Southern Cali Sports

The UCLA Bruins will take on the Stanford Cardinal tonight and more importantly Kevin Love, the “diaper dandy” UCLA center will be taking on 7′0 Stanford Center Brook Lopez.

Kevein Love is not ready for the NBA and if you ask me he won’t be going into the draft this year…

Kevin Love is just another version of Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina… an offensively gifted 6′8 center that we all thought was 6′10.

It’s not going to be pretty for Kevin Love if he decides to enter into the NBA draft… I say that because a few weeks ago Taj Gibson of USC made him look bad and blocked some of his shots and it wasn’t due to his (Gibson’s) height it was due to his athleticism.

You throw a guy that’s tall and athletic at Kevin Love and he’s not going to be able to score inside the paint consistently. He’ll be tested tonight against Stanford for sure…

The guy’s a “tweener” at 6′8. In the NBA, he’ll most likely be matched up against small forwards and he’s not quick enough to cover them and he’s not big enough to cover the power forwards in the NBA either.

In my opinion, he needs to stay at UCLA another year, continue working on his defense and develop an outside shot to be a lottery pick in the NBA.

He also needs to develop a shot that he can use against big men that won’t end up with the basketball in the third row at Pauley Pavilion…

On the front page of the L.A. Times this morning is a story about Jason Schmidt and how he probably won’t be able to go by opening day…

Seriously is this guy still being paid and do they have insurance against this kind of thing?

Signed last year to be the ace of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff, Jason Schmidt has been an utter catastrophe!

Going in to Spring Training Schmidt was expected to compete for the 5th spot in the rotation… the 5th spot!

The Lakers officially put the NBA on notice today when they traded Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittendon and what will be 2 late first round draft picks in ‘09 and ‘10 for 7′0 Center Pau Gasol of Memphis…

Gasol is averaging 19 points and 9 boards per game and will give the Lakers a front line of:

Lamar Odom 6′11

Pau Gasol 7′0

Andrew Bynum 7′0

To celebrate such a large signing I feel I must Share with you one of my all time favorite booty shots of Jennifer Lopez :

Good Night NOW!!!

While Kobe Bryant may be the best player in the National Basketball Association, it just may be Andrew Bynum who is the MVP on this Los Angeles Laker team.

As good as Kobe Bryant is and has been, the Los Angeles Lakers have been at their absolute best when he is doing less and doesn’t have to carry most of the scoring load square on his shoulders.

Unfortunately for the lakers, that’s exactly what Bryant’s had to do ever since Andrew Bynum went down with a knee injury and let’s face it, without Bynum the Lakers are just a playoff bubble team that would struggle to break into the playoffs with maybe a 7 or 8th seed.

Without Bynum, the Lakers are the same team that forced Kobe Bryant into demanding a trade all off season long…

With Bynum the Lakers are as Kobe Bryant himself put it:

“a championship caliber team”

Andrew Bynum isn’t just one of the best young centers in the NBA today, he’s the guy who is single handedly responsible for changing everybody’s opinion of Mitch Cupcake and if that doesn’t make him the MVP of this Lakers team then I don’t know what does…

Sure Kobe Bryant is great but we’ve discovered that he can’t do it himself and Lamar Odom isn’t the answer either…

The Lakers need a big guy in the middle.

For this Lakers team to be a championship caliber team they need Andrew Bynum.

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Today’s eye candy is Erin Andrews:

As long as Al Davis is the owner of the Oakland Raiders, the Raider Nation which is allegedly “committed to excellence” will continue to be the laughing stock of the NFL.

The old, demented guy allegedly drew up a letter of resignation over the weekend, handed it to Head Coach Lane Kiffin and basically said:

“Here kid sign this.”

Only in the Raider Nation does the owner of the team draft up a letter of resignation and hand it to the youngest head coach in the league, who just so happens to be coming off a promising season in which he (Kiffin) accomplished more than anyone thought possible, all because he’s not getting along with defensive coordinator Rob Ryan…

It’s vintage Al Davis…

Al Davis doesn’t want a head coach; he wants a puppet.

On top of being an incompetent NFL owner, Al Davis is also a cheap bastard.

