Happy New Year? Lakers’ fans would hope that a new year would bring an end to a nightmare of a season, but after finishing 2013 with three straight losses to the three worst teams in the league, 2014 is going to get off to a tough start. The reason: Injuries! The Lakers players are going down faster that a bowling pin at a professional bowling tournament. The latest casualty is another torn left hamstring for Jordan Farmar (same leg, different spot). That was preceded by Xavier Henry’s strained right knee and Wesley Johnson’s bout with gastroenteritis. Add in Kobe Bryant’s latest injury (knee), Steve Blake’s elbow, Steve Nash’s back and Chris Kaman’s recurring sprained left ankle and you have a team destined to go nowhere this season.
The worst thing about this string of injuries, is that they affect the majority of starting players. You can start the blame game anytime you want, but it all comes down to management and the decisions that have been made in the last 2 years by Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchek. Signing an aging point guard with a bad back in Steve Nash, Hiring a head coach (Mike D’Antoni) that has never been known for defense and has a system that only works with young players, giving 48.5 million dollars to an injured superstar in Kobe Bryant, that had no idea of what kind of player he would return as, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The sad thing about all of this is; Jim has all but destroyed in two years what it took his father Jerry Buss over 30 years to build, and that’s a shame.
