ESPN

LOS ANGELES -- Andrew Bynum sat in front of his locker with a scowl instead of a smile.
He was brief with his answers, short with his time and limited with his patience.
As Bynum took a page out of Kobe Bryant’s playbook of succinct, pithy answers during the playoffs, several reporters had to double-check the final box score in their hands and make sure there wasn’t a misprint.

The Los Angeles Lakers had just beaten the Denver Nuggets, 104-100, to take a 2-0 series lead in their first round matchup and Bynum finished with 27 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Was there something missing?

“I left a lot on the court today,” Bynum said. “I worked way too hard before the game to let that happen. I could have had a perfect game.”

Bynum couldn’t define his perfect game, but it was certainly more than the stat line he produced Tuesday night. He wanted to get at least another rebound and at least a few more blocked shots. After getting a triple-double in Game 1, Bynum isn’t satisfied with anything less than a double-double now.

“I just left stats out there. That’s about it,” Bynum said. “I left a double-double out there, I left some block shots out there, I left points out there. I left a lot of things out there tonight.”

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BK and I are both big fans of Regina King (Boyz n the Hood, Friday, Ray, Jerry Maguire, Enemy of the State), whom I've long considered one of the more underutilized actresses in Hollywood. Not that she hasn't found roles. She's steadily worked since being cast in 1985 as "Brenda Jenkins" on 227, and landed a handful of very meaty supporting roles. But no project ever featured her front and center, which is disappointing given her skills at comedy and drama. That changed, however, when she was cast in 2009 as Detective Lydia Adams on Southland, a cop drama set in her native Los Angeles. Critically acclaimed by canceled after one season by NBC, TNT picked up the show, and it's since become a big hit for the cable network.

With the season finale airing Tuesday (10 pm PT), we were pleased to have King on as a guest to talk about the show, her career and the Lakers, a team she's rooted for since the Showtime days. The entire show can be heard by clicking on the module below.





Among the talking points:

• King's love of the Lakers, which truly blossomed when Magic Johnson arrived in L.A. The two seasons fellow Westchester High School alumni Trevor Ariza spend in purple and gold were also fun. Less enjoyable, however, was seeing the Three-peat teams squabble, then eventually break up. King thinks this drama was indicative of the last 10+ years in the NBA, where everyone obsesses over "whose team it is."
• Celebs who hit Laker games to pump projects rather than watch the game bug "the mess out of" King, especially given how Joe Q. Laker Fan would "cut off their pinkie toe" to sit courtside at Staples.
• How Los Angeles itself serves as a character on Southland.
• King grew up in L.A. during a period when the LAPD was under heavy -- and deserved -- scrutiny, which she admits fostered distrust towards the police. Upon playing a cop and spending more time around them, however, her feelings about the profession have changed.
• It's no secret quality roles in Hollywood for black actors have traditionally been on short supply, with black actresses in particular feeling the pinch. In the 20+ years King has been in the business, how much does she think this issue has improved? "Not as much as one would hope," she admits. Not that race neutral casting is unheard of. For example, the role of Lydia Adams wasn't originally written as a black woman. But there's a ways to go before this becomes more commonplace. Not that race has no place whatsoever in developing projects, but there are factors inhibiting the diversity of faces seen on screens.
• One reason is the tendency -- whether by those making, marketing, or watching movies and TV -- to assume projects with a largely minority cast will mostly appeal to audiences of that particular race. But quite often, we see that's hardly the case. Take Friday, which ended up spawning a franchise. In broad terms, it would be regarded as a "black" movie, but as King says, people of MANY races tell her it's their favorite movie. At the end of the day, funny is funny, and humor often crosses color lines. For that matter, so do many human experiences.
• Speaking of projects that discovered audiences of all backgrounds, King made her film debut in Boyz n the Hood. She considers the movie universal, because every city has sections stricken with the issues tackled in that groundbreaking movie. In a bit of art-imitating-life, "Boyz" wasn't just set in her native city, but co-starred Nia Long (who graduated a year behind her at Westchester) and was directed by fellow USC Trojan John Singleton. King, however, was more geeked at the time about doing a movie with Ice Cube. And like everyone else, it blows her mind that one of the godfathers of gangsta rap is now a bankable star for family friendly projects.
• King coaches the cheerleaders for her son's football team, and is more Pat Riley than Phil Jackson.

