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Tears welled up in Pau Gasol's eyes following a Lakers shootaround back in May, 2012.

Gasol was to receive the NBA’s J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, recognizing his efforts in promoting programs aimed at children's nutrition and education, later that evening and even though the Lakers were in the midst of a playoff series with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Gasol got emotional when he thought about the children with whom he’d come in contact through his charitable work in places like South Africa, Angola and Ethiopia, as well as in hospitals throughout the U.S.

"Every time that I visited, it's been an experience that stayed with me," Gasol said at the time, recalling his memories with a group of reporters. "You always meet a patient or several patients that are very inspirational or get into you in a way that's shocking. So, every time there's a child, there's a family, there's several of them that are obviously facing a very tough situation, a very tough time in their lives and you're just there to contribute a little bit, make their day, get a smile out of them, inject them some strength, some energy so they can hopefully have a better chance. As much as you can do, nothing is really little. That's why I encourage everyone in their means to have an impact on somebody else's life."

As part of that commitment, in recent years, Gasol has devoted some of his time in the offseason to travel the world as a UNICEF ambassador and he recently visited a Syrian refugee camp in Dohuk, Iraq in that role.

According to UNICEF, more than 1.7 million Syrians have fled their war-torn native country, with approximately 160,000 settling in Iraq. Gasol said he was deeply moved by the sense of unrest and fear he encountered while visiting a camp in Dohuk that was meant to hold 15,000 refugees but was crowded with some 50,000 inhabitants.

“It’s difficult because all of these people had good lives back in Syria,” Gasol told ESPNLosAngeles.com in a phone interview last week. “So, it’s a unique situation from what I’ve experienced with UNICEF because these people had a good life and now they had to leave their homes because they didn’t want to get killed, basically. They had no choice. They’re educated, but they’re just frustrated.

“We talked to several families there, children, to tell us a little bit about what they went through. All of them left because of the war. Some of the children witnessed people dead on the street. Tanks. Shootings. Their school got destroyed by a bomb. Their (family) businesses also got destroyed by attacks. So, they all had a traumatic experience to share.”

Inspired by his work with UNICEF and other organizations and along with his brother, Marc, Gasol recently has decided to establish his own charitable trust. The Gasol Foundation, with the mission to empower young people to live healthier lives, is due to launch in September.

The NBA's 2013-14 season schedule was released Tuesday afternoon and there are plenty of intriguing games for Los Angeles Lakers fans to circle on their calendars (or enter reminders in their smart phones).

Here's a quick breakdown:

THE START

The Lakers tip things off playing in one of the three nationally televised games on opening night, Oct. 29, at home against the Clippers. They go upstate to play the Warriors the very next day, the first of 19 back-to-backs on the season. L.A. comes back to Staples Center for their next two games, hosting the San Antonio Spurs on the Nov. 1 and then the Atlanta Hawks on Nov. 3.

DWIGHT TIME

The Lakers travel to Houston to face off against Dwight Howard and the Rockets on Nov. 7 in just their sixth game of the season. You think that will give Kobe Bryant any motivation to be ready to play by late October? Howard will return to L.A. to hear the boo-birds on Feb. 19 in the Lakers' first game after the All-Star break.

FAMILIAR FACES

Former Lakers head coach Mike Brown (along with Earl Clark and Andrew Bynum, if he's healthy) will come to town on Jan. 14 when the Lakers host the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Lakers also travel to Cleveland on Feb. 5 in the middle game of a three-game trip that ends Feb. 7 in Philadelphia when Bryant will have yet another Philly homecoming.

Metta World Peace will surely receive a warm welcome from Lakers fans on March 25 when he returns to L.A. with the Knicks on March 25.

The Lakers will get their first look at Brian Shaw coaching the Nuggets on Nov. 13 (the first of two times next season when the Lakers play the second night of a back-to-back in the Denver altitude) and Shaw and Co. come to L.A. on Jan. 5.

MARQUEE MATCHUPS

The Lakers host LeBron James and the two-time defending champion Miami Heat on Christmas Day and foam fingers probably won't be handed out at the door this time. The game is at 2 p.m. PT on ABC. The Lakers play in Miami on Jan. 23.

