Posted June, 2009
by Tom
Late last Tuesday, the Kings agreed that Paul Westphal would be their fourth coach within the last three years. This was the scoop that a league source told David Aldridge who is a TNT analyst. They have agreed on a two year deal with more than $3 million at stake and another year which is an option to be taken for another $2 million.
The Kings agreed to choose Westphal over the assistant of Lakers, Kurt Rambis and the Boston Assistant Tom Thiboeau. The co-owner of the Kings thought that it was the best idea to hire the former Mavericks Assistant coach in the year 2007-2008 and who won being the general manager of Sacramento over Geoff Petrie.
Westphal had been a payer and a coach in the NBA for a longtime now and that experience that he had with the Phoenix Suns and the Seattle SuperSonics had made the Kings decide to get him and replaced Kenny Natt when the team finished off 17-65, the worst in the NBA and in the franchise history as well.
As the other hire, Rambis, eyed for a salary higher than 1.5 in the first year, this makes Westphal the lowest paid head coach in the NBA league. However, Westphal had been strongly recommended by some people including the owner of Mavericks Mark Cuban and the Pheonix Suns Player Kevin Johnson, the present Sacramento mayor.
According to Maloof, Westphal is very good in the offense and what he can do to make a perfect team is to hire a good assistant with an equally genius idea on the defense. Is this a good action that the Kings made? Will we be expecting something spectacular as the nest season would start with the Kings having a new coach to guide them? This is something that we will be looking forward to in the next season of NBA.
Posted June, 2009
by Tom
Derek Fisher added another story in history in the basketball court. The scores that he makes and the how he does it, never fails to grab the attention of many. Bryant is the lead player of the team but Fisher is now hand in hand with Bryant to save the Lakers with the three point shots that he makes every time.
Fisher tied the game in the fourth quarter with his three points and with 4.65 seconds on the clock. The over time gave Lakers the chance to work for the lead and with another 3 point shot from Fisher, Lakers grab the 3-1 lead over the Orlando Magic in the NBA playoffs.
Bryant even teased Fisher because of his failed attempts on the three-point attempts. However, Fisher’s attempt worked on the final seconds that made the team grab the win on the fourth game. These were the shots that were thrown with confidence and with great determination to score the points to win the game.
It was Fisher’s dedication and focus that helped his team win in this game. With Fisher’s focus not making his failed attempts affect him that made him save this game which they almost lost to the Orlando Magic. He plays with his that if he goes out to play, he has that responsibility with him to his team that he will be making a difference each time that he gets the chance to prove himself on the court.
Fisher, although he may have failed shots, he is making the history for himself in the basketball with the timely points that he made saving the team from almost loosing the game. But even with the shots that he made, Fisher remains humble with what he made for the team that he declined making comparisons with himself and the other players making it to score threes in their time like Robert Horry.
Posted June, 2009
by Tom
In the fourth game of LA Lakers against Orlando Magic, Pau Gasol received a two-handed shove from the Mickael Pietrus in the last seconds of Game four. The NBA has decided that no further action will be taken against the Magic swingman after reviewing the fourth game.
The shove that Pietrus did on Gasol could have caused a suspension of game 5 as its worst effect. The shove was more of a flagrant foul that is the first that happened in the NBA finals and the review resulted that the 14 other flagrant fouls will be reviewed as well.
The last seconds of the game four between Magic and Lakers, Pietrus chopped the back of Gasol hard enough with his both arms as the latter was throwing down his second dunk where the Lakers won over the Magic ending the game in 99-91 score.
The action of Pietrus angered Gasol that he reacted angrily that they both had technical fouls after they were separated. According to Pietrus, he did not have the intention of hurting Gasol and with the six years that he spent on NBA he never had the hard fouls and that he never had hard feelings over the other players. He also said that what happened is just something that happened and there had never been intended to happen.
Gasol was very angry with what happened because according to him, it felt more like a punch than it was like a push. He was angry because he was already in the air that would be too late for Pietrus to attempt a play.
However, with that flagrant being done and the decision to take no further actions against Pietrus has been made, the game continues until a champion is being awarded. This is something that the NBA needs to look into to explain well what a flagrant foul is and how it is being determined to prevent any player from getting hurt and let the offender get away with it.
