When it comes down to comparing the great players in the NBA today, Kobe Bryant is someone that i've always kept as the gold standard because of his ability to compete, desire to win, and proven track record.
Boston Celtics great Larry Bird saw the Los Angeles Lakers as the enemy during his playing days, but sees Bryant as the one current player he'd like on his side if he were playing today.

If you loved Phil Jackson's last book (who didn't), I have good news for you: The legendary coach is coming out with a new book. Entitled "Eleven Rings," the book will likely give updates since his last book was written in 2004. Since then, Jackson's legacy grew even more as he added a pair of championships with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Los Angeles Lakers need a new point guard. While Derek Fisher is a champion and can still provide great moments, he's no longer a starting quality point guard in the NBA. The Lakers admitted that when they attempted to trade for Chris Paul.

The Lakers are rumored to have another target in mind: Ramon Sessions of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Before coming into the league, Dwight Howard built himself up as a very religious man who wanted to make a mark on the league by being a great human. As it turns out, Dwight Howard is a loser.

Even though the Orlando Magic have helped him make it to the NBA Finals, Howard isn't happy in Florida and has instead demanded a trade.

The Milwaukee Bucks were missing two of their better players on Saturday when hosting the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite being shorthanded, the Bucks handed the Lakers another road loss by a final score of 100-89.

Andrew Bogut will miss up to the next three months with a broken ankle. Stephen Jackson was suspended due to a confrontation with a ref.

Who says Kobe Bryant is old? He sure doesn't look old right now. The superstar guard for the Los Angeles Lakers dropped 40 points on the Utah Jazz tonight 24 hours after torching the Phoenix Suns for 48 points. With Kobe on fire, the Lakers have won four straight games and once again look like a legit contender in the Western Conference.

Welcome back, Andrew Bynum. The center for the Los Angeles Lakers took a break from racking up traffic tickets and got back to playing basketball. In his first game back from suspension, Andrew Bynum was dominant scoring 29 points, pulling down 13 rebounds and blocking two shots.

With Andrew Bynum powerful in the middle, the Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets by a final score of 92-89.

Andrew Bynum of the Los Angeles Lakers can't play basketball right now because he is suspended for a cheap shot he delivered in the playoffs. He also can't drive. In the month of December, Andrew Bynum got three driving tickets. THREE!

His first driving ticket was in Culver City and it was for illegally trying to pass another car.

Even though the 2011-12 NBA season is less than a week old, we are already seeing the cream starting to rise to the top. Some teams are surprisingly bad, while a number of teams are better than pundits projected. So which ten teams are the best teams in the NBA?

Here's our NBA power rankings:

1.

Amare Stoudemire is a walking injury concern. Just a couple games into this shortened season, Amare Stoudemire has sprained his left ankle. The injury took place during the New York Knicks game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.

Officially, Amare Stoudemire is listed as day to day.

Former Barcelona and Inter Milan star Samuel Eto'o is putting good use to his money in his native Cameroon after he launched his own mobile network a week ago in the country's economic capital Douala.

Set'Mobile which derives its name from Eto'o's initials, becomes the third mobile operator in Cameroon after Orange and MTN.

Kobe Bryant suffered a sprained wrist in the first preseason game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers. The injury could keep Kobe Bryant out of the Lakers second and final preseason contest.

However, the good news for the Lakers and Kobe Bryant is that he should be ready to go once the regular season begins on Christmas Day.

It's almost impossible to have escaped the saga of the Chris Paul trade(s) in the NBA but just in case you have, here are a couple of need-to-know facts.

• Ownership of the New Orleans Hornets (Chris Paul's now former team) was sold to the NBA back in December 2010
• Every owner in the NBA owns 1/29th of the Hornets but does not have any direct say in day-to-day operations
• NBA commissioner David Stern had given full authority to Hornets General Manager Dell Demps to make whatever player moves he felt were in the team's best interest
• The Hornets best player and NBA superstar Chris Paul was under contract for only one more season
• Chris Paul recently told the Hornets he didn't want to sign with them after this season and would like to be traded
• Rather than see the Hornets get nothing when Paul walks this summer, GM Demps worked out a three-way trade less than two weeks ago that would have shipped Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers and had a couple of players from the Lakers and the Houston Rockets come to the Hornets.

