Crossover World

  Shaquille O'Neal played for six franchises over a 20-year NBA career. That's a lot of teammates. Speaking on The Big Podcast with Shaq, the four-time champion and Hall of Famer revealed which one of those teammates was the worst.  "Worst teammate? Dennis Rodman," O'Neal said. "He was a great player, but he made it hard. Like when you try to corral the guys together and the people above you [are] letting this one guy do whatever he wants. So we had to be there an hour before the game. He'd come in fifteen minutes before the game eating chicken and rice. While the coaches are talking, he would jump in the shower. Cold shower. Come and give you 15-20 rebounds." O'Neal played with some characters in his time. We know about his beef with Kobe Bryant, who we know wasn't always the easiest teammate to get along with, though Shaq has long expressed regret over the way he and Bryant handled their relationship as young superstars, and eventually, he ...

  The Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers are making progress on a trade that would swap Kyrie Irving and Russell Westbrook, according to Chris Haynes. Other pieces would have to be involved, but there is "palpable optimism" that the two sides can figure out a deal this summer.  Irving recently opted into the final year of his deal worth $36.4 million but is expected to be traded after his star teammate Kevin Durant requested a trade from the Nets. "If Kevin Durant is on the first train out, Kyrie Irving will be on the caboose as far as the Nets are concerned," Brian Windhorst reported earlier this week.  Coming off a season in which he played just 29 games because he refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and given his previous injury history -- Irving hasn't played 70 games in a season since 2017 when he was still with the Cleveland Cavaliers -- the market for the mercurial guard is understandably not as robust as the one for Durant.  The Lakers, though, ha...

  LeBron James may not be playing in the NBA Finals, but he's still having a good June. According to Forbes, the Lakers star now has an estimated net worth of $1 billion, making him the first active NBA player to become a billionaire. Michael Jordan is the NBA's only other billionaire, but he didn't reach that mark until 2014, years after the stopped playing in the NBA. During his NBA career, James has earned over $385 million in salary from his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Lakers. He earned $170 million in 11 season with the Cavaliers, $153 million in his four seasons with the Lakers and $64 million in his four seasons with the Heat. James raked in a whopping $121.2 just last year. He is currently the league's highest-paid active player and also makes an estimated $900 million in income via endorsement deals and businesses.  "It's my biggest milestone," James told GQ in a 2014 interview about potentially being a billionaire one day. ...

  Though the so-called superteam that the Los Angeles Lakers built this season didn't exactly yield the results they expected and James Harden brought an abrupt end to the Big Three of the once championship-favorite Brooklyn Nets, the practice of superstar NBA players joining forces isn't likely to stop any time soon. If the goal is to win a title, surrounding yourself with the best possible teammates increases your odds more than virtually any other factor. With LeBron James taking heat for the acquisition of Russell Westbrook that led to the Lakers officially failing to make the play-in this season in one of the biggest disappointments, odds-wise at least, in recent NBA history, it's only natural to speculate on the changes Los Angeles will make to its roster before next season. And if James feels the Lakers haven't turned themselves into a championship contender by the end of the summer, would he contemplate a trade demand? Unlikely, sure. But we've seen crazy th...

  Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James will miss the team's matchup with the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night due to a lingering ankle injury. James also missed L.A.'s 129-118 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday with the injury. The Lakers are currently in the midst of a six-game losing streak and on the brink of postseason elimination. The game against the Suns is an important one for the Lakers, who enter the evening two full games behind the San Antonio Spurs for the 10th seed in the Western Conference standings -- and the final spot in the NBA's play-in tournament. The Spurs also hold the season tiebreaker over the Lakers.  At this point, L.A.'s hopes of qualifying for the play-in tournament are grim, and they could come to an end on Tuesday night. If the Lakers lose to the Suns, and the Spurs beat the Nuggets, the Lakes will be officially eliminated from postseason contention. Without James' services, it will be very tough for the Lakers to walk away from Phoe...

Life without Anthony Davis hasn’t been kind to the LA Lakers, and it certainly didn’t get any better as they faced his old team in a must-win game that had huge implications on playoff seeding. The Lakers, who were in the ninth spot with a 31-43 record, have now fallen to tenth place as the Pelicans (32-43) have overtaken them. The loss puts the Lakers’ record to 3-7 over their last ten games, and they’re now within striking distance of the San Antonio Spurs, who are only a game behind them with a 30-44 record. To make things worse, the Pelicans won the season series today, because even though they still have a game left against LA, they’ve already won two out of three total meetings. The Lakers crumbled in the second half against the Pelicans, after starting off promisingly. They even had a 23-point lead at one point, largely behind LeBron James and his 39 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and a block. However, his shooting line of 14-27 may look good at first, but he was 2 of 8 fr...

  EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- If it were up to Los Angeles Lakers coach Frank Vogel, LeBron James would be adding a fifth MVP award to his career accomplishments after this season. "He is as deserving for MVP consideration as anybody in the league," Vogel said after practice Friday. "I know how the voting goes -- the team with the best record or top couple of records usually gets most of those considerations, so the win-loss record definitely would probably hurt him. "But you can't tell me that anybody has played a better season than LeBron James has this year." James leads the league in scoring, averaging 30 points per game on 52.3% shooting along with 8.2 rebounds and 6.3 assists. The Lakers, however, are 10th in the Western Conference at 31-42 with nine games remaining. They have a 6-13 record in the games James has missed because of injury. Despite Vogel's endorsement, James is considered a longshot to make many voters' top five candidates on their ba...

  Anthony Davis is working his way back from a mid-foot sprain that has kept him out of the lineup for the Los Angeles Lakers for well over a month now. Based on this most recent report, it sounds like LA will be able to get their superstar big man back right on time. According to NBA insider Dave McMenamin of ESPN Davis could be making his much-awaited comeback in a couple of weeks’ time: If everything continues to progress well in Davis’ rehab, the All-Star big man could be suiting up for games by the first week of April, at the earliest, sources told ESPN. The good news for the Lakers is that the Play-In tournament is scheduled to start on April 12th. If all goes according to plan, this means that Davis will be able to suit up for LA’s last few remaining regular-season games. Hopefully, this will give the eight-time All-Star enough time to get his conditioning right in time for the Play-In game. This is of course, under the assumption that the Lakers are able to maintain (or imp...

  LeBron James #6 of the Los Angeles Lakers dunks the ball during the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 21, 2022 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. Following a harrowing defeat to the Wizards Saturday night, the Lakers (31-41) came out and put on a full display of team basketball in their 131-120 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Back-and-forth throughout most of the night, the Lake Show turned their game up in the final quarter and outscored the Cavs 35-23. The Kid from Akron led the charge in his homecoming and was sensational for the full 48 minutes. Whether he was dunking on former teammate, Kevin Love, knocking down insane turnaround jumpers, or making sweet bounce passes to a cutting Malik Monk, The King was on fire all night long. The King LeBron knocked down 17-of-29 from the floor for 38 points and notched 12 assists, and 11 rebounds for his sixth triple-double of the season. At 37, James is the oldest player in NBA history to register a 30-p...

  Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James literally got kicked on the face after Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Evan Mobley was unable to control his right foot following a jump. Early in the Lakers-Cavs game on Monday, LeBron was guarding Mobley who was trying to muscle his way to the rim. James was able to strip off the ball from the rookie as he was jumping, and as the King looked down to recover the ball, he was met by the rookie’s right leg that was going up as a result of the jump. The Lakers superstar went down in pain while holding his face, though it didn’t look serious as he was able to play again soon after.  Evan Mobley with the kick to LeBron James' face 😲 Of course that’s not a dirty play and the Lakers star will surely forgive the youngster. Still, that has to hurt given how big Evan Mobley is and how LeBron James literally took the leg head-on (or face-on?). But hey, what a welcome return to Cleveland, right? It’ll be another sacrifice for LeBron as he continues to s...

  In a mostly quiet locker room after a 29-point loss in Phoenix on March 13, LeBron James sat alone at his locker and carefully inscribed the game ball, smiling as he softly blew on the ink to make sure the valued piece of personal memorabilia was protected. It was a symbolic visual of this powerful yet awkward season for the Los Angeles Lakers star. And perhaps a preview of what might be to come as he runs down one of the greatest individual records in American sports under cloudy skies. The milestone that evening in Arizona was becoming the first player in NBA history to eclipse 10,000 points, rebounds and assists. The autographed ball is likely headed to a just-announced James museum that is being constructed in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. For a player who takes pride in his all-around game, it was a cherished moment. "The dreams I had of being in this league and playing at the highest level and to now sit alone in a statistical category in this league -- I model my game afte...

  Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James made some NBA history on Saturday night. With his point production against the Washington Wizards, James passed Karl Malone to move up to second on the league's all-time scoring list. Malone scored 36,909 points over the course of his career. Now, the only player that has scored more points than James in league history is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387).  Entering the evening, James needed 21 points to pass Malone, and he recorded them all in the first half. You can see the basket that propelled James past Malone below:  LEBRON MOVES TO SECOND ALL-TIME IN REGULAR SEASON SCORING 😤 Leading up to the feat, James acknowledged some similarities between him and Malone, especially in the way that they both took excellent care of their bodies over the course of their respective careers.  "Guys that just took care of their bodies for the majority of their career and always wanted to be available to their teammates," James said. "The mos...

  Los Angeles Lakers guard Russell Westbrook has taken relentless criticism this season -- some justified, and some unjustified -- so you can't help but feel happy for him when he does something spectacular on the court. With the Lakers facing defeat in the final seconds of the fourth quarter of Friday night's matchup against the Toronto Raptors, Westbrook came up with an incredible sequence to send the game to overtime, where Los Angeles eventually came away with a 128-123 win. With 12.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter and Toronto leading 116-113, Westbrook missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer badly, putting the Raptors in the position where all they needed to do was hold onto the ball and make their free throws to secure the victory. Instead, the Lakers defense forced a difficult inbounds pass from Scottie Barnes to Precious Achiuwa, and as he awkwardly attempted to get it back to Barnes, Westbrook got his hand on the ball and eventually forced a turnover. He proceeded ...

  The week before he held his nose and called Russell Westbrook "trash" during the Minnesota Timberwolves' blowout win over the Los Angeles Lakers, Patrick Beverley said that Westbrook has directly damaged his career.  On "The Old Man and the Three" podcast with JJ Redick, Beverley said that people around the NBA, coaches and players included, "looked at me differently" after Westbrook took a shot at him in November 2019. (Westbrook said, "Pat Bev trick y'all, man, like he plays defense. He don't guard nobody, man. It's just running around, doing nothing.") "After that, people were just taking the ball, just going at me," Beverley said on the podcast. "I'm like, what the f---? All because of what one person said." Beverley continued: "He damaged my career. Like, coaching staffs and players, fans, they looked at me way different. They looked at me like, 'You know what? He don't play defense. He ...

  In what is becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence, the Los Angeles Lakers were blown out on Wednesday. This time, it was the Minnesota Timberwolves dominating them in a 124-104 victory, and Lakers guard Russell Westbrook didn't take kindly to their attitude during the thrashing. The Timberwolves were seen talking quite a bit of trash to the Lakers, and while Westbrook denied that it was directed his way, he did go out of his way to remind the Timberwolves of where he perceives them in the league's pecking order.  "I honestly don't pay no mind to it. Maybe other guys (do). "They weren't talking to me. They were talking to individual guys, but the trash talking doesn't bother me none. Nobody over there has done anything in this league," Westbrook said while stifling a laugh. "It's fine. They're good. They won a game, happy for them, (I'll) move on to the next one. That's that." Timberwolves guard Patrick Beverley respon...

  In what is becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence, the Los Angeles Lakers were blown out on Wednesday. This time, it was the Minnesota Timberwolves dominating them in a 124-104 victory, and Lakers guard Russell Westbrook didn't take kindly to their attitude during the thrashing. The Timberwolves were seen talking quite a bit of trash to the Lakers, and while Westbrook denied that it was directed his way, he did go out of his way to remind the Timberwolves of where he perceives them in the league's pecking order.  "I honestly don't pay no mind to it. Maybe other guys (do). "They weren't talking to me. They were talking to individual guys, but the trash talking doesn't bother me none. Nobody over there has done anything in this league," Westbrook said while stifling a laugh. "It's fine. They're good. They won a game, happy for them, (I'll) move on to the next one. That's that." Most of this quote was fairly innocuous, b...

  The gap between what the Los Angeles Lakers are and what we think they night be able to be is massive. What they are is a 29-38 team clinging to a play-in spot as the No. 9 seed. What they could be, with a healthy LeBron James and Anthony Davis, well, that's hard to say, but it's surely something a lot better than they are.  Could they be good enough to upset, say, the Phoenix Suns in a potential first-round playoff series?  We could be on our way to finding out. The Suns are a virtual lock to end up No. 1 in the West, while the Lakers, if they are able to advance out of the play-in, would almost assuredly going to be the No. 8 seed (to be No. 7, they'd have to get into the 7-8 play-in game, which will be difficult as they trail the No. 8 Clippers by an effective five games with the Clippers owning the tiebreaker). If it does happen, the Lakers could well have Davis back in the lineup. Davis, who has been out the last four weeks with a mid-foot sprain, told reporters re...