Thursday, May 8, 2008

REPORTING FROM THE LAKERS PLAYOFFS


There's a crisis in the Lakers locker room. "What have they done to the back of my shoes?" asks Sasha Vujacic examining a pair of black rubber sandals as he sits in front of his locker. He hesitates before smelling them. "Hey!" Vujacic says to a trainer. "These are messed up. Somebody did something."

"I sprayed some stuff on them," the trainer explains. "It's disinfectant. I do that every now and then."

Vujacic's phone starts to ring.

"Who's calling me?" he says smiling as he picks up his I-Phone. "Don't people know I have a game?"

There's just more than an hour until the Lakers take on the Utah Jazz in Game 2, but the Lakers don't seem a bit worried.

As Sasha figures out his shoe crisis, Lamar Odom munches on popcorn and pounds fists with reporters. The last few games he's caused attention in the locker room with his fashionable garments—brightly colored custom-made suits, including a bright yellow suit with purple trim. He's got about eight different ones, but today he opted for a classic suit. "I kept it cool, calm and collected for today," he explains. "Next time we're here I'll give you a funky suit," he promises.


Read on for more of my reporting from the Lakers Game!