-6.

Then, fast forward to tonight, when Young played his second worst game. Against the Phoenix Suns, Young was 1-5 from 3pts, and 4-9.

Hopefully he finds some reason to celebrate in photos again soon.

Matt Barnes Assaulted Derek Fisher and the NBA Doesn’t Seem To Care

October 8, 2015 — Leave a comment

If you missed the news cycle yesterday, then you probably missed that Derek Fisher got beat up by Matt Barnes over the weekend, and missed a day of work because of it. It’s more odd than that though. Barnes was in California practicing with the Memphis Grizzlies, when he found out that Fish was at Barnes’ ex-wife Gloria Govan’s home and that he’s dating her. Fisher was in town to visit his kids, because his ex-wife still lives in California.

Then, in classic, hot-head Matt Barnes style, the NBA journeyman made a 95 mile drive from the Grizzlies practice facility to Gloria’s house to “beat the shit” out of Fisher. And apparently, that’s what he did.

According to reports, Fisher didn’t immediately report the incident to the NBA or the New York Knicks (where he is the coach), until he couldn’t go to work due to some injuries. Now, ESPN is reporting that Fish had no visible injuries, but other sources are saying he had some scratches. What’s weird is that just having a few scratches doesn’t prohibit a person from working.

When was the last time that someone you knew, or even the youngest school-age child you met didn’t go to school because of some scratches?

Right now, the NBA and both teams are gathering information about the incident, and Fisher hasn’t brought any charges against Barnes. That’s why it’s important for the NBA to step in when no one will.

Playing in the NBA is a privilege that only a few get to experience. These men are supposed to be role models for young people and their peers, whether they want to or not. It comes with the territory. So, Barnes, who has lost his temper before, LEFT the facility where he’s supposed to be bonding with his team to beat up a head coach? And everyone is just going to be okay with it?

Barnes is an angry bully and the league needs to step in to protect their brand and to establish a no-tolerance policy for violence.

Barnes was arrested on July 30, 2012 when he wouldn’t cooperate with the police and assaulted an officer. Fine, we don’t have all of the details, and there have been enough videos of how police handle situations to question whether this was warranted, but that’s not Barnes’ only legal issue. Less than two years before that, Barnes was arrested for suspicion of domestic violence perpetrated against the same woman Fisher is now dating, Gloria.

So, either Barnes is the most unlucky, lied-about man in the league, or he has serious anger management problems. I mean, he DROVE 95 MILES and at the end of the nearly 2-hour drive STILL decided that it was a good idea to fight Fisher instead of, oh I don’t know, maybe USING HIS WORDS.

Even if Fisher doesn’t want to press charges, the NBA needs to take action. Yes, this happened during off-hours, but if people can be fined for tweets during off hours about disagreeing with the refs, then issues of violence should be taken seriously.

It makes me wonder, if there were a video of this would everyone be feeling differently? Is that where we’re all at, that we need to SEE violence, not just the scratches as proof that it happened, in order to take action?

I like watching Barnes play ball; he’s got a firy, but child-like way of just wanting the ball and wanting to play. But being a professional athlete is not something everyone gets, and he should at the least be suspended while he figures out his anger management issues.

Kobe Bryant Said Some Things at Lakers Media Day

September 29, 2015 — Leave a comment

This is the best time of year. Football season is getting into full swing, basketball and hockey are gearing up to start, and baseball is heading to the playoffs. Not to mention it isn’t swelteringly hot outside anymore.

So, as you can imagine, the Los Angeles Lakers media day (or really any media day, but today we’re talking about the Lakers) is something I look forward to. And particularly this season. Lots of players said promising things about the upcoming season, the the man who had everyone’s ears was Kobe Bryant (duh).

He talked about his role on the floor with the younger players, saying:

“I’m not really sure what that stuff means, honestly. I think a lot of that stuff is media conversation or debatable content. The reality is we’re all mentors, we’re all teachers in our own respects. Whether that means scoring a lot more or assisting a lot more — whatever the case might be — depends on the identity that the team takes on. It’s my responsibility to plug in those holes where we’re lacking.”

But then also specifically talked about D’Angelo Russell, and what he’ll be doing to help the rookie develop:

“I think he has a good head on his shoulders. I think he has a lot of ambition and wants to be great. It starts there. Really, my responsibility is going to help him just to not lose sight of what’s most important, which is the game. That’s the heart of it all when you’re playing in this market with a lot of the distractions, a lot of criticism and critiques that may come his way throughout the course of the year. It doesn’t matter. Just focus on what you’re here to do and what got you here and that’s playing a game.”