They go to OKC to play Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook (and Derek Fisher) on Dec. 13 and play the Thunder in a rare home-road two game series on March 9 in L.A. and March 13 in Oklahoma City.

ROAD ARENAS

Their annual trip to the Mecca of Basketball at Madison Square Garden is Jan. 26 when they face World Peace and the Knicks and L.A. goes to the place that has been a thorn in its side for the last decade -- the Rose Garden in Portland -- on March 3.

RIVALS

L.A. plays the Clippers on three other occasions after opening night -- Jan. 14 ("road" game), March 6 and April 6 (another "road" game). They travel to play the stripped-down Boston Celtics on Jan. 17 and the guys in green come to L.A. on Feb. 21.

ROAD TRIPPING

The Lakers' longest road trip is seven games -- at Phoenix, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Miami, Orlando and New York -- spanning from Jan. 15-26. Their second-longest is a four-game trip through Oklahoma City, Charlotte, Atlanta and Memphis from Dec. 13-17.

THE FINISH

The Lakers have a brutal six-game stretch to close out the regular season, which could prove challenging if they find themselves on the playoff bubble. It starts with a road game against the Clippers, followed by three games at home against Houston, Golden State and Memphis and ends up on the road in Utah and in San Antonio.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ pitch to try to convince Dwight Howard to stay started long before billboards sprung up around L.A.

Some six months before the billboards appeared, in positioning Howard as the franchise's future, the Lakers put Pau Gasol in the past, and often, on the bench.

“We did have a free-agent market last year we had to be aware of, and you make certain arguments based on the future,” Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “Whether they’re right or wrong, that’s the reality of it, and we went that way, but it was never meant to be a slight to (Gasol) or never meant to be that he was the cause of our problems.”

While health certainly had something to do with it -- Gasol’s knees, feet and head (a concussion) caused him to miss 33 games last season -- Gasol was aware of the ground shifting beneath him as the Lakers gravitated towards Howard.

“It was at times frustrating because of the reality of that specific situation,” Gasol told ESPNLosAngeles.com in a phone interview from Barcelona. “Obviously the franchise wanted Dwight to stay and everyone, or a lot of people, tried to make him comfortable and please him at times.”

Now, with Howard out of the picture, the Lakers’ Plan B is to go back to Plan A and make Gasol the team’s primary option down low.

“There was just a lot of factors last year that won’t come up this year,” D’Antoni said. “I even told (Gasol), you make decisions based a lot of times on the future that probably, if you were just doing the competitive, basketball thing, the decision would have been something else.”

The decision going forward, at least for next season (with Gasol in the last year of his contract and the Lakers set to pay him $19.3 million), is to go back to orbiting around the four-time All-Star.

“I expect him to have the best year he’s ever had coming up,” D’Antoni recently told ESPN LA 710 radio.

Whether that’s just lip service or not may be up to Gasol.

“I’m excited about next season,” said Gasol, who is still recovering from the procedures he underwent in May to alleviate tendinosis in both of his knees. “I’m going to work really hard to get myself in the best shape that I can and hopefully my body will react well. The main thing is if I can start healthy and stay healthy. And the rest, with my skill set and the team that we have, everything will happen well. But, it’s just a matter of being healthy and wanting it and working hard. I’m committed to having a great year and I hope our team, we have a great year together. So, great expectations for next season individually and also collectively.”

He’ll have the starting point guard, Steve Nash, on his side to help those expectations from going the way of Dickens’ Pip.

“I thought the games that Pau and I played together where Dwight didn’t play, I thought we really played well together and the offense really flowed,” Nash told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “So, I’m not concerned about that. That’s going to be great.”