ESPNLA has launched a Sweet 16, Los Angeles-style. The most beloved figures in L.A. sports history. As you can imagine, there are one or six Lakers in the bracket. Make sure you drop by and vote.

Vote here: The Most Beloved.

In November, I wrote about how Kobe Bryant's never had a true rival over the course of his career. I'm not talking "Magic-Bird 2.0," but rather a universally acknowledged rival of any kind. There's nobody linked to Kobe, whether through meaningful head-to-head battles or a peer of his era. Of his contemporaries, the closest would be Tim Duncan, but such different players make a comparison feel inorganic. (Plus, their playoff battles lacked animosity.) Shaquille O'Neal was, technically speaking, a rival, but for all the wrong reasons. Factor in how no contemporary beyond Duncan or Shaq (who are, in fact, constantly compared) have come close to matching his career accomplishments, and trying to name Kobe's rival really becomes an exercise in futility.

Ask Metta World Peace, as a few reporters did after the Minnesota win, and he'll echo these sentiments. However, had the stars and planets aligned just right, he thinks Kobe might have experienced the sizzle of a true rival.

"I think I'm really the last person to go at Kobe (With the Houston Rockets during the 2009 Western Conference semi-finals) and I'm (now) on Kobe's team," said MWP Wednesday night. "Nobody else will. If I was playing against Kobe, I would welcome (a rivalry), but some people's scared.

"We had our shot. We had Yao Ming. That could have been a potential rival. If we had Yao Ming and Tracy (McGrady) would have been healthy and worked hard, and Dikembe Mutombo. That would have been a rivalry. We would have been Lakers and the Houston Rockets for the next couple years. We would have ran the table winning championship back and forth. But Yao broke his foot in Game 3, turned everything around. But if somebody wants to be a rival of Kobe's, he welcomes it. Just talk up and he would welcome it."

James Harden might disagree with MWP labeling himself the last of a breed willing to tangle with 24, and I've always maintained that series lasted seven games primarily because of the Lakers' uneven focus (and a horribly coached Game 4 by Phil Jackson) rather than two teams emerging a surprisingly even match. But MWP's larger point is nonetheless thought-provoking. With more time together with everyone healthy (and in the case of T-Mac, motivated), perhaps those Rox could have shared the Lakers' stage over the last five or so seasons. They always managed to create a sum greater than the individual parts, and heart was never an issue. Remember, in the 2008 season before MWP's arrival, McGrady led the Rockets on a 22-game winning streak mostly without the services of Yao, who missed the final 24 games of the season. Imagine the long term potential with Yao at full strength.

Or, for that matter, MWP arriving in Houston a season earlier.

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Even though it's been nearly 10 years since Michael Jordan played his last All-Star game in 2003, you couldn't watch this year's All-Star game in Orlando without getting a heavy dose of MJ nostalgia. The Lakers' Kobe Bryant had a lot to do with that, as he pushed his career All-Star scoring total to 271 points, passing Jordan for most points in All-Star game history (Jordan had 262 points in 14 selections; Bryant has played in 14 All-Star games as well).

Jordan was also recognized as one of the stars who was out-dueled by Magic Johnson in Orlando 20 years ago when Magic made his memorable one-game MVP return to the All-Star game after announcing his retirement because of HIV months before.

And if you watched the commercials, instead of flipping back and forth between the All-Star game and the Oscars, you would have noticed Jordan in a new ad for Gatorade featuring former Bulls and Lakers coach Phil Jackson reflecting on Jordan's "flu game" in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz. (Click here to watch the commercial.)

