NBA GMs: Lakers will be Champs, Kobe is clutch and Bynum will be the breakout player

NBA.com’s about to release their annual GM survey and we got a sneak peak:

In the survey, a whopping 46% of the GMs picked the Lakers to win it all:

• 46% Lakers
• 19% Celtics
• 12% Hornets
• 9% Spurs

And who you gonna call when you need a game winner?

For the7th season in a row, Kobe “Dobermamba” Bryant was far and away the #1 choice with 89% votes this year.

And for you Bynum lovers, AB17 received the nod from the GMs for “breakout player of the year”.

Which team will win the Pacific Division?
1. L.A. Lakers — 100%

Which player is the best at getting his own shot?
1. Kobe Bryant - 81.5%
2. Tracy McGrady — 7.4%
Others receiving votes: Manu Ginobili, Ben Gordon, LeBron James

Also of note, LeBron is the projected MVP for the 2008-2009 NBA season with a 56% vote, Kobe with 37% and Chris Paul with 7%

EuroLeague Finals MVP wishes he could play in NBA

We all know about Josh Childress leaving the NBA to play overseas and that caused quite a stir in the NBA world. People were starting to speculate that NBA top stars would be clamoring for $50 million dollar paychecks. Alright, the $50 million was a hypothetical number thrown at Kobe and LeBron but still, the whispers were there. Fans everywhere were starting to worry about losing their team’s star to the sexy European basketball clubs with high Power Euros and tax-free living.  And if you watched Sports Talk shows or listened to Sports Radio, that’s about all they talked about for a week.  Lost in the translation was that Josh Childress, although a very good player, is only a 6th man in the NBA.  Other team fans bristle at the thought of evening mentioning Kobe and Jordan in the same breath.   But at the same time, they’ll be happy to parrot back to you that Kobe said he would consider going to Europe.

Alright, reality check time, it ain’t happening. This reminds me of the Millenium bug scare that had people buying water bottles and stocking up their bomb shelters.

The fact of the matter is, the NBA is still the ultimate place to play.

Even Kobe laughed at the idea:

Kobe Bryant

Somebody throws us this question about playing overseas. I don’t want him to answer it. He’s a young kid; I don’t want him to take the controversial stuff. I said, ‘Well, if a team throws us $50 million, then we’ll all go.’ …It’s just something that was a joke for us, and people took it and ran with it or whatever. That’s fine. Everybody needs to banter about something.

Well, this notion of NBA players going overseas was recently kicked in the groin again by visiting Euroleague Superstar Trajan Langdon. Trajan Langdon plays for CSKA Moscow in Europe’s premiere basketball league “Euroleague”. Langdon also happens to be their Finals MVP and 2 time championship winner. So what did Mr. Langdon have to say about this?

Here are some tasty tidbits from Trajan Langdon’s visit (he’s here with CSKA Moscow to play some NBA teams during pre-season)

Trajan Langdon

I don’t see elite players going over (to Europe)
Obviously the best basketball league in the world is here in the NBA with the best players.
Everything about the NBA is great.

And finally, asked if he would like to play in the NBA again, “I would never turn something like that down“

So there you have it, one of the top players in Euroleague wishing he was playing back in the NBA. Josh Childress was a second/third tier player, he had better opportunities in Europe. We’ll see plenty of Josh Childress/6th man type players flocking to Europe in the next few years. But we’ll never see Kobe or LeBron donning a Tau Ceramica jersey unless they’re 40 years old.

Agent Zero opens up to the media

Gilbert Arenas didn’t want to take attention from Washington’s healthy players when he declined to talk Friday at the Wizards’ media day and drew a fine from the NBA.

On Saturday, the $111 million man tried to mask his frustration over the third surgery on his left knee in 1 1/2 years by working with the team’s young players as they opened their training camp at Virginia Commonwealth University.

He also talked. Read more

CBS-Sportsline: Top 50 Shooting Guards

Sep. 26, 2008
By Matt Steinmetz

It’s asked innumerable times when you’re talking basketball. Who would you rather have, this guy or that guy?

Who would you rather have: Kobe, CP3 or LeBron? The U.S. Olympic team had all three. (Getty Images)

When you’re making a list of the top 50 players in the NBA, you ask that question of yourself, oh, about 50 times.

Who would you rather have, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James?

What about between LeBron and Chris Paul? And so it goes.

Here, then, is who we’d rather have — our top 50 NBA players: Read more