Go Lakers!!!

63rd NBA Season starts tonight. LA Lakers open their season against the Portland Trailblazers.

 

Gasol, Now a Laker

From Memphis...

























...To Los Angeles.

 

Airball

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was on campus for a signing session of his new book "On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance". He was at the Ackerman Union from 1pm-3pm.

I got to school too late at 3:40pm. It was a bad miss, like an airball.

Kareem is a UCLA alum. He also spoke to the graduating seniors this same day.

 

Kobe Asks To Be Traded, Then Backs Off

According to reports, Kobe Bryant wants out of LA. A couple of hours later, he rescinds his request. WTH?!?!

Here's Kobe's statement on Wednesday morning to ESPN radio as reported in the LA Times: "I would like to be traded, yeah... Tough as it is to come to that conclusion there's no other alternative."

Yahoo! Sports then reports that Kobe went to KLAC radio three hours later with the ff: "I don't want to go anywhere, this is my team... I love it here. I called Phil, man, he and I talked, it was an emotional conversation, but he just said, `You know what, Kobe? Let us try to figure this thing out."

Note: I edited this post by adding Kobe's withdrawal from trade request

 

Apparent Racial Bias by NBA Referees

A New York Times article featured an academic study of racial bias within the NBA. According to an upcoming paper by academics from University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University, white referees are more likely to call fouls on black players as black referees are on white players.

If this is indeed true, I don't think we should take it against the referees on this. From the same article, experts stated that this may well be driven subconsciously and that it might be more surprising if the bias didn't exist. I think that is a very sensible statement.

I've read through the article twice and it seems to me that the study was performed as meticulously as possible, given the information available (the NBA refused to release the record of which specific calls were made by specific referees).

As for what experts have to say, the independent experts consulted by Times considered the study "far more sound" than another one which was released by the NBA (and which says that there is no bias). Freakonomics co-author Steven Levitt also seems unable to "find and mistakes" and suggests that the results of the study are consistent with other research findings. Read his blog about it by clicking here.