ESPNLA.com was on the set of the commercial shoot at the Walter Pyramid on the campus of Long Beach State back in December and had a chance for a 1-on-1 chat with Jackson about his memories of Jordan's performance with the flu.



ESPNLA.com: When you think back on all the significant games you coached, where does Jordan’s “flu game” rank? On the set, you said something to the effect of, "We know he can score 40, we know he can get triple-doubles, but this stands out because it’s more than that."

Jackson: “Yeah, the big thing was we knew that coming back and playing in Salt Lake was going to be a difficult thing, as it always is in the playoffs. That team was talented and they were good at home. So, after winning two in Chicago, we said, ‘Let’s go out and make sure we win one game out there in Salt Lake.’ We didn’t want to come back [to Chicago] behind 3-2 in a series like that. We lost the second game [in Utah] at the end of the ballgame in a close game.

"Perhaps Michael was doing too much. I can’t remember what his totals were in that ballgame, but he made a spin at the top of the key and [John] Stockton stole the ball and it set up a win for them that we shoulda, coulda won.

(Editor’s note: Jordan finished with 22 points on 11-for-27 shooting in Game 4.)

"So, it was a really a hard defeat. I remember having really a sleepless night that night. I was meeting the owner the next day and I was just really fatigued about it. That mental fatigue that you have after a loss that you think you’re going to win and you don’t sleep very much at night thinking about it. Then, we had a little time to recover and it came down to this game, we ought to take this one home and then the disappointment of finding out on game day that the guy that’s the superstar on our team didn’t sleep, was sick, felt like crap, didn’t feel like he could eat, was nauseous and wasn’t going to go to shootaround. That’s happened before. Guys have felt like they couldn’t go to shootaround. It’s not like the end of the world. But this was a pivotal game and then when we saw him and we saw what he looked like …"

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LOS ANGELES -- Shaquille O’Neal was always afraid the day would never come.

When he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1996, he always dreamed he would one day see his jersey retired alongside Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Gail Goodrich, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor.

As the Lakers continued to get eliminated in the playoffs early during his first three seasons in L.A. he worried it might never happen, and again thought his chance might have been lost when he was traded from the team in 2004 and finished his career with the Boston Celtics.

When the Lakers, however, announced they would retire his jersey next season, O’Neal said it was one of the highlights of his career.

“It means a lot to me,” O’Neal said. “I remember when I first signed with the Lakers, Jerry West told me to look up at the retired jerseys. He said either your name is going to be up there or you’re going to be a bust so it will mean a lot to have my name up there. That was always with me, especially when we didn’t have Phil Jackson and we were always losing in the playoffs, I was nervous I wasn’t going to be that good. Then we got Phil and we won championships and I was always hoping and praying my jersey would get retired one day.”

O’Neal, who was in Los Angeles this weekend to host the Cartoon Network Hall of Game Awards, says he continues to watch the Lakers regularly after retiring in June and enjoyed watching Kobe Bryant pass him for fifth on the NBA all-time scoring list earlier this season. He did say, however, he should have been much higher on the list but injuries and an inability to hit his free throws held him back.

“Kobe’s one of those athletes like Michael Jordan and Karl Malone that doesn’t miss a lot of games because of injury,” O’Neal said. “I missed 250 games and I averaged 24 points per game so that’s 6,000 points and I missed 5,000 free throws so I could have easily been at No. 2. Kobe’s never really hurt and he shoots a lot so good for him.”

Nick Van Exel was drafted by the Lakers with the No. 37 pick in the second round in 1993 and played five seasons in L.A. before he was traded to Denver for Tony Battie and Tyronn Lue. The 6-foot-1, 170-pound guard went on to play 13 seasons with six NBA teams before calling it a career after the 2005-06 season. Van Exel ranks No. 14 on the NBA's all-time 3-pointers made list with 1,528. He is now an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks and ESPNLA.com caught up with him before the Hawks played the Lakers earlier this week.

