By: Nate Gordon
When the petulant, spoiled and possible sexually impotent son of the owner of your hometown franchise drafts a 17 year old out of the Draft Night bleachers, your bound to have a few restless nights. When you pay $2000 a night for floor level seats, your questioning your investment. When your the star of said franchise, you stop macking on the chick who works the register at the Dolce&Gabana store at South Coast Plaza to say "What the F%$@"??? That spoiled, alleged Enzyte user is jim buss, that kid is Andrew Bynum and that superstar is Kobe Bryant.
However that spring night in 2005 seems like a distant memory, and the shy loppy man-child has grown into a true NBA center, in the mold of his mentor Kareem Abdul-Jabar. His minutes have increased week by week and therefore his conditioning has improved. The love shown by Phil Jackson has allowed young Master Bynum to flourish defensively. He's been averaging 10 rebounds a game and over 2 blocks. Over the last 2 games he's recorded 10 blocks! (6 last game, 4 this game) Bynum recorded over 40 minutes in tonight's 12 point win over the Bulls (103-91) and helped the Lakers improve to 15-9. This was the first time Bynum recorded over 40 minutes in a game in his career. He's producing nightly double doubles and uncanny defensive ability, proven last night in containing Chris Kaman, and his dominance over Chicago's "defensive" big men posting 12 points, 10 rebounds and the aforementioned 4 blocks.
With tonight's win, Andrew has proven himself against Ben Wallace, Marcus Camby, Jermaine O'Neal, Sheed Wallace, Yao Ming, Carlos Boozer and Amare Stodemire. I think it's safe to say that Andrew is among the leagues 2nd tier of Centers and is only going to get better with each passing game. If you haven't taken notice, look out now because LA's "Baby Showtime" is starting to grow into it's own.
e-mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com
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