Weekend Laker News

I'm not going to lie to you guys: until a couple hours ago I didn't realize there's a Lakers game tomorrow. Dwight Howard won't play, but Steve Nash will. Unfortunately you won't be able to see any of it unless you live in Fresno, where the Lakers will take on the Warriors at 7:00 tomorrow night, or you subscribe to Time Warner Cable, so far pretty much the only cable provider that has the Lakers' new cable network, TWC SportsNet. This is undoubtedly the first time you've ever wished you lived in Fresno. Jon Wilner reports that TWC is asking carriers to pay $3.95 per month per subscriber. It's hard to imagine the new network won't be widely available by the time the regular season starts, but there will be more missed preseason contests.

A few other updates from the last couple days...

• Kobe Bryant has missed some practice lately with a sore right foot but he's back in action today.
• For the first time in well over a decade, it won't be Kobe shooting technical free throws for the Lakers this season. It's going to be Nash, with Kobe's blessing. Makes sense, but it'll take some getting used to.
• I enjoyed this tidbit from today's LAT profile of Nash:

Nash's advancing age was a talking point when General Manager Mitch Kupchak called him in July to discuss joining the Lakers. Kupchak asked Nash if he was going to make Kupchak look bad for giving the point guard a third year on his contract, prompting a spirited response in which Nash detailed his efforts to stay in shape. "Halfway through, I had to say, ‘Steve, I'm kidding. You got the third year already,'" Kupchak recalled.

• Former Laker head coach Rudy Tomjanovich did not have a good day yesterday. An L.A. jury ordered him to pay $2.7 million for failing to disclose water seepage and mold when he sold his Pacific Palisades house in 2007. It was a house he originally bought from "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis.
• Phil Jackson, whom a buddy of mine ran into at an L.A. car wash yesterday, spoke to an ESPN radio station in Chicago about Shaq's idiotic remarks about Dwight and Brook Lopez. Obviously he sang Dwight's praises. Most interesting, though, is what Roland Lazenby weighed in with afterwards. Lazenby's as well connected to Phil's camp as anyone and is a widely respected voice on things happening in Lakerdom. Last night, he had this to say on Twitter...

Just in case Mike Brown wasn't feeling enough pressure already.