RealGM

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/w ... index.html

Feel good story especially after a game 4 win!!! Go Fish!

That was a great article... I'm super impressed by the impact Derek has had in the locker room since returning to the Lakers. What an awesome dude!

I'm equally impressed at how much Kobe and the rest of the Lakers have grown up since last summer.

Now, on to Game 5

Cool. Everyone should realize and give Lamar a lot of credit for these types of team bondings. It was LO that flew out his personal chef to training camp in Hawaii to make sure all the guys ate together.

He really started it and it looks like it has paid off big time.

wow! good read! really!

yeah its been said by many people inside the game that Fish is who brough the team together. And he is a bigger leader then Kobe is and with his maturity he sets the tone from the locker room and out.

Fish = Accountability
Odom = Unity
Kobe = Trust


We've got great leadership on this team.

this is one of the reasons i dont want a trade.

our too is already talented now, and for the future...we are set!...no need to make major trades to mess anything up.

we're already labeled as champions by many even without bynum...with bynum back..i think we will breeze past competition.

What this team has been able to develop over the last year has been trust and cohesiveness. It has been a remarkable culture change for them.

I think a lot has to do with Kobe and DFish and their leadership.

Lamar has also contributed as a leader specially in the seond half of the season by being accountable for his own play and continuing to play aggresive nonselfish ball.
The team was always talented, even last year.
Getting Gasol was icing on the cake.
Becoming cohesive and developing the type of chemistry they currently have, has put them in the championship level.

I was actually talking to my friend the other day about how the Lakers look like they have great chemistry. It shows up on the floor, because it looks like they're having a blast out there. The difference between the Lakers and Spurs in terms of attitude is enormous.

awesome article.

"We have a tight team now, and it starts at the top," says Odom. "Kobe is one of the best athletes ever. It's something that he has inside of him that some of the great ones don't, to be honest. There are only a few people that can take shots with four people on him and will it to go in. I like to call him Kobe-Wan Kenobi."

That is until the check comes for the next team dinner.

"Then we call him MVP," said guard Sasha Vujacic. "He's always the MVP when that happens."

Most
Valuable
Payer

This team is really easy to root for. It's a nice change from the 3-peat era.

Very nice read.

Yeah who would though a Kobe led team could be the most like-able team in years?

Our chemistry is one of the biggest if not the biggest reason we have been so successful this year. New guys are fitting in and getting accustomed right away (Ariza, Pau, DJ). They look like they're having fun out there and its paying off in wins.