Tag: los angeles lakers
Lin Excited To Join Lakers

Lin Excited To Join Lakers

Los Angeles (AFP) — Jeremy Lin said Thursday he’s looking to establish himself with the Los Angeles Lakers, but he won’t be trying to recreate “Linsanity” on the West Coast.

The point guard whose unexpected 2012 heroics for the New York Knicks made him a global phenomenon, was traded to Los Angeles by the Houston Rockets earlier this month and was introduced by his new team on Thursday.

“I’m not trying to relive that banner season,” Lin said of his breakout campaign with the Knicks, when he became the first player in NBA history to score at least 20 points and contribute seven assists in his first five starts, twice making the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine while being named among Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People with his rags-to-riches tale.

“I think that’s been a big weight off my shoulders and I think that’s very important for me as a player,” Lin said.

“I’m not trying to recreate a ‘Linsanity.’ I’m not trying to be that phenomenon that happened in New York. I think I just want to be myself more than ever,” added Lin, who is also the first Chinese-American to play in the NBA with a grandmother in China and parents from Taiwan.

Last season Lin averaged a career best 44.6 percent shooting from the field and limited his turnovers to an average of 2.5 a game, but he still lost his starting spot in Houston to Patrick Beverley.

The 25-year-old could find himself in a starting role in Los Angeles, with 40-year-old Steve Nash’s status still uncertain.

Nash played just 15 games last season because of persistent nerve irritation affecting his back and hamstrings.

The only other point guard on the Lakers’ roster is second-round draft pick Jordan Clarkson.

“If you asked me, or I think if you asked any player, I think they’ll believe that they’re capable of starting,” Lin said. “But I think if there’s anything I’ve learned from this past year, it’s really not that much about who starts. I think it’s more about who finishes and how you play with the time that you’re given.”

Mostly, Lin said, he wants to continue to improve as a player as he believes he did in Houston, and help the Lakers bounce back from their disappointing 2012-13 campaign.

AFP Photo/Sam Yeh

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Knicks’ President Jackson Fined For Fisher Fishing

Knicks’ President Jackson Fined For Fisher Fishing

New York (AFP) – New York Knicks president Phil Jackson was handed a $25,000 fine by the NBA for breaking the league’s rules against tampering with another team’s personnel.

During a press conference last week, Jackson publicly expressed interest in veteran Oklahoma City guard Derek Fisher as a candidate to fill the Knicks’ coaching position left vacant when Mike Woodson was sacked in April.

Fisher, however, was still under contract with the Thunder and competing in the Western Conference finals at the time.

NBA spokesman Tim Frank confirmed the penalty, which was communicated in a league-wide memo to each team.

Fisher played 10 seasons under Jackson when the latter was the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers from 1999-2011.

Jackson, a 68-year-old Hall of Famer who has won a record 13 NBA titles as a player and coach, was announced as the Knicks new president in March and given control of all basketball decisions in a moved aimed at turning around the fading fortunes of the team where he started his glittering career.

Jackson played for the Knicks from 1967 to 1978, winning two titles as a player in New York.

Jackson won 11 NBA titles as a coach, surpassing the previous record of nine set by Red Auerbach.

Jackson retired from coaching in May 2011 after leading the Chicago Bulls to six crowns in the 1990s and then the Los Angeles Lakers to five titles. His last title came in 2010 with Los Angeles.

ESPN.com reported on Monday that Jackson planned to chat with Fisher by the end of the week, although the discussion wouldn’t be a formal job interview.

When the Knicks fired Woodson and his staff in April — after New York missed the playoffs — there was speculation that they would seek the services of Steve Kerr, who played on three of Jackson’s six NBA championship teams in Chicago.

Kerr, however, signed this month to coach the Golden State Warriors, who fired coach mark Jackson after falling to the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs.

Kerr, who has no coaching experience, has served as an NBA television commentator for most of the years since he retired in 2003.

Photo: Maddie Meyer via AFP