Sports
From the day I became a Laker, I had one thing on my mind…Says Kuzma
From the day I became a Laker, I had one thing on my mind…Says Kuzma
Kyle Kuzma said in his letter to Lakers Family about Kobe.
I had to have a sit down with Kobe.
That whole summer I was banging down Rob Pelinka’s phone every damn day trying to get hold of Mamba.
I’m hitting Rob all the time like, “Come on, help me out. I’m trying to talk to him.” And this goes on for like a minute.
Then finally one night, we’re in Minnesota for a game the next day. It’s almost 11, I’m stretching in my hotel room, and I get a random text, just out the blue.
“Yo, this is Bean. Let’s do dinner. Sunday when you guys get back.”
I’m like, This is Kobe….. texting my phone. What the fuck is going on right now?
So I show up at the restaurant that Sunday.
I’m always on time for dinner, but tonight I’m 15 minutes early. I’m just sitting there for a while, until his security shows up. They walk in, and they’re like, “Hey, we’re gonna take you back to the table. Kobe’s almost here. Driving in right now.”
So now I’m sitting at the dinner table, and I’m just waiting.
We have two tables because one table’s for me and Kobe, and the other table’s for his three or four security guards. And I’m just sitting at the table by myself waiting for him. I’m on my phone, I’m thinking about this dinner, I’m sipping water, I’m thinking about how it’s gonna go. And then one of the security guys gets up from his table. He walks over to me and says, “Hey. Kobe just parked. He’s two minutes out.”
I’m like, “Alright, cool.” But on the inside I’m just fucking sweating, and I don’t even know why I’m sweating right now. I have a white t-shirt on, and I’m looking at my shirt like, Dang.
All of a sudden Kobe walks in, and it’s literally like Moses spreading the ocean. Everybody in the restaurant is just looking at him. And he comes to the table, and he’s like, “Kuz, what up man?” Just completely chill. But I’m like, Oh shit, Kobe knows my name.
We’re at that table for about two hours. And we’re just talking about life, basketball, how I grew up, how he grew up. The ups and downs of his career. We talked about his business life. Things that really influenced him. The cool thing with Kobe — he was always trying to get smart. He was always trying to gain knowledge, and he’d find that from anything. So he’s not just sitting there answering questions. He’s asking me all this stuff, too. Man, just like, “How has your upbringing shaped you? How do you think it’s helping you in your pro career right now?” Things like that. And he didn’t have to do those things, but he did.
That was a really cool night for me. It’s a memory that just gets more important and more special to me as time goes by.
But you know, that really just speaks to how many people I’ve had the chance to meet and build relationships with here. There’s Kobe, but I’ve also had great mentors like Magic, and Robert Horry (he’s always checking in), and James Worthy. And having LeBron here, you obviously can’t get better than that. I was always trying to beat LeBron to the gym. I don’t think he even knew. That was just a goal I had for myself. And other guys, too. Having Anthony be the type of defensive player he is has really inspired me. Having Rajon teach me the essence of watching film has been so important.
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Toto Wolff, it’s okay that Lando Norris’ canceled pole time counts again
For a brief moment, Lewis Hamilton thought he was in pole position for the sprint race in China ( Formula 1 2024 live in the ticker ). Although Lando Norris was an impressive 1.261 seconds faster than the seven-time world champion on his fastest lap, the race management canceled the McLaren driver ‘s time due to track limits.
But Hamilton couldn’t be happy about his first pole since Budapest 2023 for long, because surprisingly Norris’ time was recognized again , who will therefore be on pole on Saturday morning.
Although Norris had driven four wheels over the track barrier in the last corner of the previous lap, he not only had that lap canceled, but also the following lap.
It’s nothing new that a track limit violation in the last corner can also have an impact on the following lap. However, there is nothing recorded for China in this regard, so Norris was allowed to keep his time.
This is annoying for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, but motorsport boss Toto Wolff can live with this decision: “I saw that he was off the track with four wheels, but to be honest that was even slower,” he says Sky . Because there is now a gravel bed on the outside of the curve, so going off the track is no longer an advantage.
“So he probably would have driven even faster, so that’s okay with me,” says Wolff.
Difficulties until the last second
Until Hamilton’s timed lap, the Brit seemed to have had major problems. “It was quite difficult conditions, there wasn’t much grip,” he says. “But when I saw that the rain was coming, I was happy because we weren’t fast enough in the dry. But then everything came together.”
