Basketball's Lord of the Rings

The Los Angeles Lakers received their Championship rings last night, then went out and casually beat the Los Angeles Clippers. The ring ceremony was was pretty classy in my opinion, they celebrated all the championships the team has won since moving to Los Angeles by trotting out great Lakers from all the championship teams. Jerry West from the first L.A championship in 1972. Then we got to see a bunch of great Lakers from the 80's, 90's and 00's including: Michael Cooper, Magic Johnson, A.C. Green, Rick Fox, Robert Horry and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Great night for Laker fans.

Check these pictures out from a Yahoo Sports article.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Lakers-new-championship-rings?urn=nba,198796

Kobe Bryant now playing "Free Safety"

Lakers will get their Championship Rings in the season opener against the Clippers this Tuesday, October 27, 2009. They get one more moment to celebrate and then it is back to work. This years Laker squad is improved over last years. Basically they swapped Trevor Ariza for Ron Artest. RON ARTEST...WOW.

I like the way Ron Artest is weaving his way into the fabric of the Los Angeles Lakers. Pre-Season is finally over and it is clear the Lakers with Ron Artest have a lot of defensive options. Besides adding toughness to the squad, Ron Ron gives the Lakers a lot of options both defensively and offensively.

Offensively he can play inside or out. He is an excellent passer and hits the offensive boards. When Kobe is taking a rest, he can step up as a #1 score if need be.

Defensively he totally changes this team. Now if  Phil Jackson so chooses, he can now put Artest on the other teams best player (Think LeBron James, Carmello Anthony, Dwayne Wade) and have Kobe move back to "Free Safety" where he is really good. This will also allow Kobe to be fresh for the 4th quarter.

If the Lakers stay healthy, they will repeat as NBA Champions.