Re: Laker news

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Roy Enrile wrote:

> Yes, West deserves some respect.  At one point the C's and Lakers were
> about equal in terms of being mediocre teams.
>
> I think that the years we drafted
> AC Earl
> Junior Burrough
> Montross
> Antoine
>
> West was drafting
> Elden Campbell
> Van Exel
> Eddie Jones
> Kobe
>
> And his free agent signings were responsible for Last years Championship.
> Just a couple of years ago, 4 of his players were in the Allstar Game
> together.  And he's Chris Wallace's idol.

Interesting info, thanks Roy.  I believe Wallace and West are both from West
Virginia. I think another West Virginian--the CEO of Cisco Systems, John
Chambers--also idolizes Jerry West. I'm too young to remember West as the greatest
NBA scoring guard before Michael. West deserves a little bit of redemption as a GM
after all the deep disappointments Boston caused for him as a player.

I agree we've got to give West credit as a GM no matter that there are counter
arguments. Sure it was Shaq's Hollywood aspirations that made the biggest
difference, but all four of the first rounders above qualify as major finds
relative to their draft position. And none of these guys were at all obvious picks
that were hailed as a steal in the immediate post-draft analysis (the way Paul
Pierce was when he slipped to 10). They were just the best players available by
far, thanks to good research and evaluation by the Fakers.

Antoine was a good Boston pick, but in a spectacular draft. Almost everyone
drafted ahead of him has been an NBA impact player (Iverson, Marbury, Ray Allen,
Shareef, Camby etc.) and he was the logical pick by the time it was Boston's turn.

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