Was Bill Russell a player coach. If not, has it been done before?

Would NEVER HAPPEN again in todays day and age

Giving 100% effort on the court and then having the calmness and state of mind to make time out plans etc...

try running flat out intervals or suicide runs then try to compose yourself and imagine being in the coaches shoes

Zo is a diciple of Pat Riley - Jackson & Riley have had a life long fued between coaching and playing and Zo was just sticking up for his man.

I hear Riley might be back coaching again in the NBA for Cleveland (can you believe that?) and Zo might just be campaigning for an assistant coaching job.

mourning is an idiot if he thinks that,typical attitude from these guys.
who do you think is watching kobes back?
who do you think is setting the change room/game time agenda for kobe to step up?
it doesn't just happen,things and situations need to be in place before greatness can happen.

do you think mj's situation would have evolved without the guidance/ platform setting and team mechanics put in place by phil.

i would give kobe a month in player /coach role before it blew up in his face,actually a week would see it done and dusted.

Yeah, they can't sack Phil! Who would buy the movie tickets after a bad loss?

Lenny Wilkens was also player-coach for a few years

If they could afford to have Jackson, Ariza and Odom in the team now, then they can definently afford to have those 3 guys back at the Lakers next season.

When is Morrison out of contract?

I thought they got rid of Radman to free up cash to resign both Odom and Ariza

Morrison's contract expires summer of 2010 with a 1 year option. so this expiring contract can be fairly attractive in trades later down the track.

I think on this topic, we kinda miss Vlad right now. Imagine him starting (though he's inconsistent) with Trevor off the bench.

PS: I still like the idea of Trevor off the bench.

SKUX, the problem the Lakers have is that Bynum's contract extension kicks in next season. So he will cost them about an extra $10mill. Kobe will cost them a couple mill extra and another mill each for guys like Gasol, Farmar, Morrison.

So, at least according to Hoops Hype, the Lakers wage bill for next year is already at $74 mill ($1 mill less than this year) without signing Odom, Ariza plus at least two others (min roster size).

Say Odom would take $8 mill and Ariza $7 mill, you're already talking $89 mill with a couple more minimum contracts. So something is going to have to give there, unless they can unload other salary.

I'm sure the Lakers would love to move Vujajic's $5 mill per off the books, but they will probably only find a taker for Morrison's expiring $5 mill.

If they can lose Morrison's salary, they might just afford both Ariza and Odom, but Jerry Buss is going to have to fork over a lot of luxury tax money to other teams if he does.

IMO, They should just cut Morrison. They are paying him millions to sit on the pine. If they do that, it will give them alot more cash to deal with Bynum's contract extension.

Can't see Odom taking 8 million. Besides he and Ariza will be offered around a dozen mill a season from someone... Bynum should be offloaded and let Josh Powell become a full-time back-up

SKUX, they cant 'just cut' Morrison to get his salary off the books. If they cut him, they still have to pay him and his salary still counts against their cap. It has to be a trade, and even then, the Lakers can't actually save much money until the season after next, so they will take a big financial hit in 09/10 to sign both Ariza and Odom.

Johnson - I was being optimistic with those figures. As a Celtics fan, I am fervently hoping they like money more than playing for championships! ;-)

Looks like the Lakers are buying another championship. Will they ever win one without being in salary cap hell?

funny you say that ELG, with the Lakers other than Pau and Odom (who came as a star) Lakers have really developed the rest of the team.

When you look at it the problem only surfaced because many players blossomed (eg. Ronny last year, Trevor this year, even Shannon has boosted his stock in his short stint, needless to talk about Kobe) under the system and have drawn other teams' attention to try "steal" these guys from LA during free agency.

so it's a little different from "buying" championships in NBL; all we're trying to do is keep our players.

there's probably no way possible Lamar will take less than $10m. My thought is: Trevor on $6~$10m and Lamar on $10~$12m (this is probably going to be his last major contract so we'll also offer him longer terms eg. 5yr deal). But regardless I can't see Dr. Buss not paying luxury tax next year. Further with Morrison's soon-to-be expiring contract, we been saying Mitch's trying to steal Amare next summer! Odom & Morrison matches Amare's contract! But it was more a joke.

so buying 2 of their 3 best players isn't buying a title?

ok

those 2 players weren't bought either, they were acquired through trade. That's just good roster management.

I'll tell you who bought their championship, Boston! They legitmately "bought" KG and Ray!

And plus, I kind of hates it when people say NBA teams buying championship, because in the NBA it's not really like NBL where you can "buy" a championship; the number of teams there are and the quality of the competition nothing really guarrantees a championship. Just look at New York, they're #1 in terms of payroll. Dallas and Phoenix also have a high payroll.

Lakers payroll today isn't that much more comparing to the 05 roster when we didn't make the playoffs, it's just good roster management. The only difference is our developing player now requires more money to sign.

Finally there's no rules in the NBA saying you can't go over the cap, you'll just have to pay for doing it. Whereas in the NBL it is illegal for good reasons.

LA Boy, I hope you were just stirring when you said Boston 'bought' a championship! Boston also got KG and Ray in trades, just like LA got Odom and Gasol.

At least Boston had to give up some significant pieces for KG and Ray. Memphis just gave Pau away in exchange for his unproven brother Marc, two end of first round draft picks and a steaming heap of Brown Kwame!

Overall, I agree with what you are saying though. LA has been smart with most of its trades, and has been paying about the minimum a team can pay and still contend the last two years.

New York is the team that was trying to buy a championship, and that failed miserably of course.

The Lakers may have to 'buy' a championship next year though - losing either Ariza or Odom will hurt them a lot - even more than losing Posey hurt Boston this year. If they want to keep both for the kind of money you just mentioned, the payroll will almost certainly be the highest in the NBA (depending on whether the Knicks are going to get under $90 mill this coming season - haven't checked).