What’s your favorite memory from your time with the Lakers?

"Favorite memory? Hmm. I’ll probably say two. Just the draft night, being drafted by the Lakers was special coming from where I had come from -- a small town in Wisconsin. It was a pretty big event for me. I’ll say three [memories]. Of course, making big shots in the playoffs, just the excitement, you hear the crowd and probably being on the team when Magic [Johnson] returned. That was special."

You were a second-round draft pick, so there was nothing guaranteed to you. Looking back at that time, was there anybody in the organization that was really backing you or helping you and pushing for your success?

"Yes, the head man, Jerry West. The Logo. He was really a big fan. I can remember playing down in, I want to say Irvine, Calif., for the rookie summer league games and I played terrible. I played terrible and I thought, ‘Man, I may not make the team!’ I really didn’t know much about the NBA. I played so bad that they signed me after like the third or fourth game [because they kept waiting for me to play better]. I was playing so bad. Definitely Jerry West had my back."

Through your scouting you might have heard of Andrew Goudelock, a rookie on this Lakers team. Your name has been attached to him a little bit in terms of being a high-scoring guard, a second-round draft pick with nothing guaranteed. Is there something about the character of a guy to be able to do that? To make it when the odds are against you?

"I really believe it’s just no fear, man. For me, I never thought I would fail. Every shot I took, I thought it was going in. Even when I was in the second round, a lot of people didn’t know if I would make it or not, I never questioned whether I would make it the team or anything like that. So, I think with him, it seems he has that no-fear attitude. When you can go out there and come off a pick-and-roll and just pull up for 3 when you got Kobe [Bryant] on the court with you, you’ve definitely got a no-fear mentality."

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The Grammys are Sunday, meaning the Lakers by definition have completed the majority of their first major road trip. The All-Star team has been announced. Kobe Bryant added yet another notch to a very heavily decorated belt. Felt like as good a reason as any to get in the studio and chop things up. There entire show can be heard by clicking on the box below, and there's a breakdown below for those who like to skip around.





- (2:00): With four of the six Grammy roadie games in the books (the show was recorded before the Knicks loss), Brian and I ponder whether we've learned anything about the Lakers. In my opinion, not really. We saw signs of them being capable of quality play on the road, but we've also seen them disappoint in customary fashion this season. And the problems transparent before leaving L.A. -- not enough support beyond the Big Three, not enough play-makers along the perimeter -- remain the same.

- (6:40): Even with these issues still lingering, are they now in position to perhaps win the Pacific Division? The Clippers are the primary competition, but with Chauncey Billups sidelined for the season, the Staples Center upstarts may encounter slippage. Enough for the Lakers to overtake them? We'll see.

- (8:06): Did the coaches err by not naming Pau Gasol an All-Star? In our opinions, no. While we agree Dirk Nowitzki's inclusion robbed a more deserving candidate, the snubbed player wasn't necessarily El Spaniard. Paul Millsap, Danilo Gallinari, Monta Ellis and Rudy Gay all deserve a spot before him, in my opinion. While a nod certainly wouldn't be outlandish, and the criticism lobbed at Pau this season has been somewhat over the top, I think events shook out in proper fashion.

- (14:50): Brian waxes nostalgic about his LSAT scores and a constitutional law book that used to put him sleep.

- (19:10): Kobe's done a lot of media since passing Shaquille O'Neal on the all-time scoring list, reminiscing about the past and speculating about what lies ahead. Naturally, a sixth ring weighs heavily on Bryant's mind. The odds of another championship while this current roster don't feel high, but Kobe hasn't lost sight of the front office's attempt to upgrade with Chris Paul. As long as Mitch Kupchak and the Busses appear to be working in earnest, Kobe sounds satisfied. And even if he weren't, packing up the tents doesn't sound like Plan B. While speaking with Stephen A. Smith, Bryant dismissed the notion of chasing a ring with another franchise. As far as he's concerned, he'll either win #6 with the Lakers, or he won't win it at all.

