I arrived in Boston on Thursday, January 16th, a day after the excitement surrounding Nick Young’s ejection in Phoenix and the subsequent drama surrounding the team’s post-game comments.
(Think back to Young lamenting that he felt like he was 1-on-5, Kendall Marshall reasoning that Young should “chill out,” resulting in the following meme to go viral amongst Lakers fans. By the way, Marshall laughed at the meme in Boston after the entire Lakers team had cleared the air.)
The Lakers had just lost an embarrassing 12 of their past 13 games, and signed D-Fenders call-up Manny Harris that night to help make up for Young’s one-game suspension. Without Young, the Lakers would have been down to eight available players. Approximately two of which, give or take, were familiar with handling a basketball, so Harris would get an opportunity.
Harris later told me that he could barely sleep on Thursday night. I believed him. His tentative demeanor and giddy, yet guarded smile gave it away as each Laker and head coach welcomed him to the Lakers for the first time at team shootaround in the TD Garden.
“It’s an honor to be playing for the Lakers,” Harris nervously gushed after shootaround.
At the time, the Lakers were 14-25, 11 games under .500 and flirting with the bottom of the Western Conference. James Worthy had referred to the Lakers’ play as embarrassing, and it wasn’t the first time. Robert Horry had just publicly called out the rookie Ryan Kelly and the newbie Kendall Marshall for not coming to Young’s defense during the altercation in Phoenix, questioning them as teammates. Even Magic Johnson seemed to make it his New Year’s resolution to publicly ridicule Jim Buss’ leadership and Mike D’Antoni’s coaching ability at every possible opportunity. It seemed like this Lakers team was on the brink of completely falling apart.
It was my first time traveling on the road to cover the Lakers and I was expecting a somber group.
Before the game, I walked into the Lakers locker room at TD Garden and Xavier Henry was joking around with Wes Johnson, and Chris Kaman was in a pretty in-depth conversation discussing the institution of marriage with a fellow teammate. (Sidebar: those two teammates had two very different perceptions on what marriage entails).
Ryan Kelly was over the moon about getting a start against the Boston Celtics and playing in the TD Garden for the first time. Robert Sacre was raving about something he ate for dinner, and Jordan Hill was yelling (and impressively mumbling, at the same time) something across the locker room that I could hardly understand.
I stood there and took it all in. It way my first time traveling on the road to cover the Lakers and it didn’t feel quite like the Lakers locker room at home. At Staples Center, not much happens in the locker rooms pre-game. The media stands around, only half-waiting to talk to players at their locker, who’ve usually strategically planned their arrival and pre-game warm-ups around when the Lakers locker room is open to the media. (Meaning, if you don’t want to talk to the media, there’s about a 30-minute window that you make sure to stay away from your locker.)
It wasn’t like that on the road. At one point in time, every active player was hanging in the locker room, laughing with his teammates or chatting with the media. It didn’t seem like a team that had only won 14 games.
The Lakers beat the Boston Celtics that night, spoiling Rajon Rondo’s return, and the Lakers held their heads a little higher. Rookie Ryan Kelly had an impressive performance and a surprising dunk that had his teammates ragging on him post-game for his vertical and hang-time.
Kendall Marshall’s post-game media session started with, “First of all, we want to say that we’d like to have Nick with us, but he kind of lit a fire under us that last game.”
The Lakers left on a plane that night, resting up before Saturday’s practice. Swaggy P served his one-game suspension and he was back with the team and all smiles after the Lakers win. He joked about going through customs, being treated like Obama, and writing Swaggy P on his passport. Of course this wasn’t true, but that’s Swaggy’s way of showing everyone he’s in a good mood (see video below).
At about three minutes in to talking with the media, Jordan Farmar dribbled on over. He’s close with Nick, and generally tries to ‘save’ him from the media if Young’s been chatting for too long. This happens in the locker room at Staples all the time. Young’s usually late to Staples, gets stuck talking with the media at his locker and Farmar always drags Young out of the locker room to shootaround. This time, Young made fun of Farmar for having cramps all year before explaining that he can’t wait to go to Miami and New York to buy “Swaggy P” t-shirts. Farmar told him to tell me the real reason he enjoys New York and Miami. Swaggy laughed, but didn’t budge. Probably smart. End Scene.
The Lakers had an early start the next morning with a 10AM, PST tip-off against the Toronto Raptors, but their pre-game energy didn’t seem to be affected by the time difference.
I was about to be right in the middle of the most entertaining pre-game locker room session I’d been a part of.
In 30 minutes time, I witnessed Xavier Henry throw Nick Young’s jersey in the trash. Young make fun of (and imitate) Xavier Henry on the court, and I mean a full impersonation. Henry get mad at Young for wearing tights. Henry claimed Young copied him. Young claimed Xavier wants to be just like him.
Sacre, who had just finished answering 118 questions about Canada (he’s from Canada, if you didn’t know), was cracking up watching these two go at it, even walked over to the trash can to see what Young’s jersey wound up in, after Xavier threw it. Chris Kaman was smiling, just shaking his head. The locker room was enjoying the show.
The Lakers ended up beating Toronto, and the post-game locker room reminded me of what I had witnessed pre-game.
Henry threw a sweater in Young’s face during an interview. Young retaliated by calling Xavier a bully. Wes Johnson mimicked Jordan Hill’s “Do what I gotta do” catch phrase into my camera (a video that we, Lakers Nation, created to good naturedly, make fun of Jordan Hill). Ryan Kelly was making fun of Nick Young’s grammatical incorrectness.
Then, we were being kicked out of the Lakers locker room. Lakers had to catch a flight, and I did too.
