May 19th: "Marcus Banks pursued by the Lakers" " Report on Mitch in Lakers Blog"

[Phil]

Wolves will rehire Wittman to staff

Snippet:"Apparently, the Wolves will have tough competition to sign point guard Marcus Banks, who also is being pursued by the Lakers and Spurs."

[Phil]

As a guest analyst, Bryant adds spice by firing back at Barkley

After Kobe Bryant took just three second-half shots in the Los Angeles Lakers' 121-90 loss to the Phoenix Suns in a seventh and deciding first-round game May 6, the former Lower Merion star was criticized by TNT analyst Charles Barkley.

The Lakers trailed, 60-45, at halftime and Bryant had hit 8 of 13 shots from the field. He was 0 for 3 with one point in the second half and finished with 24 points.

So it was interesting that Bryant was a guest studio analyst Wednesday for TNT, sitting across from Barkley. The two addressed the issue.

"I criticized Kobe in Game 7," Barkley said. "He didn't like it and he let me know it. I think I probably made one mistake by taking it public, but I wanted to get his side and his point of view. I have no problem with him disagreeing with me."

And Bryant then disagreed with Barkley.

"We're out there to try and win, so to label me as being selfish is something I had to take up with Charles," Bryant said.

[Phil]

Mitch Report from Lakers Blog, Part I

He's Mitchtastic! Part I

Sorry. After five or so of these, I'm starting to get a little punchy. As promised, here is the transcript from Mitch Kupchak's final press conference of the year. The second half will be up ASAP. Particularly interesting are the parts where he talks about trading Kobe*.

*(Ed. note: may not have actually happened.)

Opening statement:

"We're pleased. Our goal was to make the playoffs. We maintained from day one that that's something we thought was achievable. We'd gone on record and said that was a goal of ours, that we thought this team was good enough to make the playoffs, and we did make the playoffs. We played very well, in particular the second half of the season. And as you know, started out the playoffs and played really well. I don't think our play throughout the playoffs diminished with the exception of Game 7. I think Phoenix got over the fact that they were behind quickly, and their game improved as the playoffs went along. That may have had something to do with the way the playoffs ended, but that's a credit to them. They recovered from being down 3-1 and they played very well. Certainly losing Game 7 in the manner that we lost it was disappointing, and that took a little bit of the glow off of our achievements. But here it is two days out (the interview took place last Monday), we're over the shock of losing a playoff series. But in retrospect, we thought we had a good season and our future is very bright with young players going forward."

[Phil]

Mich Report, Part II

He's Mitchtastic! Part II

Here's the rest of Mitch's final conference.

BK

On Kobe and USA Basketball-

"We talked a little about that in our exit meeting. They start towards the middle of July in Las Vegas and they travel quite a bit. They're in Vegas, they go to Korea, they go to Japan. And then once they're in Japan they make a stop or two before they finally get to the finals, hopefully, which is right outside Tokyo. (They have five games of pool play?) That's correct. I saw Coach Krzyzewski in Phoenix two days ago (this would have been around the first weekend in May), we talked for about 20 minutes about what his vision was for the Olympic team. How he hoped to play with the talent that he had on the team. With Jerry Colangelo lurking in the shadows and with Coach Krzyzewski's feel for players, I don't expect to see two-a-day practices that go three hours that players get burned out at. I expect to see a group of players that are going to practice hard, (but) I don't think they'll jeopardize their careers with overpractice and fatigue, and they have a certain vision for the type of basketball they'd like to play as well, which I think fits with what Kobe feels as well going forward."

Do you expect Sasha and Ronny to play for their respective teams?

"Well Lamar is (going as well). Lamar and Kobe for USA Basketball, Ronny would be for the French National Team, and Sasha would be for the Slovenian National Team. I think it's possible that all four of those players would be on their national teams this summer."

Was it hard for you and Coach K to talk? Duke and North Carolina?

"Not with this year's recruiting class at Carolina. (laughter) Actually, as you know, we interviewed him two years ago and I have a relationship with him. He's very easy to talk to."