Despite the Lakers being swept out of the playoffs to end last season, Gasol was playing his best basketball of the season at the finish. Gasol shot 50 percent or better from the floor in eight of the Lakers’ last 11 games in the regular season (L.A. went 9-2), and he registered three triple-doubles in a six-game span from April 12-26, becoming the first NBA big man to do so since Chris Webber had three in five games in Feb. 2005, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

“To me, it worked well when we started playing a little more inside-out instead of outside-in,” Gasol said. “One, we slowed the game down a little bit adjusting more to our personnel and our roster and then when there was better ball movement, whether if it was through the post or through the elbow or pick-and-rolls, when there was better ball movement we played better and our defense was better. We had better defensive balance, and things worked out better, so it is something we need to keep in mind.”

D’Antoni said next season he plans to go through Gasol down low, to give him opportunities at the elbow where he’s “devastating” and to have him run pick-and-rolls where Gasol can either receive the pass for his own scoring play or be positioned to make the next pass -- ideally, either a kickout or a lob -- to find an open teammate.

The coach also thinks that Gasol and newly acquired center Chris Kaman will be a natural fit together in the starting lineup.

“I just see them kind of blending in together pretty easily,” D’Antoni said. “A lot easier than it was last year (with Howard), let’s put it that way.”

Now, after three coaches in the past three seasons and after being bumped in the pecking order for both Howard and Andrew Bynum, Gasol will take up the task of reminding everyone that he can be more than just one of the game's most skilled big men.

"You don’t get to be one of the best by just being talented or skilled," Gasol said. "There’s certain things you also need to do in the game defensively, being physical and decisive out there. Being a presence. Those things are also very important. Talent and skill don’t mean that much if you don’t play as hard as you can or you don’t do other things because there are a lot of talented players in the league.

"To be one of the best, that’s actually what I’m going to work for again."

Mark Willard and Arash Markazi debate whether Kobe Bryant should take a big paycut so that the Lakers can sign a top player to help Kobe win his sixth championship.

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After hiring their last three head coaches primarily based on their NBA experience, the Los Angeles D-Fenders are targeting a former D-League champion this time around.

The D-Fenders, the Los Angeles Lakers' D-League affiliate, are in advanced discussions to hire Springfield Armor head coach Bob MacKinnon to fill the vacancy caused when Mark Madsen joined Mike D'Antoni's staff on the Lakers, according to multiple league sources.

MacKinnon guided Springfield to just a 18-32 record last season but won a championship with the Colorado 14ers (now the Texas Legends) in 2009 in his first year coaching in the D-League.

MacKinnon, whose father Bob MacKinnon Sr. played, coached and was an executive in the NBA, was formerly an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina, which is the alma mater of Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak.

Madsen, who never coached a game for the D-Fenders before being promoted to D'Antoni's staff, was hired in May to replace Reggie Theus, who left the D-Fenders after a 21-29 season to become the head coach at Cal State Northridge. Theus was previously the head coach for the Sacramento Kings. Before Theus, the D-Fenders were coached by Eric Musselman (who previously coached the Golden State Warriors). Musselman coached the D-Fenders for one season, winning D-League coach of the year honors, before leaving to man the sidelines at Arizona State.

You may have heard about Steve Nash “trying out” for Inter Milan, the Italian soccer powerhouse competing, along with seven other teams, in the Guinness International Champions Cup starting next week. The tryout, which isn’t a real tryout, is among many promotional events scheduled in the lead-up to the tournament.

Nash sat down for an extended one-on-one with Grantland a few hours before the tryout to discuss his basketball philosophy, the Lakers’ future, the Spurs’ near championship, Dwight Howard, and lots more. What follows is an edited transcript of our chat.

Full interview »

It has been an interesting offseason for the remaining active members of the famed NBA draft class of 1996.

Marcus Camby, the No. 2 pick that year, was traded from New York to Toronto -- the team that selected him way back when -- and was summarily waived when he made it clear he had no desire to bookend his career with another run with the Raptors. The Houston Rockets snatched the 39-year-old Camby up on a one-year deal once he was available.

Ray Allen, the No. 5 pick, is still basking in the glow of his championship run with the Miami Heat, made possible thanks in large part to his already-legendary corner 3-pointer late in Game 6 of the Finals. The 3 tied the game, and the Heat, of course, won in overtime and then won Game 7.