Next Page: (Click here!) Next Stop, Chicago, I Learn That Nick Young Is A Mess
The next morning, I strolled over to Walgreens in Chicago, where I bumped into Mike D’Antoni. We had a laugh about the face masks being sold at the counter, not something you see in LA. (Sidebar: Despite Mike D’Antoni being pinned as the antichrist of the Lakers organization, he’s not a bad guy. He’s quite likeable and personable when away from the spotlight, and he genuinely cares for his wounded and depleted group. Most would say D’Antoni’s not the right coach for the Lakers, but he’s not to blame for this years’ problems. As far as all the Lakers fans begging for Phil Jackson, even the Zen Master couldn’t save this team. If anything Phil Jackson should be covertly thanking the Jim Buss for accidentally saving his legacy).
Back to Chicago…I had heard that the hotel the Lakers stayed at in Chicago was the nicest of the trip, and possibly the nicest of all the hotels they stay in on the road. Apparently, Phil Jackson set a precedent to stay there, so the Lakers have stayed there ever since. Impeccable hotel with a gorgeous view of downtown Chicago and The Water Tower. I ran into Wes Johnson on my way out, who had just picked up a t-shirt and was strolling solo on the streets of Chicago.
I took a cab to the United Center in Chicago to get ready for the game. The locker room atmosphere mimicked that of Toronto. All the guys joking around with each other. First thing, I noticed was Nick Young’s locker. It was an absolute mess. Swaggy had been munching on green grapes pre-game and managed to drop a grape for every grape that made it’s way into his mouth. I got a good laugh out of that with Chris Kaman, who scolded Young for creating a mess and then threw grapes back at him. (Sidebar on Kaman: This is about as real of a guy as you can get. When you ask him a question, he doesn’t give you the media-appropriate answer. If you ask him to name a player he’d like to play with that he hasn’t gotten the chance to in his 10-year NBA career, he’ll tell you LeBron James without skipping a beat, because “he makes everyone around him better.” You’ll be hard pressed to find a guy in the Lakers locker room, who will answer that question honestly, simply because they don’t want their answer to make headlines, understandably. He’ll also tell you that he’s not happy he’s not playing and he doesn’t understand why. After another DNP-CD, he’ll tell Robert Sacre, that he needs to pick up more than one rebound out there).
Before the game, I happened to stop in the tunnel and chat with Kobe before the national anthem. He told me traveling on the road and not being able to play is “a pain in the ass.” He’s itching to get out there. Unfortunately for Kobe and the Lakers, it’s still going to be awhile before he sees the floor. Plenty of people walked over to say hi to Kobe while we were chatting, and he was cordial with all of them. Before he went out to the floor, he gave me one of those fist bump handshakes where you also bring it in for a shoulder bump. (White girl alert: It was one of those handshakes where I was supposed to act like I knew what I was doing, but I really had no idea. This was my second failed Kobe handshake of the trip. The first one happened when he came by to chat with our table at The Four Seasons in Boston. I’m curious if I play off these handshakes, or if inside Kobe’s just laughing at me).
At the half, some of the Chicago media members took me for a walk around the concourse, so I could see the “different walks of life” at the Bulls’ games. I ran into a flurry of dressed up Lakers Nation fans in Chicago, their fandom was pretty impressive. About two minutes after taking a picture of Scottie Pippen’s statue at the arena, I walked right by Pippen. I also had three different media members tell me that Pippen was an absolutely “miserable” player to cover.
Young sent the Chicago game into overtime after drawing a foul while shooting a three-pointer. Unfortunately, though the Lakers would put up a valiant effort, a game-winning, wide open Taj Gibson lay-up would leave the Lakers locker room defeated. Post-game, Nick Young’s Kobe-like antics were the center of attention. One reporter asked Nick if he’d like to be referred to as the Swag Mamba. Young was flattered by the Kobe comparisons, but wasn’t about to piggyback off a Kobe nickname.
“Swag Mamba? Nah. Nah. I’m Swaggy P, baby…Can’t be no Mamba. I don’t want to be a snake. I like the flash of the jewelry. I’m a flashy man. Look at my backpack, baby.”
Lakers rookie Ryan Kelly collected all the name tags from the lockers. The Lakers were on their way to Miami and I was on my way back to Los Angeles.
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Traveling on the road with the Lakers is nothing like covering them at home, especially on a road trip that spanned almost two weeks time. The team is away from their element, their families, and the comfort of their own bed. As Nick Young says, all they’ve got “is each other,” and he seems like he does mean that. It’s also a time where you can see a teams’ true colors, and while this isn’t a very talented team, it’s a team that’s managed to sustain real camaraderie through the toughest of times, which is saying a lot about the character of this group. Let me tell you, I couldn’t say the same for the Lakers locker room last year.
I gained an even greater respect for the true beat writers, like Dave McMenamin (ESPN), Mark Medina (L.A. Daily News), Bill Oram (OC Register), Mike Bresnahan (L.A. Times) and all of the other writers and reporters who travel with their teams. It’s not an easy gig, and these guys work hard at what they do. Also, props to the Lakers traveling staff. Their hard work (without the glory) often flies under the radar, but it didn’t go unnoticed in my book. The Lakers equipment manager Carlos Maples is one of the hardest working men I know and the players really wouldn’t know what to do without Carlos around. The team also wouldn’t be able to travel without head trainer, Gary Vitti, literally, he’s in charge of all the passports. More than that, in good times and bad times, he’s been the stable backbone to each Lakers team. And, he’s sure earned well over his salary over the last couple years.
Lastly, thanks to the Lakers organization, specifically John Black, and all of the aforementioned writers who showed me the ropes and made me feel welcome. Maybe I’ll see you next year at Toscano with another story to tell.
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