RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON

The numbers (zero points in six minutes) weren’t memorable in any way except they chronicled the return of Luke Walton to the floor after too long an absence. The guy Phil refers to as his son, missed most of last season with pretzel-back surgery, was iffy for a comeback and then pulled his hammy in exhibition. Walton, the biological son of Big Red, grew up in the road tour that’s known as the NBA with frequent side trips to the deadheads tie-dyed circus. He chose Arizona State over UCLA because of Coach Lute Olson and eventually became the only one of four roundball-crazed brothers to make it to the show, drafted at number 32 in the second round.

Walton wasn’t predicted to play much his rookie season but wound up appearing in 72 games. This was the same year the team was supposed to romp to the Larry O’Brian. Payton and Malone signed up for a pittance in order to make a last run for the ring. Iron man Malone went down with a knee injury however, the team lost to Detroit in the finals and the loss itself was part and parcel of a divisive and acrimonious season that culminated in the wholesale gutting of the team - Walton was one of five remaining players.

The Rudy T era lasted 41 games, Frank Hamblen played substitute teacher and Jackson himself returned improbably, less than a year after the release of a scorched earth book. Role player Luke began to flourish again in the triple post system with above-average court vision and passing skills. He started at the wing in his fourth season and was rewarded with a six-year, $30 million dollar contract. The yearly amount was league average but the length was an anathema to blog critics who instantly saddled "Puke" with ruining any chance of ever signing a marquee free agent. The inconvenient truth is that Kobe, Paul and Andrew take up all of the cap by their lonesomes which limits the team to using its exceptions, Bird rights, veteran’s minimum and of course, the draft.  Said logic's never dissuaded Luke-haters who are often the same shrill voices who whine that Phil's only lucked into his rings through his players.

Luke’s game has never regained the highs of his breakout season and he lost minutes and stature to the revolving door of Vlad, Trevor and Ron. Still, he’s a guy Jackson clearly values, referring to him as his conscience on the court. And frankly, if a coach with that many rings wants to say Luke organizes his offense it’s fine by me. If he wanted to say Mike Penberthy organized his offense I’d go along and if he ever wanted to bring back Slava I’d be happy as a shell.

Now in his eighth season, Luke’s a survivor in uncertain health, a guy who arrived his rookie year in an old Coupe de Ville rag top, bought a ribs joint in Manhattan Beach and was used as chief clipboard holder and bottle-washer this past championship season.  He may well have coaching in his future but for now he seems determined to get a little more floor burn and a third ring as a player. 

Team notes:

With injuries and fatigue affecting the early schedule, Phil Jackson plans on increasing Derrick Caracter's minutes.   Sounds a little like Luke's rookie season, doesn't it?   With so much recent talk centering on Kobe's knee health, he chose to look ahead optimistically to 2012.   Lamar Odom birthday coincides with some spectacular recent play.  And Sasha's lack of PT has him considering his options.

ACROSS THE CYBER UNIVERSE

It's been a couple weeks since last posting, sloth and apathy making poor bedfellows for getting it done. So much easier in the few free late night hours to read rather than write. Some ideas have come and gone or accumulated in dusty storage and a vague determination was made to find an original topic and stick with it.  Instead, the obequious rehash of  happenings that have already been covered elsewhere - sourcing in the age of internet is like shooting fish in a barrel. Plus, there’s grand opportunity for linkage.

It makes sense to start with Artest who’s been omnipresent lately, from lobbying for better mental health programs in schools to getting a key to the city of sin for same, written about in greater detail in the K-Bros, LOL blog. Ron-Ron’s determined to auction off his ring for charity (cue Mark Medina’s LAT piece) and has waxed poetic about football after his NBA days are done, to be followed by a foray into the sweet science of boxing . I’d link future plans for our readers but it’s been a week or two since I read about his Man of La Mancha dream and I have no desire to go that far back to parse out the various credits.

Our man Sasha suffered a concussion during Thursday’s practice, a supposedly inadvertent elbow in the face courtesy of Lamar. I’m a bit surprised he’s letting a little face boo-boo keep him out of action, especially in light of his recent determination to be the league’s new enforcer (see SfS’s own exclusive interview! ). One of the blog's rare, endangered readers commented that he’d seen Sasha play and he didn’t look bulked up at all. Well c’mon! Our inside sources are impeccable. He probably just chickened out and stopped boosting HGH. At any rate I assume he’s heading back to outside shots and eyebrow grooming at the charity stripe. After all, it looks like Derrick Caracter is on his way to earning whatever scraps are available at the 4.

There’s been some actual basketball action as of late. The Lakers played a hi-energy game and squeaked out the win against Sactown in Vegas on Wednesday. Kobe’s getting his legs back, Artest, Pau and Odom all looked sharp and it’s all wrapped up in much finer detail by Forum Blue and Gold’s Jeff Skibiski.  Ebanks made a good case for himself with 10 points in 15 minutes, Blake had some nice assist action, Barnes was active across the board and Brown shot his jumpers with renewed confidence. On the negative side, Sasha’s return to kinetic bomber did not impress at 1-4.

Some of my favorite reading as of late has been from non-Laker-centric blogs. Freedarko’s celebrating the imminent release of their new book, ‘The Undisputed Guide to Basketball History’ with a couple weeks’ worth of essays on Dream. All good stuff but I especially liked a piece by Jack Hamilton linking O.J. Simpson and the 1994 finals.

Basketbawful has been on a tear of terribles, a technicolor photo of Birdman’s new neck tat snagged my attention like a wreck in the breakdown lane. I’ve always been a fan of Anderson in general and was specifically intrigued by his penchant for reciting Gimme Back My Bullets for hours on end during his dark days of banishment. This flaming Free Bird monstrosity however threatens to eat up his face - I think the dude’s gone into some William Burroughs abyss -‘the neck that exploded’.

I’ve also been following A Wolf Among Wolves, excellent and good-humored commentary on the T-Wolves who’ve put together a nice preseason so far with Rambis’s hybrid run-n-gun triangle. A pretty entertaining group of players with Love, Beasley, Webster, Ridnour and the Darko/Koufos/Pekovic eastern-euro trifecta.   Check out the article on Beasley facing down free-throw gremlins.  Good stuff.

Seems only right to end full circle with Mr. Artest who’s established himself as one of the preeminent interviews on this coast or any. He recently weighed in on the subject of current player dominance, saying Kobe’s first and Durant’s second in the league. When asked about LeBron, he talked about guarding the second-best Durant. When reporters persisted with where LeBron ranked on Artest’s list, Ron said "you got to ask him.".  Probably feeling lost in circular-speak, yet another reporter tried nailing down an answer, only to be faced with a puzzled look and the assertion that "I only count to two. I’ve been out of school for 10 years. I only count to two." Don’t be messing with Ron’s head. It’s a losing battle.

It's Saturday morning and there's a game against Denver tonight.  Might serve as inspiration to write something that's not wholly ripped off.  And at any rate, a chance to see if the birdman's new colors cause acid-flashbacks.

Update, 1/31/11.  For some inexplicable reason, this particular post continues to accrue a steady trickle of hits, long after its publication.  It was written as a toss-off links piece, with some thought for a continuing series (eventually abandoned).  Maybe it's still getting hits due to some search criteria, maybe there's a link in the post that somebody uses.  I have no clue.  I am curious though.