Jermaine O'Neal, the No. 17 pick, signed a one-year deal with the Golden State Warriors. Derek Fisher, the No. 24 pick, signed a one-year deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and a source close to the five-time champion told ESPNLA.com that Fisher plans to retire after the season.

And speaking of retirement, what about that Los Angeles Lakers backcourt full of '96ers?

Kobe Bryant, who like O'Neal is younger than the rest of his classmates because he joined the league straight out of high school, told multiple media outlets he plans to play three more years, and even stretched that timeline to three or four more years during an interview while on a Nike-sponsored trip to Brazil.

As for his backcourt mate, Steve Nash?

"I don't really want to think about it," Nash told ESPNLosAngeles.com during a phone interview from New York on Tuesday. Nash was in the city to promote the Guinness International Champions Cup and had a "tryout" with soccer team Inter Milan as part of the event. (From the way Nash described it, it was more like when Garth Brooks was in spring training with the San Diego Padres than a serious audition.)

"I want to concentrate on this season and have a great season, and then next year I'll worry about next year. After that, there's a chance I could keep playing, but I'm totally open to not playing or playing again, and I don't really want to predict. I just want to concentrate on the now and worry about the future when it arrives."

The fact that Nash, 39, is running around a soccer pitch and even considering extending his career further into his 40s than the two years remaining on his contract is an encouraging sign for the veteran who missed 32 regular-season games plus two playoff games last season because of a fractured fibula in his left leg followed by lingering nerve discomfort.

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Can an NBA team lose two players who had been honored as the league's top defenders and, in the process, become a better defensive unit?

That’s what the Los Angeles Lakers are trying to find out.

Gone is their best rim protector in Dwight Howard, off to Houston. Gone, too, is their best perimeter stopper in Metta World Peace, off to New York.

Now the Lakers will find out if less is more.

Not that L.A.’s defense was any good with the services of the three-time defensive player of the year in Howard and one-time DPOY winner in World Peace, anyway. The Lakers were tied with Brooklyn for 18th in the league in defensive efficiency, allowing opponents to score 103.6 points per 100 possessions. Even with Howard patrolling the paint, L.A. ranked 22nd in the league in opponents’ field goal percentage inside of five feet, according to NBA.com Stats Cube (59.8 percent), and even with World Peace’s notoriously quick left hand, the Lakers were 26th in steals per game, generating just 7.0 a night.

“Their defense never really gave them a chance to win,” newly hired Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “It was very erratic at best. In a lot of ways, when you bring in a lot of players from a lot of different systems, it takes awhile to get everybody connected and on the same page, how you have to defend a myriad of offensive NBA sets and you have to defend talented offensive people, it takes all five guys. They’ve got to be connected, and they’ve got to make the correct decisions at the correct time, and for the Lakers last year, it was clear that they just never really got connected on that end of the floor.

“You could see throughout most of their games, guys would turn their palms up to the sky, and it was like, ‘Is that my responsibility? Is that your responsibility? Who was supposed to do what?’ So, we’ve got to do a much better job of getting them so they can cover each others’ backs at that end of the floor.”

The reason that Rambis is back with the Lakers is not only because the team lost its two most talented defenders in Howard and World Peace, but because it lost its two most defensive-minded assistant coaches in Chuck Person, whose contract was not renewed, and Steve Clifford, who became the head coach in Charlotte.

Rambis, who assumed a defensive coordinator-type role in the final two seasons of his last run with the Lakers when Phil Jackson was head coach, said that Mike D’Antoni isn’t giving him the same label.

“(D’Antoni) said that all assistant coaches will be involved in all areas in our initial conversation,” Rambis explained. “Not that we have etched everything in stone, but to come back as a defensive coordinator, you can talk to Mike about whether there’s going to be any sort of designation on that. By my understanding, there isn’t going to be, but he just kind of wants all of the gaps to be covered so everybody is responsible for working with players and being involved in practices and being involved with games. But to have myself associated with the defense, that means that area is going to be covered.”