It was pretty close that Hamilton even got into SQ3. Like teammate George Russell, Hamilton had difficulties with cold tires in SQ2 after queuing at the traffic lights at the pit exit. But while Russell failed in eleventh place, Hamilton narrowly made it into SQ3.
“I’m annoyed that we made such a mistake with both cars in SQ2,” complains Wolff. But Mercedes learned from it and only sent Hamilton out of the garage in the final section when everyone else had already left the pits.
Hamilton gets new tires
However, Hamilton returned to the pits after the outlap to get other intermediates. “That was intentional,” reveals Wolff. “We changed the specification of the tires a little, let’s put it that way.” He doesn’t reveal exactly what was done, but it probably involved adjusting the tire pressure.
Labor unrest and uncertainty is in Chase Elliott NASCAR’s future
It sure is tempting to say yes, considering what happened (or didn’t happen, such as PASSING) at Martinsville and Richmond the previous two weeks.
Having Dawsonville’s Favorite Son (literally, by the way) remembering the smell of champagne is definitely not a bad thing or even a meh thing. Well, OK, maybe a little bit meh.
Fourteen cautions for incidents? Counting stage breaks, 16 cautions for 72 laps, which is over a quarter of the race? A win is a win, but it has the kinda-sorta feel of Musical Chairs with Chase at the head of the table when the music stopped.
It’s been a few weeks since the ongoing negotiations were mentioned, but someone mentioned it to Owner/Driver Jimmie Johnson at Texas, and he didn’t exactly sound upbeat about a new agreement between teams and NASCAR.
“I think it’s going to come down to deep in the year,” he told NBC Sports. “If you look at how much time is left, we’re just getting into the eighth inning, maybe ninth inning of what really needs to happen in negotiations for all parties.”
Eighth or ninth inning? Jimmie ever watched a ballgame.
In the eighth or ninth, it’s time to ring the bullpen and bring in the closer. Can’t really say what’s at stake because this is all new to NASCAR.
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Kevin Harvick Deliberately Reckless Move to Oust $228 Billion and Make Sponsor Regret
By the time Kevin Harvick hung up his racing helmet in 2023, his resume was golden. No sponsor would have said no to the veteran driver in the twilight years of his career. Yet once upon a time, things were different.
After Kevin Harvick stormed home the 2007 Daytona 500 title, he faced a long winless streak of two years. Fans began dropping off, and his $228 billion sponsor Pennzoil as well. But Kevin Harvick was determined to take control at the 2010 Talladega race. He bested Jamie McMurray on the final lap, pulling ahead for the race win by 3 feet.
Kevin Harvick recalled his desperate actions, all to teach Pennzoil a lesson. “We were in the tandem drafting. You see myself and Jamie McMurray here. And this exact move that happened, I actually tried it in practice, where you just slide across the back bumper and just get the car to wiggle a little bit. And I got the back of Jamie’s car to wiggle just enough to get underneath him…But I was on like a 109, 110-race winless streak at that time.”
That drab record was why Pennzoil-Shell dropped a bomb on race day. “Shell had told us that we were not coming back. They were out as the sponsor and then we go out.”
Caitlyn Vince quipped angrily, “Why would someone do that the day of a race? Is that normal?” And Harvick explained, “I think it’s probably just when that meeting was scheduled.”
But Vince’s rising rage was satisfied with the story’s climax. Kevin Harvick won the race and ended up with a new sponsor. “So in that fashion, we went back. And as we typically did at that time to just really show them how we felt about it. We went out on the race so that we could get a new sponsor…Wound up with Budweiser. So that was a wild race.”
In a further twist of events, Pennzoil-Shell officials soon openly admitted their remorse.
After leaving Kevin Harvick’s No. 29 car, Pennzoil became the primary partner for Penske Racing’s No. 22 car driven by Kurt Busch. But Harvick’s restored energy gave them second thoughts, and by the end of 2011, a unique situation developed. Suspicions were there that Harvick could win the 2010 Cup championship, and that put Pennzoil in a tight spot.
“It’s definitely awkward,” said Heidi Massey-Bong, Pennzoil’s senior business adviser for NASCAR sponsorships. “We’re leaving somebody who I very much respect and appreciate what they’ve done in the sport, and going to somebody else.”
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May 8, 2022 at 10:36 pm
Best view i have ever seen !