Lakers owner Jerry Buss has been reprimanded by NBA commissioner David Stern for pleading guilty to a misdemeanor for a DUI over the summer. Buss was fined $25,000 by Stern and will not be allowed to attend the Lakers’ first two regular-season games, Lakers public relations director John Black said.

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Lakers vice president Magic Johnson said the deal isn’t going to happen. “A deal can’t get done because they won’t include [Luol] Deng,” Johnson said Tuesday on TNT. “And without Deng, a deal can’t get done.” Johnson also hinted that talks of bringing Indiana Pacers All-Star Jermaine O’Neal to the Lakers to join Bryant have resurfaced. A source close to the Phoenix Suns shot down a rumored three-team deal that would’ve had the Bulls landing Bryant, Ben Gordon and the Suns’ Shawn Marion going to the Lakers and a package of Tyrus Thomas and other considerations heading to Phoenix.

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Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom suffered a slight concussion in a two-car accident Tuesday. The two-car crash happened Tuesday morning when Odom was driving to the Lakers’ morning shootaround before their season-opening game against the Houston Rockets. Odom, sitting out the first few games of the season while recuperating from shoulder surgery, attended Tuesday night’s game, a 95-93 loss to Houston. The Riverside Press-Enterprise reported that Odom went to the hospital in an ambulance and was given a CT scan. That showed the slight concussion. Odom’s Mercedes-Benz was totaled, the paper reported. The woman driving the other car in the accident had to be taken out by the jaws of life. She was identified by police only as a 37-year-old from nearby Downey. “At the time of the accident, it appeared the woman sustained very minor injuries,” Hawthorne police Lt. Michael Ishii said. Odom later attended the Lakers’ 95-93 loss to the Rockets.

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Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson says the team still needs a big power forward who can rebound, block shots, and defend.

Jermaine O’Neal of the Indiana Pacers qualifies as that type. Negotiations to acquire O’Neal broke down over the summer, but will the O’Neal trade talk be revived when Lamar Odom shows he’s healthy?

“I’m trying to make (Kobe) Bryant understand it’s not over,” Jackson said. “Just because the season is about to begin it doesn’t mean we’ve stopped trying to improve.”

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Los Angeles Laker Javaris Crittenton sounded like an excited young rookie when interviewed by am570′s Petros & Money about an hour before the Lakers season opening tip off. He mentioned that the butterflies had not hit him yet and was looking forward suiting up and possibly getting some of his first NBA minutes as a Los Angeles Laker.

During the radio interview, Crittenton showed no signs of a player who would be sitting out of a game, so this news was a surprise. Swingman Coby Karl, son of NBA head coach George Karl was activated in place of Javaris Crittenton.
Coby Karl had a DNP.

Here is the podcast from the interview

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LOCATION: STAPLES Center
TIME: 7:30pm
TV: TNT
RADIO: KLAC AM 570, ESPN 1330

LAST SEASON

Tue, Dec 12 @ Houston (W) 102-94
Fri, Dec 15 Houston (W) 112-101 OT
Wed, Jan 10 @ Houston (L) 77-102
Fri, Mar 30 Houston (L) 104-107 OT

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP

Lakers

G – D. Fisher
G – K. Bryant
F – L. Walton
F – R. Turiaf
C – K. Brown

Rockets

G – R. Alston
G – T. McGrady
F – S. Battier
F – L. Scola
C – Y. Ming

INJURIES

Lakers

Kobe Bryant: Sprained Right Wrist – Questionable
Maurice Evans: Strained Left Hamstring – Probable
Lamar Odom: Left Shoulder Surgery – Out
Vladimir Radmanovic: Sore Throat – Doubtful

Rockets

Rafer Alston: Right Thigh Bruise – Probable

SUMMARY

The Lakers begin the season with the Houston Rockets at the Staple Center the series last season was tied 2-2 with two games ending in overtime. The team will start a journey with alot of questions and the major one is will Kobe Bryant be traded. Kobe will be a Laker for now and should be a good game with the Tracy McGrady matchup. The Lakers will be without Lamar Odom as he is still recovering from his off-season surgeries. Look to see Kobe prove that he can handle the issue with being on a team he doesn’t seem to want to be on and play one his memorable games against the Rockets.

The Los Angeles Lakers have exercised a fourth-year contract option on Andrew Bynum, and picked up the third-year contract option on Jordan Farmar. Bynum was selected 10th in the 2005 NBA draft. His career stats as a Laker are 5.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.17 blocks in his first two seasons as a Lakers. Bynum has stated that this year will be his breakout year and I’m sure Lakers fans hope he does breakout. Jordan Farmar in his rookie season saw a good amount of playing time especially in the playoffs where he averaged 6.4 points, 1.6 assists and 2.8 rebounds against the Phoenix Suns. I believe that these two players will be the future for the Lakers and from the things I’ve seen I’m excited about that.

In an article today in the La Times, Laker’s owner Jerry Buss had a more than interesting interview with Mike Bresnahan. The article basically covered Jerry Buss’ reaction towards Kobe’s summer meltdown where he was not satisfied with what was going on with the Laker’s organizations, both with Laker’s management and Laker’s team personnel.

One of the standout points in the article were Buss was quoted saying, “I would certainly listen, at any time, I think you have to do that with anybody. It’s just part of the game, to listen to somebody who has a dissatisfied player that you think is going to fit. You can’t keep too many loyalties. You’ve got to look at it as a business. He looks at it the same way I look at it.” When asked to elaborate on his statement that Bryant was not necessarily off the table now that the new season had started and if offers would still continue to trickle in for a bid on the 3 time world champion guard.

Buss also provides insight on his meeting in Barcelona with Kobe, and how he reacted after their talk.

One of the funniest that was covered in the article was him saying, “I think Mitch does a terrific job because I’m right there and I know what’s happening,” Mitch has done everything humanly possible. Our team does not have a lot of tradable players. Hopefully we will have some in time, but currently we do not.”

I think a decent percentage of Laker fans would disagree that Kupchak is doing a ‘terrific’ job, but as long as the man signing Mitch’s paycheck still does — we might still continue to suffer.

Dan Patrick provided some good commentary this morning on the Dan Patrick show on am570 this morning, listen to the podcast:

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Here’s a video of Shawn Marion talking to reporters at the Phoenix Suns media day.

This is an irrate Shawn Marion, that looks very unhappy to be a Phoenix Sun.

Click for Video

Did it seem odd to anybody else besides me that Kobe Bryant got back on the Lakers bandwagon rather quick this media day. This is the same guy that was criticizing the Laker’s on national radio 5 times in one day, and could not think of playing for the Laker’s again.

What might really have been going on behind all of the silence and waiting for Laker fans this off-season is a lot of discussion. We heard what Kobe wanted, we heard that Phil Jackson admitted to pushing management to make some personnel changes that the team needed to win. Kobe may know what will happen in the next weeks following the start if training camp in Hawaii, he was all good to go and start playing basketball with the Laker’s he told the media this Monday at Laker’s media day.

Trading Shawn Marion for Lamar Odom might require more logistics than one may think. The Laker’s may be setting up an extension offer to Marion to lure him to Los Angeles and keep him there past this 2007-2008 NBA season, due to this season being his last year before he can opt-out of his current contract with the Phoenix Suns.

The Laker’s would likely unload a healing Lamar Odom to Phoenix and get a quick energetic Shawn Marion that will extend his contract that has one year remaining.

Kobe making such a 360 in his opinions shows that something is going to happen, why else would he come back after all he said back in the summer?