Adam Silver Hints At One Last All Star Appearance

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant walks past fans before the second half of their NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City, Utah, November 7, 2012.

“He had one of those All-Pro type games”, Lakers Coach Byron Scott said.

After all, Houston is giving Kobe lots of love in Saturday night’s game.

Now, obviously Bryant doesn’t “deserve” to be there based on his play this year.

The Los Angelexs Lakers weren’t having much fun these days, so it was time to reflect on their past, which, actually, wasn’t very fun for them either.

“They force us to be our absolute best whenever we’ve played against them”, Bryant said. However, the results are relatively inconsequential at this point as the Lakers have seemingly (or hopefully) moved to the next phase of this season. Clarkson has started in all of the Lakers’ 22 games this season and is averaging 15.2 points.

The Lakers targeted Aldridge in free agency last summer, but he felt turned off with the Lakers’ first meeting that focused too much on Hollywood glitter over X’s and O’s.

Going into the game all the talk was about Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour.

Golden State has already withstood Harrison Barnes’ six-game absence due to an ankle injury that will sideline him at least another week.

Aldridge scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and did not play the fourth quarter in the Spurs 107-89 win over the Lakers on Friday night.

The question becomes whether the Lakers decide to give Clarkson the max contract they can or if he gets a lesser contract from them.

Clarkson, who played at Tulsa for two seasons and at Missouri for one before turning pro, hit 5 of 9 field-goal attempts and finished with 11 points, three rebounds, four assists and only one turnover in 29 minutes against the Spurs. Fan voting began on Thursday, and Bryant remains one of the most popular players in the league.

“The second meeting was just myself and (general manager) Mitch (Kupchak)…It was all basketball”, Scott said. Russell led the way with a season and career-high 23 points, including the shot that sent the game into OT, while Randle provided 20 points and 12 boards in a contest that might have served as a coming-out party for the two, despite the team losing 122-123. “Words can’t describe the amount of respect I have for him”. The Lakers surprisingly had a good start as well, and went on an 8-0 run to take a four point lead a few minutes into the quarter.

“Just knowing any given night you don’t know who’s going to be that guy, that’s the strength of this team”, Thomas said.

What would be nice to see is an extra roster spot open up for the Western Conference so a more deserving player doesn’t get left off assuming Bryant gets voted in.