Los Angeles Lakers Blog – Page 69 – NBA Blog

Dwight Howard offered free chicken fingers for life if he signs with Mavs

Each NBA free agency period, some local businesses around the country come up with some fun offers to make at players in the hope of luring them to sign with the local team. Whether these offers actually ever get fulfilled, nobody knows. But they’re fun. Here’s the latest example:

A Dallas fried chicken joint is really trying to give Dwight Howard the finger, or in this case, fingers.

Raising Cane’s, a chicken finger chain, is offering a lifetime of free chicken fingers to Howard in exchange for his signature on a contract with the Mavericks.

“These next few days, Dwight Howard will be making arguably the most important career decision of his life,” Adam Reed the marketing manager at Raising Cane’s said in a press release obtained by the Dallas Morning News. “So we thought we’d make Dwight an offer he couldn’t refuse to up the ante for a Dallas-bound decision.”

Reported by Bernie Augustine of the New York Daily News

Kobe Bryant says his health is rapidly improving

The Los Angeles will go as far as Kobe Bryant will take them. Even if he’s past his prime, free agency of Dwight Howard aside, Kobe is the guy that can put the team on his shoulders.

Kobe Bryant still has a long rehab ahead after tearing his Achilles’ tendon, but he’s rapidly improving over the off-season.

“It’s feeling really strong,” said Bryant on Friday in a video interview with Mike Trudell of Lakers.com.

“I can walk without a limp … I can go up the stairs and just stand on my toe, which shows a lot of strength in the tendon.” Bryant was injured on April 12 in a win over the Golden State Warriors. He had surgery the following day, sidelining him for approximately six to nine months.

While the Lakers guard has said he’d like to return by opening night at the end of October, it could be November or December before he’s ready to play.

Reported by Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Blog)

Dirk Nowitzki reaches out to Dwight Howard

Houston’s James Harden and Chandler Parsons aren’t the only Texas residents in the NBA who have gotten a head start on recruiting Dwight Howard.

Dirk Nowitzki has also been in touch with Howard, although the Dallas Mavericks star indicated that he hasn’t been too aggressive with his recruiting efforts.

“I reached out to him and told him we’d love to have him,” Nowitzki said Thursday night. “That’s really about it. It’s not like we call each other every day.”

Grinning, Nowitzki added, “I haven’t written him a letter. We’ve just had a little phone contact, and that’s about it.”

Reported by Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas

Lakers make Robert Sacre restricted free agent with qualifying offer

The Los Angeles Lakers have extended a qualifying offer to forward/center Robert Sacre, making him a restricted free agent, it was announced today by Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

Sacre appeared in 32 games with the Lakers last season, averaging 1.3 points and 1.1 rebounds in 6.3 minutes. The 7-0 forward/center also appeared in seven games for the Los Angeles D-Fenders where he averaged 11.4 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 32.6 minutes.

Selected by the Lakers in the second round (60th overall pick) of the 2012 NBA draft, Sacre finished his career at Gonzaga ranked second all-time in school history in career blocks (186), while averaging 9.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 135 games.

Lakers exercise Jodie Meeks contract option

The Los Angeles Lakers have exercised a team option on Jodie Meeks’ contract for the 2013-14 season, it was announced today by General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

“Jodie is not only a gifted three-point shooter who helps us space the floor on the offensive end, but he is also a very active and underrated player defensively who continues to work on and improve all aspects of his game,” said Kupchak. “He was an important member of our team last year and we look forward to having him back for the 2013-14 season.”

In 78 games (10 starts) last season with the Lakers, Meeks averaged 7.9 points, 2.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 0.74 steals in 21.3 minutes. With 34 multiple three-point games, including a career-high tying seven three-point field goals made 11/30/12 vs. Denver, Meeks finished among the league’s top-50 in three-point field goals made per game (49th/1.6) as well as total three-point field goals made (43rd/122).

An early entry candidate out of Kentucky in the 2009 NBA Draft, Meeks, who holds the Wildcats single-season record for three-point field goals made in a season (117) as well as UK’s single-game record for points (54), has career NBA averages of 8.0 points, 2.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.64 steals and 21.9 minutes in 278 games with Milwaukee, Philadelphia and the Lakers.