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Another road game, another loss for the Lakers. They led early Monday night in Philly, but after a hot start from Kobe Bryant (good enough to pass Shaquille O'Neal for fifth on the all-time scoring list before the half was up), the Lakers slowed down in the second half while Philadelphia warmed up.

Final score, 95-90.

There was much to discuss on tonight's episode of Lakers Late Night, and discuss much we did. Including...

• Bryant passing Shaq on the all-time scoring list.
• Bryant's game against Philly. Red hot to start, ice cold to finish. What was the impact not just of the final numbers but how Kobe got there?
• The Lakers have myriad problems, but their Big Three aren't high on the list.
• Looking ahead to the Boston game Thursday evening.

All that, plus some interesting shootaround comments from Bryant.

"No. It was inevitable."

This was Kobe Bryant's response when recently asked if it will mean anything to him to pass Shaquille's O'Neal place on the all-time scoring list. In some ways, this can be taken as little more than a matter-of-fact statement. Bryant's been putting up 20-30 points a night throughout the overwhelming majority of his career, a campaign now 16 seasons strong. Sustained excellence for so long does in fact make these achievements feel like a matter of "when" rather than "if." In that respect, Kobe was presenting the facts, and little more.

But contextually, this milestone represents more than just yet another player exhaling Bryant's dust as he climbs the list. Passing Shaq was inevitable in Bryant's mind, and on every level, before he was old enough to drink a beer. And this doesn't just apply to The Diesel, but any other past or future NBA Hall of Famer. It's a mindset that defines Kobe. It also famously helped lay the foundation for a push-and-pull between the big man and wunderkind respectively imported and drafted by Jerry West as championship run building blocks. This vision resulted in three consecutive titles, but not without enough infighting and drama to fuel the entire run of "The Young and the Restless."

At the core of their issues was a mutual belief in themselves as the Lakers' best player. This consistently divided front made it seemingly impossible for fans and media to accept them as a duo of equal importance, even in the face of spellbinding teamwork and the obvious ways they complemented each other. Similar to today's political landscape or "Aniston vs. Jolie," taking sides became a national -- and seemingly mandatory -- pastime. And most fans and media jumped on "Team O'Neal." Shaq was older (if not necessarily more mature and certainly every bit a pain in the butt as Kobe could be). He was more established. He was also a big man like no other the league had ever seen, while Kobe was the latest wing player forced to play "Is the next MJ?" Phil Jackson typically -- and publicly -- sided with O'Neal as a means of maintaining order in a veteran locker room leaning in that direction to begin with. And yes, the Lakers' offense was in fact built around Shaq.

Do these factors offset entirely how Kobe's presence created more freedom for O'Neal to operate, and countless games closed out by the younger, springer guard with the more reliable free throw stroke? In the real world, of course not. But the world of sports debates are typically framed in black and white terms, which is their beauty and curse. On one hand, "pick one or other other" naturally lends itself to passion, the essential ingredient to every great barroom or barbershop discussion. On the other, nuance, gray areas and context typically have no use here. The goal is to make an "all or nothing" case, and more often than not, Kobe received bupkis.

By the time the time O'Neal was shipped to Miami, the narrative of those championship teams "belonging to Shaq" was basically written in stone. Even with three rings decorating his fingers, Kobe was being asked to prove he could win a championship. And back-to-back titles as a team's undisputed leader still hasn't resulted in popular sentiment awarding Bryant greater "possession" of his first three. Even as someone who blurred the lines between first and second option more than any player in recent NBA history, Kobe remains the "sidekick" in most storybooks. For some, he's just short of a dude along for the ride. Narratives, if allowed to stand for long enough, have a way of becoming history, even if the math is a little fuzzy.

