Clippers sign William Henry Parker

[loflin3hree5ive]

Well at least this will keep all the actor/valet parkers in L.A. on their toes for a couple of months.

[milesfides]

I don't think anyone here hates Smush for his lack of NBA skills and D-league talent. The guy just had an attitude unlike most of us have ever seen before. We knew he was D-league, the Lakers knew he was D-league, the only one who didn't seem to get it was Smush. He treated this team like we owed him one (and for a while I even bought into the rhetoric and figured we should have thrown him a contract just to get him to play better... ass-backwards thinking). Never seen another player with such a sense of undeserved entitlement.

Well, for a guy who came out of nowhere and played way beyond anybody's expectations, I think he was expecting some love in the offseason. Instead, the Lakers threw money at Radmanovic and Walton, drafted Farmar, and told Parker to prove himself again.

He took that as a lack of respect. It was unfair to him. To me, that's understandable.

He developed a terrible attitude problem as the season progressed, but I understand where it came from. That's the thing with Smush, he's had trouble making it in the league, it's been tough for him, and when he finally seemed to have a future with a team, it was a dream come true for the kid. Then, the Lakers made it seem like he wasn't in their future plans, and to Smush, I'm sure he felt like he was being used.

Smush was too damn fragile and insecure and immature. But then again, given his background and the situation he was in, is it that surprising? To me, no.

I'm not making excuses for him, I just think management could have avoided the situation. And if not, they should have signed other FA point guards or traded for one before the trade deadline. Lakers didn't do any of that.

The Lakers just watched this ticking timebomb. On top of that, they demoted Farmar to the D-league, and made him play double-headers.

Management just screwed it up last year with the PG position. I'm not making excuses for Smush, but management should have known better, especially with all the warning signs, and I think he's been made out to be a scapegoat for bad decisions by management. They set him off-kilter, and yet relied on him when it counted the most.

Yeah, Smush Parker is a superficial basketball player with marginal skills and an attitude problem. But guess what? He was that kind of player before the Lakers, he was that kind of player after the Lakers. So why are we surprised that he was that kind of player on the Lakers? Who's fault was it that we were relying on this guy for 2 years? It's his fault? You invite Mike Tyson to a tea party and then get mad at him for broken china?

Hey, if you marry Ugly Betty because you think she looks like Jessica Alba, then one day you realize she doesn't, who's fault is it? You're gonna get mad at her because she's not Jessica Alba?

If you bake some chocolate chip cookies with black beans instead of chocolate chips, what are you gonna say when you take a bite? Damn you black beans for not being sweet and delicious?

I'm not upset at Smush Parker for being Smush Parker. I'm upset at the bigwigs who thought Smush Parker was somebody else, somebody worthy of being the starting point guard for the Lakers. And people are surprised by Kobe's outburst last summer? First Chucky Atkins, then Smush Parker? Ugly Betty and black beans. Thank you, sir, may I have another!

[CDB]

Great, that crappy ass car would be tearing up the streets of L.A. again...

[Kreuk]

Miles, in all seriousness, are you friends with Smush Parker or something? I've never seen a person be so thorough and consistent in defending one of the most hated Laker PGs of the last decade.

I agree to an extent that hating on Smush somehow became "the thing to do" in this forum. And maybe the hate has been extreme at times, but let's look at it from another angle... Let's really ask ourselves why we hate him so much...

Yes, it was mostly his attitude. He came to epitomize all that was wrong with Laker basketball before this season. He had the tools/ skills/ etc., but he just didn't deliver. Just like Mihm, just like DG, just like Odom (before this season), just like Kwame, etc... What made it worse with smush though, is the way he sat disgusted on the bench, the way he would take off and throw his headband nearly every game in the second half.

Smush became the whipping boy, I believe because he was the last d-league player (in a long line of d-league players) on our team. So he got the blunt force of everything.

I saw smush in the SPL. I thought he kicked ass. I was excited about him. He was decent that first season. He sucked in his second, but only because our expectations had changed. We tasted the playoffs and almost upset the suns. But we were ready to move on.

Tierre Brown and Chucky got nowhere near the hate that smush did and we were a lottery team when those two were running the point. Smush was a godsend compared to chucky and tierre. But we were a different team then.

Smush didnt evolve with the team... he just reminded us of who we once were and we didnt like it, nor did we want anything to do with it anymore.

[Sedale Threatt]

i watch every one of those games, you'll be begging for knight or dickau.

You took the words right out of my mouth. If Clips fans thought Dickau and Knight were bad -- and I agree, they are -- they ain't seen nothing yet.

[El Hardee]

I think what makes everyone soo mad at Smush is he went from a good story to a typical Y2K primadonna athlete. It could of been a great story the underdog makes it in the NBA. He went from Rudy,Lucas,(underdog movies) to Terrel Owens in about 30 games. Anyone who could defend that moron must be doing it to be different or must be on Smush's payroll.