Lakers absolutely want to keep Dwight Howard in NBA free agency

Bringing back free agent center Dwight Howard is the Lakers’ top priority this off-season.

“Dwight is in the category of the great of the great,” Kupchak said. “He’s over his back injury and there’s no reason he can’t play seven, eight more years at that position. There’s no doubt in my mind if he does, he’s in the Hall of Fame. Those players are just hard to come by.”

Howard struggled through the first half of the season as he tried to return early from back surgery.

“I don’t think he got as much credit for the season as he should have gotten,” Kupchak said. “Big men are different. They can’t bring the ball up the court. They really rely on their teammates to make them look good.”

The Lakers can sign Howard for a $118-million, five-year deal in July — if he chooses to stay. Other teams can offer just four years (up to $88 million), but tax advantages in Texas (Houston, Dallas or San Antonio) would help offset some of the lost wages.

Reported by Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times

Kobe Bryant can easily see himself playing 3-4 more years

Kobe Bryant has consistently suggested he’ll play just one or two more seasons before retiring.

Currently on a trip to Brazil, the Lakers guard may have revealed a different plan altogether.

“I could easily see myself playing another three or four years,” he said on Brazilian television in a segment produced by Glenda Carqueijo (2:30 in the video).

The All-Star guard is currently recovering from a torn Achilles’ tendon, suffered April 12. He’s expected to return to the court by November or December.

Reported by Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times

Kobe Bryant says Lakers need to re-sign Dwight Howard

Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant told 710 ESPN Los Angeles this week that the team needs to re-sign center Dwight Howard, who is set to be a free agent on July 1.

“Those guys are hard to find, they don’t grow on trees,” Bryant said of Howard. “When you have someone like that with his talent level, you have to be able to keep him and lock him in with this franchise.”

Teams including the Atlanta Hawks, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers have been rumored as being among the teams that will pursue Howard.

Reported by the Sports Xchange

Settlement reached in Kobe Bryant memorabilia case

The Kobe Bryant memorabilia saga has ended with an apology from the Los Angeles Lakers guard’s parents and a settlement that allows less than 10 percent of the items originally intended for sale to be auctioned.

Bryant and a company that was auctioning off the memorabilia reached a deal one week before the two sides were due to go to trial in New Jersey. The agreement allows the sale of six items, which Goldin Auctions president Ken Goldin told ESPN.com on Monday morning he is confident still can sell for more than $500,000 combined.

Bryant’s parents, who had contracted with Goldin to sell the items, apologized in a written statement.

“We regret our actions and statements related to the Kobe Bryant auction memorabilia,” Joe and Pamela Bryant said in the statement provided by a publicist. “We apologize for any misunderstanding and unintended pain we have caused our son and appreciate the financial support he has provided over the years. We also apologize to Goldin Auctions for their inadvertent involvement in this matter and thank them for their assistance.”

Reported by Darren Rovell of ESPN.com

Kobe hopes to play in season opener for Lakers

Stitches removed, out of a cast and with nearly six weeks of rehabilitation under his belt since surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon in his left leg, Kobe Bryant is still hoping for a return by the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2013-14 season opener.

“I hope so,” Bryant said in a sit-down interview with ESPNLosAngeles.com on Monday. “That’s the challenge. With the tendon, there’s really only but so much you can do. There’s a certain amount of time that they deem necessary for the tendon to heal where you don’t overstretch it and now you never get that spring back.

“So, you just have to be patient, let the tendon heal, and then when that moment comes when they say, ‘OK, we can take off the regulator so to speak and now it’s on you to train as hard as you can to get back to where you want to be,’ that’s going to be a good day.”

Before that day is likely to occur, there will be another date on the calendar that holds particular significance for how Bryant’s Lakers will look next season: July 1, the day Dwight Howard can begin to hear competing offers as a free agent.

While Howard reportedly has strong interest in the Houston Rockets and could be courted by Dallas, Atlanta, Golden State and Cleveland, Bryant is in no rush to be the first to pitch the All-Star center to come back to L.A.

Reported by Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles