Mitch Kupchak flew to Atlanta to get a closer look at Andrew Bynum and his workouts. His observations have apparently, ” left the Lakers GM with no worries over Drew’s readiness come camp’s opening or lingering problems from the surgery needed to smooth out rough spots from the knee dislocation.” Kupchak is sizing up Bynum at 100% strength when the preseason officially kicks off, citing visible improvements in areas like conditioning, mobility and the his body in general. LA Times Lakers blog says, “Obviously, we’ll know nada for certain until he’s on the court in October, but it’s certainly a positive report, one in line with previous ones of a full recovery expected.”

Here’s a video of Kobe on sportcenter talking baout his experience at the Olympics. He touhes on things like his teammates, international competition and will he play in the next Olympics in 2012.

The Lakers and point guard Sun Yue have agreed to terms on a two-season contract, they confirmed it Thursday. The Lakers hope to officially sign Sun in the next few days, PR Director John Black said.

“Hopefully, it will get done soon,” Black said.

Sun, known as the Chinese Magic Johnson because of his eye-catching playmaking ability, will face his future teammate Kobe Bryant when China plays the United States on Sunday in the Olympic Games opener in Beijing.

The Lakers drafted the 6-foot-9, 212-pound Sun in the second round in 2007. He spent last season with Aoshen, his Beijing club team, and also played with the Chinese National team in preparation for the Olympics.

He will compete with starting point guard Derek Fisher and backup Jordan Farmar for playing time. He also can play shooting guard.

“I’d go. I’d probably go,” said Bryant, during a USA Basketball press conference on Friday morning. “Like Milan or something like that, where I grew up or something like that… Peace out.”
Bryant continued: “Do you know any reasonable person that would turn down 50 (million dollars)?”

“Because I grew up in Italy it has more significance to me because I’m more familiar with it, I’ve been there and I still have friends there,” said Bryant, a three-time NBA champion. “I’m thinking about buying a house out there. It would be nothing to me to be able to do that.”

Kobe spent a large part of his childhood growing up in Italy while his father, Joe, played professional basketball there and speaks fluent Italian. In 1999, the 10-time NBA All-Star also acquired a 50 percent ownership of the Olimpia Milano of the Italian Professional Basketball League.

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The Lakers 2008-09 Regular Season Schedule has been released. The season opens October 28th against Portland and also includes a Christmas Day showdown with the Celtics.

http://www.nba.com/lakers/schedule/index.html

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Euroleague Basketball have announced that three Euroleague teams will compete in five NBA preseason games from October 10-21, 2008. The five games, which are part of the Euroleague American Tour, will be played by 2008 Euroleague champion CSKA Moscow (Russia), FC Barcelona (Spain) and Lietuvos Rytas (Lithuania). The teams may face up to five NBA opponents including the Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Orlando Magic, the Toronto Raptors and possibly the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Lakers will face Pau Gasol’s former team on October 18th.

EL SEGUNDO – The Los Angeles Lakers have signed free agent guard Dwayne Mitchell, it was announced today. Per team policy, terms of the agreement were not released.

Mitchell, a 6’5” 220-pound guard out of Louisiana Lafayette, played the majority of last season for the Iowa Energy of the NBA Development League before leaving in February to join Brose Baskets Bamberg in Germany. In 31 games including 29 starts with the Energy, Mitchell averaged 20.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.60 steals in 37.3 minutes, earning a spot in the 2008 D-League All-Star game.

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