He won’t fire Lane Kiffin (because that means he would have to pay him) and Lane Kiffin won’t resign…

Al Davis is single handedly destroying a once proud franchise that was at one time “committed to excellence” and should probably now just be committed.

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Today’s eye candy is Stacy Kiebler…

The Joe Torre hiring scares me because I think Frank McCourt (Los Angeles Dodgers owner) may think that by simply hiring Joe Torre the Los Angeles Dodgers are all of a sudden a World Series competitor.

It absolutely amazes me just how good Frank McCourt thinks his prospects are.

Actually, I don’t know if he’s really that confident about his young players or he’s just that cheap…

At the end of the day the Los Angeles Dodgers need a lot more then just Joe Torre to take this team to another level.

And I don’t agree with the talk show hosts that think Joe Torre will only be worth a few more wins for the Dodgers…

Joe Torre and his coaching staff will have a huge impact in the clubhouse but if the Dodgers are to become a post-season threat (and not just a team who shows up and is shown the door after the first round) they will need to add some more pop in the lineup and I don’t think Matt Kemp will be the one to provide it…

or any other young player for that matter.

Hate to bring up the past but it is necessary…

Here’s a quote from Magic Johnson reagrding Kobe Bryant as seen in the LA Times today:

“If Kobe would have been smart, he would have mended those fences with Shaquille, let Shaquille be ‘The Man’ and we wouldn’t be in this position," Johnson said. Now, after four years later, he understands that he can’t do it by himself. Now he’s blaming the organization, and some of that blame should be on him and some on the organization.”

Thank you Magic Johnson for saying what every Los Angeles Laker fan is thinking…

Magic went on to say that the Lakers should keep Kobe Bryant and I agree.

At this point here’s what the Lakers are talking about bringing in for Kobe Bryant:

Ben Wallace and Ron Artest

or

Shawn Marion and a package of other players

Puhleeease!

Ben Wallace is over the hill and I still have nightmares of Marion’s atrocious looking jumper…

Neither of these deals is appealing and if this is the best out there you (Lakers) better start looking for some players in a deal to keep Kobe Bryant in LA.

The only deal I would make for Kobe Bryant is Ben Gordon and Luol Deng but the Bulls don’t want to part with Deng and rumor has it that Kobe would veto a trade that would involve sending Deng to the Lakers…

Lakers, you’re up shit creek without a paddle.

Kobe Bryant is demanding a trade (and threatening to opt out after this season) and he won’t be OKing a  deal to a team that’s been gutted just to land him

Buss family, it’s time to get on your hands and knees, beg Kobe for forgiveness and bring in some talent that will keep him in Los Angeles.

I don’t like the fact that he’s going to be paid close to $5 Million per year because no Major league Baseball manager is worth that type of money but the Dodgers need to hire Joe Torre…

Yes, Joe Torre was a below .500 (winning percentage) manager in the National League prior to joining the Yankees but what the Dodgers need is someone like Phil Jackson  (with the Lakers) to act as a calming influence on the Dodgers…

More importantly, the Los Angeles Dodgers need someone with a strong and storied baseball resume to tell players like James Loney, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier to shut the hell up when the situation calls for it…

I can’t for the life of me imagine Loney and Kemp talking the crap they were talking last year  with Don Mattingly and Larry Bowa on the bench (coaches that Torre is rumored to be bringing with him).

The LA Times printed today that Loney was saddened to hear about Grady Little’s departure…

Of course he is.

Little pretty much let Loney and Kemp do as they wanted when he was there and that’s why Little is now out of work. Again…

And that’s why there was a huge rift between the veterans and rookies last year.

Because the Dodgers didn’t have a manager that would get in the rookies faces and tell them to know their role and shut the hell up!

If anything in his last season with the Yankees, I learned that Joe Torre is fully capable of integrating younger players with high-paid superstars… a skill that is desperately needed in Los Angeles this coming year.

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Speculation also has it that Joe Torre is asking to have a say in personel decisions and if that means the possibility of bringing Alex Rodriquez to the Dodgers then I’m all for it.