His team is getting a divorce and so is his wife. The might Los Angeles Lakers are in transition and so is Kobe Bryant's personal life.
The Lakers could be supplanted by the Los Angeles Clippers this season for best team in Hollywood.

With the NBA lockout over, it's time to get back to thinking about basketball. In these NBA power rankings, we'll list the top ten NBA teams headed into the 2011-12 season. Did your favorite NBA team make the cut? Continue reading to find out ...

1. Miami Heat
The Heat are just too talented to not be No.

In a new book that is to hit shelves on Tuesday, Shaquille O'Neal went off on of people. Some targets weren't surprising (Kobe Bryant), while some were surprising including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Why does Shaq hate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?

"Kareem was never around," explains Shaq in the 'Shaq Uncut: My Story'.

All summer, we've heard rumors of Kobe Bryant signing in Europe to play basketball during the NBA lockout. On Friday, those rumors became reality when Kobe Bryant agreed to join Virtus Bologna. The Italian league team will pay the Los Angeles Lakers superstar $3 million to play a total of ten games over 40 days.

Javaris Crittenton is a free man. For the time being, at least. Javaris Critten was freed on a $230,000 bond on Tuesday. The former NBA player has been charged in a murder of 22-year-old woman.

According to police, Crittenton was shooting at a man who had previously robbed him and accidentally hit Julian Jones.

Once upon a time, the Los Angeles Lakers were high on Javaris Crittenton and viewed him as a legit NBA player. In fact, some Lakers fans compared his ability at a young age to one Kobe Bryant. However, those thoughts are a distant memory as the 23-year-old is currently wanted for murder in Atlanta, Georgia.

The government-run Chinese media doesn't always have the most accurate information. That was again proven on Thursday when a Chinese media outlet claimed that Kobe Bryant signed with Shanxi of the Chinese Basketball Association. That report ended up being untrue.

Although Kobe Bryant is negotiating with Chinese teams, he hasn't agreed to a deal.

Primero fue la rubia que enmudeció a todo el Staples Center, ahora la que robo todas las miradas en el entrenamiento del Real Madrid Cristiano Ronaldo incluido.

Amalie Wichmann,Dallas,Dallas Mavericks,LA Lakers,Lakers,Los Angeles Lakers,Mavericks,NBA,Staples Center, Visto en Chachara.

The fourth edition of the annual Mia Hamm & Nomar Garciaparra Celebrity Soccer Challenge turned out to be quite a success in the D.C. area on Sunday.

The charity event, which is dedicated to raising awareness about registering as a bone marrow donor, featured NBA superstar Kobe Bryant along with several U.

In case you haven't heard, Ron Artest is changing his name to Metta World Peace. Yeah, he's crazy. But to make the name change official, Ron Artest has to put his name change in a newspaper once a week over the course of a month according to the laws in California.

Look below to see the Ron Artest name change in a newspaper.

With NBA players locked out, many have decided not to waste any time and have hopped the pond to sign in Europe. Personally, I think it's a good idea. These players can make money while also putting pressure on NBA owners to come to the table and make a deal to end the NBA lockout.

Here are the NBA players who have signed in Europe:

Deron Williams
The All-Star point guard for the New Jersey Nets was the first big name to go overseas.

From Mike Jacobs' column, Evansville Courier Press, June 19, 2011
At a time when Isiah Thomas is referenced more for his lack of coaching and management success than for his brilliance on the basketball court as a player, a story offers a lesson from Thomas into being a part of a championship team.

Professional sports has probably never seen a championship coach like Phil Jackson. Jackson was the architect of the NBA World Championships of the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers, and was able to win by managing the personalities and egos of some of the greatest basketball players in the history of the game.

