Proof the Lakers are still soft
One of the running story lines into the NBA Finals, which (finally!) start on Thursday, is that the Lakers will win this time because they’re a lot tougher than in 2008.
It’s hard for me to believe that’s actually the case and it looks like this might be some proof that LA isn’t any tougher.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson has gone so far as to call his players “thin-chested” and offered them $50 to take a charge.
“To motivate us in a way to take charges and getting away with it,” explained Sasha Vujacic to ESPN Los Angeles. “Their whole team is kind of a charging possibility taking team. We just got to be smart. They are a very smart team that can go from block to a charge, so we’ve been working a lot on charges and how to take them and stuff, so we’ll see.”
That’s the sign of a tough team? That the coaches will pay the players to stand their ground and take a charge against the likes of Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins?
Can they even do it right? Lakers assistant Frank Hamblen is also quoted in that ESPN story as saying very few guys are getting charge money.
“Luke (Walton) got one the other night; it was kind of shaky but we gave it to him anyway,” Hamblen said. “Fish (Derek Fisher) is our best charge-taker so far.”
Of course, in all fairness, it would take a lot more than $50 to motivate me to take a charge from one of those guys.
And how can you talk about charges in basketball and not think of this classic one-liner (found 2:14 in).
I can’t imagine an NBA game ever ending on a call like that. Unless of course, one of the refs had money on the Knicks.