I don’t care if Frank McCourt has to raise the price of parking to something like $50 if it means you can bring in AROD…

Show me something Dodgers…don’t make me spend the last month of this coming season watching the Angels again.

Kobe Bryant demanded a trade because the Lakers front office failed to deliver on a promise… A promise that they (the front office) would put enough talent around him to compete for the NBA title every year.

The Lakers brain trust has failed to deliver on that promise…

Kobe Bryant wants to win.

So what’s wrong with that?

Since when do we as fans criticize players for wanting to play on a championship team?

I think if you look at this thing a little deeper you’ll notice that the Laker fans that are on Kobe Bryant for wanting to leave the Lakers are hurt.

They’re hurt because they can’t believe that their beloved Kobe would ever want to leave them…

Truth is I don’t think Kobe Bryant wants to leave.

I think he wants to be a laker.

But more then anything else Kobe Bryant wants to win.

More then being a laker, Kobe wants to win… sorry Laker fans.

I don’t blame Kobe Bryant. In fact, I support him.

All fans should support Kobe Bryant.

The guy not only wants to win; he wants to compete for the title every year!

Since when is that a bad thing?

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Recently Jerry Buss came out and said he would listen to any offers for Kobe Bryant in an attempt, I believe, to field more and hopefully better offers.

Jerry Buss is looking for equal value in a trade for Kobe Bryant and let’s just hope he’s learned from the disaster that was the Shaq to Miami trade…

Somebody tell ‘ol Doc Buss that there is no such thing as “equal value” for Kobe Bryant…

It doesn’t exist.

To get equal value for Kobe Bryant you need to get a superstar in return. A guy that can fill seats.

Jerry Buss says he hasn’t fielded such an offer yet… Don’t hold your breath Doc.

The people you put in charge (or at least the people you thought could run the team) Jeanie and Jim Buss and Mitch Cupcake weren’t able to get a deal done and frankly, I’m not sure there’s a good deal out there for the Kobster.

Face the facts:

You’re not going to get equal value for Kobe Bryant so stop waiting for that perfect deal to fall into your lap. The answer isn’t in trading away Kobe Bryant… didn’t you learn anything from trading away Shaq?

The answer is in keeping Kobe Bryant (at least for the next 2 years until he can opt out) and getting off your ass so you can put a more talented team on the floor.

For god’s sake this years big acquisition was Derek fisher and he practically fell into their laps.

I’m not surprised Kobe asked for a trade… Hell i don’t even want to watch them!

Pete Carroll said yesterday that he would probably wait until Friday or Saturday to make a decision on who will start at quarterback for the USC Trojans this Saturday against Notre Dame.

Based on what I saw this last week from Mark Sanchez against Arizona, I think you start John David Booty.

I, like all USC Football fans, wanted to see what Mark Sanchez had and based on Saturday’s performance I would venture to say that Mark Sanchez is what John David Booty is and they’re both what the USC football team has become - ordinary.

Contrary to all the hype that both Sanchez and Booty have received neither of these quarterbacks is “special” and everything I’ve heard from the USC coaching staff leads me to believe that they don’t think and they’re not confident about turning the football over to Mark Sanchez.

John David Booty hasn’t performed particularly well this season and the fact that he’s a senior and that the USC coaching staff has been reluctant to hand over the reigns to Sophomore QB Mark Sanchez tells me something about Sanchez… it tells me he’s not the future at QB for the USC Trojans or at the very least it tells me that he’s not ready right now (his 3rd year with the program)…

What else are we supposed to think when we all know that the USC offensive line is decimated with injuries and Mark Sanchez is the more mobile QB?

Booty is an ordinary QB but unfortunately that’s what the Trojans need right now… the Trojans need someone to manage the game for them. They need someone to get the ball to the explosive players they have on offense - Joe McKnight, Stafon Johnson and Fred Davis.

What does it tell you about the USC football team when one of the most explosive players on offense is a tight end (Fred Davis)?

John David Booty or Mark Sanchez?

I don’t think it matters…

Stick someone in there who’s not going to turn the ball over, who can manage the game and who can get the ball to the explosive players on offense.

And Pete Carroll, don’t be afraid to bench an ineffective QB because neither of these guys is worth losing a game over.