When the NBA playoffs tipped off, nobody would have imagined that the two teams left standing in the Western Conference would end up being the Dallas Mavericks and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Pundits saw the Mavs as too old and too much of a regular season wonder. The Thunder, on the other hand, were viewed as too young and not quite ready.

Have you seen the Twitter war between Bill Simmons and Keith Olbermann? Bill Simmons, of ESPN, and Keith Olbermann, formerly of ESPN and soon to be a host of a show on something called Current TV, have a history of not liking each other. The two rivals started up a Twitter war today that is actually getting pretty interesting.

In one of the biggest upsets in recent memory, the Los Angeles Lakers are now down 0-3 against the Dallas Mavericks after the Mavs won Game 3 by a final score of 98-92. Going into this series, nobody thought the Mavs had a chance. Dallas has a playoff history of choking, while these Lakers have shown their clutchness on their way to winning the last two NBA championships.

Ron Artest will be suspended for a clothesline at the end of Game 2. As the Los Angeles Lakers were in the process of losing by a final score of 93-81, Ron Artest clotheslined J.J. Barea of the Dallas Mavericks. While the exact suspension details have yet to be announced, even Lakers head coach Phil Jackson admitted that Artest is going to have to serve a suspension.

Nobody is giving the Dallas Mavericks much of a chance in their second round matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers, winners of the last two NBA championships. However, on Monday night, the Mavs proved they are ready for this stage with a come from behind 96-94 victory over the reigning champs.

With the Lakers up by five points with three minutes remaining, Tyson Chandler, Shawn Marion and Dirk Nowitzki all scored two-pointers to close the game to one-point.

With the second round of the 2011 NBA Playoffs about to begin, let's take a look at an updated NBA power rankings. This is the list of the best NBA teams in order 1 through 8. While any team could theoretically win the championship, expect one of the top four teams to eventually take home the Larry O'Brien trophy.

Who will win in the second round matchup between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Memphis Grizzlies? This matchup features two of the best young and coming teams in the NBA. The Thunder have arguably the brightest future of any team in the league, while the Grizzlies' fantastic youth was on full display as they dispatched the San Antonio Spurs in their first round upset.

Although Caron Butler suffered a season ending knee injury, he has always been hopeful that he'd be able to return in the playoffs. With the Dallas Mavericks about to start a series against the two-time reigning NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers, now would be a good time for him to return. However, it's not going to happen according to Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle.

In a matchup that may very well decide the Western Conference champions, the Los Angeles Lakers take on the Dallas Mavericks. Since the San Antonio Spurs have been eliminated, these are the top two remaining seeds in the West. Who is going to win between the Lakers and the Mavs?

The Lakers will win.

In the first quarter of Game 5, the New Orleans Hornets appeared to be on their way to a stunning upset of the two-time reigning NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers. However, things quickly changed in the second quarter and the Lakers grabbed control. By the end of the game, Los Angeles had an easy 106-90 victory over the Hornets.

Prior to Game 5 between the Los Angeles Lakers and the New Orleans Hornets, Kobe Bryant said his foot was injured. I guess not. Check out the video below to see one of the best dunks you will ever see out of Kobe Bryant. Emeka Okafor was the Hornets player getting posterized. The dunk, as you could imagine, got Kobe Bryant going and the Lakers fans in an uproar.

It's the first round of the 2011 NBA Playoffs. However, even though the playoffs are just beginning, there are some teams that appear to be the cream of the crop. While things my change between now and the NBA Finals, these teams appear to be the top five teams to beat going forward in the postseason:

1.

When the Los Angeles Lakers got the New Orleans Hornets in the first round of the 2011 NBA Playoffs, we all thought it was a break for the Lakers. With David West lost for the season with a knee injury, the Hornets appeared vulnerable. However, that hasn't been the case so far. After a Game 4 victory by a final score of 93-88, the Lakers and Hornets are tied 2-2.

Surprise, surprise Kobe Bryant is being a drama queen about another injury. This time, the injury is to his left foot. Kobe suffered the foot injury late in the fourth quarter in Game 4 in the Los Angeles Lakers series against the New Orleans Hornets. After the game, he was on crutches to protect the foot injury.