The Lakers have had a precipitous decline on the defensive end. After they held the Boston Celtics to just 79 points on 40.8 percent shooting in their Game 7 win in the 2010 Finals, their last three playoff appearances have ended in ugly fashion. First the Dallas Mavericks shot a blistering 46.2 percent on 3-pointers during a four-game sweep in 2011, amid Andrew Bynum decrying the team’s “trust issues” on the defensive end. Then the Oklahoma City Thunder scored 100 or more in three of their four wins against L.A. in their 2012 second-round series. Finally, in last season's first-round sweep by San Antonio, the Spurs shot a combined 53.0 percent from the floor in Games 2-4 after figuring out the Lakers' D that held them to just 37.6 percent shooting in Game 1 of the series.

“They never got connected defensively,” Rambis said of the 2012-13 season.

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Like Billy Crystal and the Oscars, Kurt Rambis and the Los Angeles Lakers always seem to find a way back to one another.

“I sound like that guy on 'Saturday Night Live': 'The Lakers have been berra berra good to me,'” Rambis told ESPNLA.com on Monday, mimicking Garrett Morris’ (one of Crystal's contemporaries in the 1970s) SNL impression of a Dominican baseball player. “It’s been a great association with myself and the Lakers. Obviously they have provided an awful lot of opportunities for me, as a player, assistant coach, head coach, front office opportunities. I’ve learned a lot over the years, and this is just another path. Just another path with the Lakers and it’s going to be interesting. I’m excited about it.”

Rambis never strayed too far from the team after being fired from the Minnesota Timberwolves following the 2010-11 season. His wife, Linda, continued to work as a manager for special projects for the Lakers, and last season Rambis split his time as a network analyst for both ESPN and Time Warner Cable SportsNet, the Lakers' cable television broadcast partner.

Now he finds himself in the position of being responsible for fixing any problems that should arise with the Lakers next season rather than just pointing out the problems on TV.

Rambis touched on a variety of topics over the phone just hours after he announced the news of his reunion with the franchise via Twitter.

On the Lakers' disappointing 2012-13 season …

"It was a very difficult year for the Lakers. We talked about it on ESPN and Time Warner. Any time that you add an awful lot of new players, which is basically what the Lakers did, there’s an assimilation process that has to happen. Even just dealing with terminology, you might be thinking the same thing, but everybody calls it something different or can call it something different depending on what team they came from or coaching environment they came from. So, just getting everybody to be connected out there on the floor offensively and defensively was going to take some time. And it did. Then you throw in a coaching change, you throw in players getting injured, that stagnates the process.

"Obviously the death of Dr. [Jerry] Buss and what he meant to this organization and the team and leadership, for awhile it seemed like the Lakers [were reeling from his loss]. Then obviously everything that went on with the Lakers throughout the season –- lineup changes and injuries -– it just wasn’t conducive to having a great team. There were high expectations on that team. Even myself, from the very beginning, I thought that team had a great chance to win the championship. A lot of things had to work right for them in order for that to happen, but they had a great shot. If that was going to happen, everything kind of almost had to be perfect, and it just never worked out that way. There were just so many things that went wrong all season long, and that’s the nature of the sports business. It doesn’t always work out perfectly for you.

"But when you look at how the Lakers played or how well they played since the third week in January, they started playing some good ball. They started getting connected and from that point on, ‘Hey, this looks like a team that can do some damage in the playoffs,’ until Kobe goes down and then everything changes once again. It was just a completely disruptive up-and-down year for the Lakers. You need that sort of consistency and continuity in order to excel at a really high level."

On Kobe Bryant's health …

"His injury is going to be one of the big ifs of this upcoming season. Steve Nash’s health, losing Dwight [Howard], Kobe’s injury, new players on the team, those are all going to be ifs, how everything transpires. Everything I’m hearing about Kobe, he’s feeling great and he’s going to come back well. But that still remains to be seen. You still got to get out there on the floor and see what adjustments he has to make and see how he recovers from it. But if anybody can, if anybody has the drive to do it, he’s that guy. I’m sure he’s going to do everything that he can to get himself back healthy and playing at a very high level as soon as possible."