And what about how many minutes Kobe will play this year?

“I don’t need to think about it. You [media] can think about it for me.”

 

But Coach Byron Scott is already thinking about it, and explained:

“I expect Kobe to play great. I expect him to be Kobe, but not to be the Kobe that we were so used to seeing maybe 10 years ago or five years ago. I just really got to watch the minutes and the workload that he has to take on a day-to-day basis.

“You’re not going to see Kobe jumping all over the rim like he used to do, you’re not going to see that type of athleticism. He’s still probably the smartest player in this league, he’ll still be able to get things done. But, like I said, I really got to micromanage those minutes, really watch him in practice. A lot of that, as we continue to talk, will be based on how he feels. Me and him, obviously, got to talk a lot during the season and during training camp and things like that.”

It really will be interesting to see how everyone plays their role this year. In the past, there have been lots of words like this said before, with almost no change in Kobe’s game. Will his supposed final year be the one when he really takes a step back and helps lead the team in a different way?

Riley Curry Whips and Nae Naes Again, Thanks to Jeremy Lin

September 24, 2015 — Leave a comment

Jeremy Lin is a pretty polarizing player, but everyone can agree that he likes to have a good time. The Harvard grad released a video on his Youtube channel which features some of the NBA’s biggest names (Tyson Chandler, DeAndre Jordan, Steph Curry) showing him what it takes to fit in the league.

It’s funny, and worth the four minutes, but most importantly WE GET TO SEE RILEY CURRY WHIP AND NAE NAE AGAIN.

Thank you, Jeremy.

Metta World Peace is practicing with the Los Angeles Lakers again

September 10, 2015 — Leave a comment

For a few weeks now, we’ve been hearing rumors about Metta World Peace trying to make his way back onto the Los Angeles Lakers roster. Now, he’s getting closer than before, practicing at their facility almost daily. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! reported:

World Peace, 35, started participating in informal workouts with Lakers players this week at the team’s facility in El Segundo, Calif., and is expected to continue through the start of Lakers training camp later this month, league sources said. No deal has been agreed upon, but there’s an increasing expectation that will happen this month, league sources said.

The deal would likely just be a one-year contract, and even though MWP has stayed in stellar shape, his veteran presence is probably what they want in the locker room more than anything, especially since “The Panda’s Friend” has always gotten along well with Kobe Bryant, and this may be his last season.

Fans are expressing mixed emotions about MWP’s return, since he’s older, not at his peak, and there’s a good chance he won’t stay healthy for the entire season.

In the meantime, while we wait for news, enjoy one of Ron Artest’s best rap songs ever (above).

Reminder: Shaq & Kobe Are Releasing a Podcast Tomorrow

August 30, 2015 — Leave a comment

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Over the last week, a lot has been made out of the podcast that Kobe Bryant and Shaq made together, with talk radio shows spending entire segments dissecting short soundbytes. On Monday, the podcast will be released in its entirety via The Big Podcast with Shaq.

It’s true that some of the soundbytes so far have been interesting to say the least, with Kobe noting:

“When you say it at the time, you actually mean it. And then when you get older, you have more perspective, you’re like, ‘Holy . . . I was an idiot as a kid.’ To me, the most important thing is you keep your mouth shut. There’s no need to go to the press. You keep it internal.

“We have our arguments and our disagreements. But I think . . . having our debates within the press was something I wished would been avoided.”

And Shaq clarifying the purpose:

“I just want people to know that I don’t hate you, I know you don’t hate me. I call it today a ‘work beef,’ is what we had. I was young, you was young. But then as I look at it, we won three [championships] out of four so I don’t really think a lot was done wrong. So I just wanted to clear the air and let everybody know that, no, I don’t hate you. We had a lot of disagreements, we had a lot of arguments. But I think it fueled us both.”

Needless to say, I now have Kobe and Shaq’s tweets on mobile alert.

Will you be listening, or just catching the highlights (since it will probably be impossible to avoid them)?

Happy Birthday, Kobe Bryant!

August 23, 2015 — Leave a comment

Like fine wine. Wishing a very special 37th to number 24!!

A photo posted by Los Angeles Lakers (@lakers) on Aug 23, 2015 at 8:17am PDT

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