But here's the thing. Even if history persists where those teams "belonged" to Shaq, Kobe owns something larger and perhaps just as impressive.

The Laker franchise.

To whatever degree it can be owned by a player, Kobe does, and more so than anybody besides perhaps West or Magic Johnson. By the time Bryant hangs up his sneakers for good, he'll possibly end up the most "Laker" Laker of any great who ever wore the uniform. And there are a lotta greats who've been a part of this organization. Including Shaquille O'Neal, whose career in purple and gold was pretty exceptional. His number will eventually, and deservedly, be retired, and his time in L.A. will never be forgotten. But his Laker career nonetheless won't resonate in franchise history the same way Kobe's undoubtedly will. That's something Bryant can take to the bank. Even if Shaq gets more credit until the end of time for those three championships, he'll never be remembered the same way as Bryant, despite his best efforts to dominate their co-opted spotlight.

In this sense, it's fitting Bryant passed O'Neal in the first half of tonight's game, the go-ahead bucket a long catch-and-shoot deuce off Matt Barnes' feed. Bryant was never big on waiting behind O'Neal to begin forging his iconic career. Should anybody have expected a leisurely pace while passing him in career achievement?

Why drag out the inevitable any longer than necessary, you know?

Watching Kobe Bryant on a day in, day out basis, it's easy to become desensitized to how good he is, because he's been doing it so well for so long. Kobe drops 34? Been there, done that.

Days like today, though, tend to drive both points home.

The NBA announced the results of this year's All-Star fan balloting, and once again Bryant racked up votes like a fourth grade candidate for class president running on a platform of less math, more recess, and cookies for all (over 1.55 million in total). It's Bryant's 14th consecutive All-Star appearance, tying Jerry West and Shaquille O'Neal for the all-time NBA mark, one Kobe will almost surely break next season. Put in perspective, at Bryant's inaugural go round (1998 at Madison Square Garden), he represented the franchise not just with Shaq, but Nick Van Exel and Eddie Jones. George Karl was his team's coach, representing the Seattle SuperSonics. Grant Hill repped the Pistons, and Glen Rice the Charlotte Hornets.

Now he'll be running with guys like Andrew Bynum, Kevin Durant, and Blake Griffin, all of whom probably weren't allowed to stay up very late after watching that game on TV, because they had school the next morning.

Elementary school.

It's a remarkable streak, and ironically explains in large part why the bigger news today at practice Thursday was Bynum's first bid, or why the news wasn't considered significant enough to have Kobe speak to the media before the Lakers left for Denver. Bryant making the NBA's midsummer classic is no different than the sun rising in the east or setting in the west. It's expected, if not assumed. The next time the game takes place without him? That'll be big news.

Few players in any sport can honestly boast that out of relentless repetition they've managed to make All-Star bids feel less important. Kobe can, and it's one of the best indicators of how transcendent a figure he's been over the course of his 16 year career.

Last week, we had a fantastic conversation with legendary basketball writer Jackie MacMullan who co-authored with Shaquille O'Neal his new book "Shaq Uncut: My Story." She laid out all the ups and downs of the extremely productive, extremely dramatic pairing of Shaq and Kobe Bryant during the three-peat years.

It's worth a listen if you haven't yet had a chance. She's great.

As part of his promotional tour, Shaq appeared on local television station KTLA (Channel 5), talking about his childhood (in my opinion the most interesting parts of the book), his time with the Lakers, Kobe, and more. In the process, he dropped this line about Bryant. "Based on what he's done, he's probably the greatest Laker of all time,'" O'Neal said. "If he gets another championship, he'll tie with Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar]. That will put him up there."

Is he being totally forthright when he says Kobe is the "greatest," over Cap, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, and so on? Maybe, maybe not. Could just be trying to sell books with a line he knows will make a great headline. But honestly, it doesn't really matter. First, it's hardly a ridiculous notion, and moreover MacMullan emphasized O'Neal's tremendous respect for Kobe the basketball player, despite all of their personality conflicts. Certainly on the floor the relationship (the widespread belief rings were left on the table notwithstanding) was undeniably successful.

Check out the video below and judge for yourself.

USC and UCLA take the field Saturday in a football game close to my heart. After four years spent at USC, it's ingrained in my head to dislike UCLA. I've actively rooted against them since 1990. For six years bartending at Westwood Brewing Company, a decidedly Bruin-partisan establishment, I annoyed many customers with Trojan smack talk.

I've come to appreciate many Bruins athletes upon leaving -- Arron Afflalo, Trevor Ariza, Maurice Jones-Drew, Jonathan Ogden, among others -- but while student body members, I've wished them nothing but failure. As a rule of thumb, that's how I treat anybody on a team I can't stand. I may respect and admire your game, but I ain't about to like you. With one notable exception:

Bobby Jackson, a core member of those Sacramento Kings teams that feuded heavily with the Lakers.

Ironically, at the height of this rivalry -- the classic 2002 Western Conference Finals -- I made the shift from "closet Bobby Jackson fan" to "I love this dude and if my fellow Laker fans don't like it ... oh well."

I'd long found Jackson an extremely fun player to watch. He was a high tempo, unpredictable, whirling dervish. Seriously streaky, but when he got rolling, points were often accumulated in a blink. On defense, he could create steals, and his undersized stature (a perhaps exaggerated 6'1") was offset by considerable strength, so bigger opponents didn't bully him.

But mostly what I loved was about Jackson was his fearlessness, never on better display than during that classic playoff series. Despite pushing L.A. to seven grueling games, it felt like many key Kings tensed up as the pressure mounted. I vividly recall how in the biggest moments, guys like Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, Hedo Turkoglu, Doug Christie and Peja Stojakovic never seemed to want the ball. At times, it felt like they were playing "hot potato." This came to an ugly head in Game 7, as the first four players cited shot a crippling eight-for-19 at the stripe, while Peja missed nine of his 12 field goal attempts.

Jackson, however, boasted grapefruits for days. This reaction was no surprise in a vacuum, but with his teammates often resembling deers in the headlights, Jackson's heart stood out even more. That a role player, albeit among the best in the league, was calmer under those bright lights made the performance even more inspiring. From then on, my Jackson fandom was solidified. I hated the team he played for and cursed those possessions where Jackson carved up the Lakers, but he was among my NBA favorites, Sacto jersey and all.

(To put this in perspective, Mike Bibby was also an absolute assassin during that series, probably the best King on the court. This prowess wasn't lost on me and objectively speaking, I could appreciate the excellence. But I still HATED Bibby. He was annoying, demonstrative, whiny, and had this bizarre habit of clipping his nails while on the bench, which my mom used to call "bad courtside hygiene." Bibby was the only other King who never looked intimidated, and my respect for him grew immensely during that series... along with my dislike for him.)

I've developed a personal affinity for many players who've battled the Lakers for serious stakes. Tim Duncan. Malik Rose. Brian Grant. Arvydas Sabonis. Steve Nash. Shawn Marion. Ben Wallace. Allen Iverson. Kevin Garnett (before he became a classless, bullying parody of himself). But for whatever reason, I never developed a huge distaste for any of their teams. I even found the Portland "Jail Blazers," a team so unlikable they turned off a fan base among the most loyal and fanatical in sports, too comically dysfunctional to truly hate. They were enemies I wanted defeated, but not necessarily destroyed.

The Kings provided no such ambiguity. Those cats rubbed me the wrong way and I relished their failure. But even while actively rooting for their demise, their was still a soft spot in my basketball-loving heart for Jackson.