On what he learned in his time away from the Lakers …

"I think any time that you go to different environments and different cultures, coaching clinics, you’re always learning something about basketball. Like I said earlier, if you’re stagnant in your beliefs and coaching philosophy and style, then you’re basically falling behind. So, it was a great learning experience for me going to Minnesota. It was a great experience being involved with television with ESPN and Time Warner. I think they’ve all been beneficial for me. It’s just going to add to being able to help Mike [D'Antoni] out as much as I can."

Rambis also appeared on "The Max & Marcellus Show" on ESPN LA 710 radio Monday and answered more questions about his new opportunity with his old team.

On how his hiring came about …

“This is absolutely Mike D’Antoni’s call. As long as I’ve been with the Laker organization, they don’t put pressure on the head coach to hire certain people. They might make suggestions, but they’ve always let the head coach hire whoever he wanted to hire, except obviously a little bit of an obstacle last year when multiple coaches were involved after the firing of Mike Brown. But, under normal circumstances, the head coach brings in his staff and the Lakers organization has always let the head coach do that.”

On what style D'Antoni will implement next season …

"Mike understands that the team can’t play with blinding speed. They don’t have the wing runners, they don’t have the athleticism that you need in order to do that. I think Mike, when you look at getting Steve and what Steve can do in terms of creating shots and then trying to accommodate Kobe and what he can do out there on the floor, started adjusting and adapting and playing a brand of ball that suited the team. But, you never look at a coach [and go], ‘Hey, this is a way I we think we can play,’ and then if they can’t play that way, make the adjustments and adapt. I think Mike did that over the year, but I think there just wasn’t enough time to really implement the things to involve Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol and Kobe inside that you really need to in order for that type of team with that talent to excel at the level that they needed to excel at to make a long playoff run."

On how his style of play as a player translates to his coaching …

"I would hope that any coach is trying to get players to play tough, to play hard, to play a physical brand of basketball. You have to, when you start looking at the playoffs and how the game changes. If you want your players to have success, you have to get them to where they can overcome injuries, to where they can keep their focus intact despite a very hostile environment, and you got to have a certain toughness and nastiness that goes along with that. You can see players that rise above the distractions, that rise above the obstacles and can continue to play well, if not better. Those are the type of players that you want, and those are the type of characteristics you want to instill in your ballplayers that if it gets tough and you start to wilt, you’re not going to survive in this league and you’re certainly not going to survive in the playoffs. So, we want our players to be tough, we want them to be nasty and we want them to be able to feel comfortable whenever the environment gets tough."

Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis joined Max Kellerman and Marcellus Wiley on ESPNLA 710 on Monday to talk about his return to Los Angeles, the type of offense Mike D'Antoni and the Lakers want to run, the expectations for the Lakers this year and getting this team to play tough and nasty.

Click to hear the full interview.

Two world championships seem to have healed some wounds for fans of LeBron James.

For the first time in four years, the Miami Heat forward is the most popular player in the NBA, according to the latest ESPN Sports Poll.

Nearly 13 percent (12.9) of NBA fans said James was their favorite player this season, allowing him to best Kobe Bryant (12.5) for the first time since the 2008-09 season.

Click here for the full story.

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Lakers have reached an agreement with undrafted rookie free agent Elias Harris, according to a league source. It will be a two-year deal, according to the source.

Harris, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward, averaged 14.6 points and 7.4 rebounds last season at Gonzaga.

The German native played well for the Lakers during the Las Vegas Summer League, averaging 10.2 points and 5.6 rebounds in five games.

Yahoo! Sports first reported the signing.

Harris will bring the Lakers' roster to 12 players signed for next season, with second-round pick Ryan Kelly, still unsigned, expected to up that number to 13.

The regular season is a few months away, but the Western Conference picture already looks much different after a big and busy offseason. Kevin Pelton ranked the top 15 teams as of today. Now our panel breaks down the good and the bad out West heading into next season.

Full story »

The 2013 free-agency signing period isn’t even over yet, but already the basketball world can barely wait for the summer of 2014, when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Carmelo Anthony can all become free agents. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that the Lakers will be armed with loads and loads of cap space, and consequently will be writing checks to LeBron, Carmelo, Thor, and anyone else they damn well please, according to various reports.

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