PLENTY OF BLAME FOR FANS TO SPREAD.Byline: Rich Hammond Rich Hammond Los Angeles Daily News sports writer. Instrumental in bringing the Los Angeles Kings hockey organization closer to the fans. He is the atypical "what a guy" to Kings fans everywhere. Rich Hammond on himself. Staff Writer Paul Sutton, a Lakers fan who took a plane in from Denver to attend Tuesday's season opener, started to give his opinion on who deserved the blame for the Lakers' breakup, then stopped and glanced to his right. ``If you say it, I'll hit you,'' said Darlene Uy, Sutton's cousin. Much like Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant (born July 23 1978) is an American All-Star shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. and Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (pronounced "shak-KEEL") (born March 6, 1972 in Newark, New Jersey), frequently referred to simply as Shaq, is an American professional basketball player, generally regarded as one of the most dominant in the National Basketball Association (NBA). , Lakers fans outside Staples Center This article has multiple issues: * Its neutrality is disputed. * It may contain original research or unverifiable claims. * It does not cite any references or sources. couldn't agree on what caused one of the most famous divorces in sports history. Sutton and Uy wore matching white Bryant jerseys, and Uy, a Burbank resident, refrained from violence when Sutton finally spoke freely. ``It's Kobe's fault,'' Sutton said. ``Why would you let go one of the most dominant players in the history of the game and one of the best coaches in the history of the game? Only time will tell if they made a mistake in letting Shaq go, but now it's Kobe's time. He has a lot to prove.'' Once the players took the court for pregame warmups, the fans were unanimous in their support of the new-look Lakers, a team with only six holdovers from last season's star-studded cast. The biggest subtraction subtraction, fundamental operation of arithmetic; the inverse of addition. If a and b are real numbers (see number), then the number a−b is that number (called the difference) which when added to b (the subtractor) equals , literally and figuratively, was that of O'Neal, who left town along with coach Phil Jackson
Philip Douglas "Phil" Jackson (born September 17, 1945 in Deer Lodge, Montana) is the current coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, an American professional basketball team. in moves many believe Bryant orchestrated. Some fans have moved on. ``I think they needed a change,'' Uy said. ``I think Shaq had a (bad) attitude, and he needed to go. I'm happy with this team. I watched them in the preseason, and I think they did damn good.'' Carlsbad resident Mike Warnick, who brought his 13-year-old son, Blake, to the game, was sporting a gold O'Neal jersey, but he didn't place the blame entirely on Bryant's shoulders. ``A lot of people talk about Kobe,'' Warnick said, ``but I think Phil Jackson played the biggest part in it with his mind games. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. if he did his job in trying to keep (Bryant and O'Neal) together. I think he could have spent more time dealing with it behind closed doors, but instead he tried to pull the strings and get his messages out through the media instead of talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to them one on one.'' Another O'Neal jersey-wearer, Chris Berryhill of Culver City, said he would continue to support the Lakers, although he disliked Bryant's actions and thought the team was significantly weakened. ``I think they'll be about a .500 team, and if they make the playoffs, they'll be lucky,'' Berryhill said. ``I still support Kobe, because he's on my team, but with the way things went down (during the offseason), and with what happened in Colorado, that told me a lot about what kind of guy Kobe is.'' Berryhill's attitude seemed most common among Lakers fans, who expressed regret about how things played out but expressed support for their favorite team. ``It's just one of those things,'' Fullerton resident Nigel Petrie said. ``People talk about Shaq being in shape in Miami, but I don't think he ever played at 100 percent here. Kobe lays it on the line every night. I like the makeup of this new team, and I like the fact that Kobe is the elder statesman. ``The way they put this team together, it's Kobe's team, and everybody knows it. Anybody who has a gripe gripe v. To have sharp pains in the bowels. n. 1. gripes Sharp, spasmodic pains in the bowels. 2. A firm hold; a grasp. with Kobe, they're not going to be on this team.'' Rich Hammond, (818) 713-3611 rich.hammond(at)dailynews.com |
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