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Kobe Bryant ‘not cool’ with Lakers trading Steve Blake

February 20, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Kobe Bryant Steve BlakeThe Lakers made it pretty clear that they are rebuilding and aiming for the best draft pick possible when they traded Steve Blake to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday for Kent Bazemore and MarShon Brooks.

Blake wasn’t with the Lakers long enough to really become a total fan favorite, but his departure didn’t sit well with Kobe Bryant, who tweeted the following on Thursday:

Blake’s tenure with the Lakers was marred by several injuries, but he was making nearly two 3-pointers per game for the Lakers and has been a good outside shooter for the team.

How can you really fault the Lakers for making the trade? The only thing that surprises me is that they didn’t deal Jordan Hill too. Kobe might not be cool with the deal, but he’ll probably be more cool with Mitch Kupchak improving the team instead of allowing them to remain a middling contender. You can’t have it both ways, though I understand why it might be hard for Kobe to lose a friend on the team.

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Steve Blake traded to Warriors for MarShon Brooks, Kent Bazemore

February 19, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Steve BlakeSteve Blake was traded by the rebuilding Los Angeles Lakers to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, the night before the trade deadline in the NBA. Blake was dealt to the Dubs for MarShaon Brooks and Kent Bazemore.

Blake actually showed up to Staples Center for the Lakers’ game with the Houston Rockets and warmed up with the team before being told he was traded. The Warriors are at the Sacramento Kings Wednesday, but they host the Rockets on Thursday night, so we expect him to play in that game.

Blake has averaged 9.5 points and 7.6 assists per game for the Lakers this season. He’s been particularly good on 3-pointers, making 40 percent of them and nearly two a game. He should give the Warriors another outside option. He’s in the final year of his contract, which pays him $4 million this season.

According to Mike Bresnahan, who first reported the deal, Blake said he enjoyed LA and did not rule out returning to the Lakers in free agency.

Bazemore is a second-year guard from Old Dominion. He’s averaged just 6.1 minutes per game this season and has shot 37.1 percent for his career.

Brooks was originally drafted by the Nets and averaged 12.6 points per game for them as a rookie. He was traded to the Celtics in the offseason as part of the Paul Pierce/Jason Terry/Kevin Garnett deal, and he was dealt again as part of a three-way deal in January.

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Steve Blake makes winning shot over Dwight Howard (Video)

November 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Steve Blake Dwight HowardIt’s only early November, but no doubt Los Angeles Lakers fans were feeling a lot of satisfaction after the team beat Dwight Howard’s Houston Rockets 99-98 on the road Thursday night. And who needs Kobe Bryant in the lineup when you have Steve Blake?

Blake drilled a game-winning 3-pointer over Dwight to give the Lakers the lead and eventual victory. Houston had a defensive breakdown on the play, allowing Blake to get a wide open shot off a screen. He nailed it. Contrast that well-drawn up play to the team’s previous possession where they nearly threw the ball away on the inbounds pass and then had a broken play.

Blake had 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 4-6 on threes. Howard had 15 points and 14 rebounds, but he was 5-for-16 from the free throw line as the Lakers employed the hack-a-Dwight strategy to perfection at the end of the game.

Don’t worry, Rockets fans, you still have the better overall team.

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Fan Steve Blake cussed out is son of shoe mogul Steve Jackson

November 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Los Angeles Lakers guard Steve Blake was fined $25,000 on Tuesday for berating a fan during Friday’s game against the Clippers. Both parties met on Tuesday to patch things up, and we also learned that the fan whom Blake cussed out is Lance Jackson, the son of L.A. Gear chairman Steve Jackson.

Blake was starting for the injured Steve Nash and had just 8 points on 2-for-6 shooting on Friday. According to ESPN LA, Jackson got on Blake for missing shots.

“You need to knock down those open shots,” the fan reportedly said.

Blake reportedly snapped back, and as we can tell in the video, he yelled at Jackson after fouling out.

“It’s an unfortunate misunderstanding and a heat-of-the-moment type of thing,” Blake said after practice Tuesday. “It’s one of those things I’m not proud of, the way I handled it, and I look forward to growing as a person and moving forward from it.”

Blake met with the Jacksons at the practice facility on Tuesday. Steve Jackson has a strong relationship with the team and has had courtside seats for many years. Many Lakers players have worked out at the gym in Jackson’s home (he has a replica Staples Center court), and visiting teams have even practiced there.

Blake says he apologized to the Jacksons and said he never had an outburst on a fan like that before.

Though he says the fan incident was a first, Blake has gotten into it on the court in the past. He fought with the Mavericks last year and, when he was in college, he once fought with a teammate. It seems like he’s just a hot head.

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Steve Blake reportedly suffers foot injury by stepping on a parking lot spike strip

September 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Someone needs to tell Steve Blake that those parking lot spike strips may only be able to puncture your car tires if you drive over them the wrong way, but they can puncture your foot no matter how you walk on them. Sharp objects have a tendency to do that.

According to ESPNLosAngeles.com, the Lakers announced Monday that Blake will be out of action for three weeks after he stepped on one of those spike strip thingies and popped a hole in the bottom of his foot. Our guess is he wasn’t paying attention, otherwise I’m not really sure how you would miss one of those things. They’re pretty obvious when you’re driving, so I would think they would be just as easy to see while strolling along on foot.

Unless he was walking barefoot like this Ohio State player who cut his foot and needed surgery, you have chalk this up as some pretty bad luck for a guy who has had plenty of it on the court since the Lakers signed him. It’s not like he punched something in frustration after a meaningless game.

H/T Pro Basketball Talk

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Jordan Farmar implies he would have made three-pointer Steve Blake missed

May 17, 2012 By 8 Comments

During his four-year tenure with the Lakers, Jordan Farmar was used sparingly. He never played more than 20 minutes per game and never averaged more than 10 points in a season. Since signing with the Nets, his minutes and production have increased a bit. Per usual, the Nets are sitting at home watching this year’s playoffs. Farmar’s former team is in trouble against the Thunder as they trail the series 0-2 after Wednesday night’s loss — a loss which Jordan feels he could have helped prevent.

The three-pointer Farmar was referring to is the one Steve Blake missed with 5.2 seconds remaining in the game. The Lakers grabbed the offensive rebound and Kobe scored from inside the arc, but it turned out to be a fairly big miss as L.A. lost by only two. Would Farmar have made the shot? We’ll never know. What we do know is trolling about it on Twitter makes you sound lame.

Photo credit: Jason Miller-US PRESSWIRE

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Steve Blake and Jason Terry Fight After Push, Matt Barnes Goes Nuts

April 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Lakers-Mavericks game got a playoff feeling to it on Thursday night at Staples Center when the teams had a skirmish in the fourth quarter. It all started with a shove by Jason Terry on Steve Blake that started a mini-fight, resulting in Matt Barnes getting angry with Mavericks assistant coach Terry Stotts, and a partially naked woman getting escorted out for attempting to rush the court. Here’s a video of the Lakers-Mavericks fight sparked by Terry’s cheap shot:

Terry, Blake, Barnes and Brendan Haywood were all ejected immediately, while Shannon Brown later got tossed for shoving Brian Cardinal. The best reaction of all came from Phil Jackson who said “There was no fight. They were two cock-roosters bumping chests. Just some pushing and shoving going on.” Classic. Leave it to Phil to keep everything in perspective, right?

Of course he’s not worried — his team has won eight in a row and is closing in on the Spurs for the top spot in the West. The way they’ve been playing, it’s hard to figure they won’t take the top spot before the regular season ends.

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