As Laker fans, have you ever experienced similar affection towards a player on a rival squad? For whatever reason, you became a fan of this guy despite his stomach-churning jersey? Or do those affiliations simply eliminate that scenario, end of story?

Love him or hate him, few athletes have loomed larger on the L.A. sports scene than Shaquille O'Neal. (See what I did there?) He was a centerpiece (again!) of the Threepeat Lakers, but with success came plenty of drama, most notably thanks to a partnership atop the roster with Kobe Bryant rarely lacking tension.

In his new book "Shaq Uncut: My Story," written with esteemed basketball writer Jackie MacMullan, O'Neal details his life in L.A., from his relationships with Kobe and Phil Jackson to how Jerry West jumped on an opportunity to import him from Orlando, and his lingering bitterness towards Mitch Kupchak.

MacMullan joined us this week to discuss the book and O'Neal's career and, no surprise, we focused a great deal on O'Neal's tenure in purple and gold.

Click here to listen to the whole show, or jump to a specific topic by clicking the links below...

2:00- How Shaq's childhood impacted his personality.

A great deal of attention has been paid to those sections of the book about conflicts with high profile figures like Kobe or Pat Riley, but arguably the most interesting stories come at the beginning. Shaq's youth was a rugged one in which he was mocked because of his size, and teased because of a stutter. Then there was the harsh physical discipline meted out by Phillip Harrison, in every way but biologically his father. Shaq fiercely defends Harrison ("Sarge," as he's commonly known), and MacMullan notes O'Neal was a tough kid to control. "Shaq was a juvenile delinquent, let's be honest here. Stealing cars, he was throwing spitballs at teachers, he was bullying kids at school. He wasn't really what we would call a model citizen when he was a kid. So when he messed up, his father answered with his fists, and sometimes his belt," she says.

There was an upshot to all the misbehavior, notes MacMullen. The amount of time Shaq spent "in punishment" (sent to his room) helped form the imagination and creativity eventually becoming O'Neal's trademarks. She explains how Shaq's behavior as a pro reflects those formative years.

8:10- Shaq and Phil Jackson.

Shaq writes in glowing terms about Jackson, who came to the Lakers when O'Neal desperately needed help overcoming the perception he couldn't win in crunch time. "He thought, "You know what, this guy [Jackson is] a winner. He's a proven winner. I need a ring, and I think this is the guy who's going to get me one." He had to make a decision to jump in with both feet and totally buy what Phil was selling, and that's what he did," MacMullan says.

9:20- On Shaq's sensitivity.

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The death of heavyweight legend Joe Frazier has naturally prompted considerable conversation about Muhammad Ali. Intense rivals, the two fought on three occasions, the first a victory for Frazier, and each match is regarded as a classic. The barbs Ali tossed at Frazier were outside the lines and below the belt. Ali's presence overshadowed Frazier's, but ultimately help create a foundation for the latter's legacy. They are permanently intertwined.

Monday also marked the 20th anniversary of Magic Johnson's HIV press conference, and while the remembrance of this milestone obviously didn't center around a rivalry with Larry Bird, that chapter of Magic's life also wasn't ignored. We've been reminded of how Magic selected few friends to learn about his situation from him rather than the media, Bird among them. Plus, HIV prompted his retirement, which in turn prompted reflection, and it's impossible to remember Magic's career without Bird entering the picture. The two are synonymous, which added a wonderful layer to an already iconic story.

Thinking about Frazier/Ali and Magic/Bird, I was reminded of how Kobe Bryant, despite 15 unforgettable seasons under his belt, never really enjoyed a legitimate rivalry. Unless you count the one with Shaq, but that hardly qualifies in this context. As teammates, their quarrels were depressing and counterproductive, even acknowledging the championships. As ex-teammates, the war of words has largely been one-sided, with Shaq dragging himself through the mud by refusing to let go. Either way, it's hardly been inspirational.

From there, it's hard to peg exactly who Kobe's rival would be.

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