Tag: James Worthy

“You are the Los Angeles Laker, you …

“You are the Los Angeles Laker, you have that on the front of your chest, that means a lot. That means maximum effort every night, that means winning your home games, unless a Golden State comes in or Arizona, a team that’s really good, you might lose a game at home,” he said on Spectrum SportsNet. “But you definitely beat the Indianas, the Oklahomas, the Houston Rockets. You demolish those teams when they come into your home. That’s not happening. To see the inconsistency it seems no sense of urgency. Nobody respects the Lakers like they used to, they’re not afraid of you anymore.

“By you continuing to lose you just …

“By you continuing to lose you just give all teams, not just good teams but some subpar teams like Indiana, like Oklahoma, they come in here they feel like you’re disrespecting, you don’t play them a full 48 minutes and somehow they feel like they’re going to get back in the game. You don’t take care of the little things, you don’t box out, you don’t get back on transition defense all the things that have won 17 championships here it’s not obvious to us here.”

“It says a lot about his character and …

“It says a lot about his character and what he means to a team,” Worthy said on Spectrum SportsNet. “Very likeable person. When they went to Vegas on that trip, obviously something came out about his personality, his willingness to be a team player. And that’s even without seeing a lot of play. “I think that #15 jersey is going up on sale, there’s going to be a lot of sales of that jersey tomorrow after this shot. To me this is the ultimate team building process. The Lakers have been struggling, reminds of one time during a timeout Chicago Bulls were playing and Michael [Jordan] knew that they were going to double-team him, he said ‘Kerr be ready! Be ready! I’m coming to you!’ that’s what it’s all about. That’s what this reminds me of.

A smug James Worthy lit a cigar on air to celebrate Lakers win over Celtics

When you think about the rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics, “Big Game” James Worthy is one of the first names that comes to mind.

When you think about the rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics, “Big Game” James Worthy is one of the first names that comes to mind.

Worthy, who played his entire NBA career from 1982 until 1994 with Los Angeles, has worked as a studio analyst covering the Lakers in Southern California for nearly a decade. So when fans saw Boston on the schedule for Tuesday evening, they knew win or lose, they would have to watch Worthy’s postgame reaction.

While most local broadcasts are sensationalized to hype up the team they cover, that’s not the case with Worthy. In fact, of late, no one has publicly criticized the Lakers more often than Worthy. He has said the team is not connected defensively, they’re not playing team basketball and he is unafraid to take shots at LeBron James.

He had a different tune after Los Angeles defeated Boston on Dec. 7, though.

As noted by Harrison Faigen, the Lakers legend was “must-watch” television after Tuesday’s victory.

After the game was over, when Worthy was on television, here is what he had to say after his signature clap:

“Now that was a good performance tonight, still not sharp enough as they want to be, but sharp enough to get that Celtic [expletive] and Cedric Maxwell … I started saying that get that Celtic [expletive] maybe three years ago and all of a sudden, you want to start saying ‘get that Laker [expletive]’ — make up your own stuff, that’s my line and while you’re trying to come up with your own line, take this with you…”

Even though he was in the broadcast studio, Worthy then proceeded to light up a victory cigar. The smoke filled the room and soon, jazz began playing in the room as well. It was, as you can watch below, quite a scene.

This, however, isn’t the first time that Worthy has opted for a cigar to hype himself up after a win. As a broadcaster, he introduced that iconic move back in 2018.

Last year, on “Inside the Green Room” with Danny Green, Worthy explained the origin of his celebration (via Silver Screen and Roll):

“It kinda started when we played the Celtics. I used to always say, ‘let’s get that Celtic [expletive], that [expletive].’ So then, after we beat them … Red Auerbach used to light up these cigars after the Celtics won. When we beat them in 1985, he didn’t get to light it up, so that’s who I got it from … So, it’s kind of, light it up every now and then, big victory — we got the Clippers, I lit it up —special occasions. And I had some nice ones for the playoffs this year. I’m saving them.”

The win on Tuesday was, undeniably, a special occasion. The Lakers had beaten their rival Celtics. It was Larry Bird’s birthday. LeBron was healthy and so were Russell Westbrook and Anthony Davis.

Who knows how many games like that Los Angeles is going to have for the remainder of the season? Worthy had every right to soak it all in while he had the chance.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f1jz39sevw828w2p image=https://ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[listicle id=1307799]

James Worthy calls Lakers’ loss to Thunder the worst he’s seen; players don’t have the mindset

Los Angeles Lakers legend James Worthy blasted the team for how it lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Los Angeles Lakers blew a 26-point second-quarter lead to the previously winless Oklahoma City Thunder, and the NBA world is blasting the team.

Los Angeles’ effort level drastically dipped once the lead was established, which allowed Oklahoma City to come back in the second half.

Lakers legend James Worthy ripped the team after the loss, calling it the worst he has seen and that the players don’t have the right mindset, via Spectrum SportsNet:

“I’ve seen a lot of Lakers’ losses, this might’ve been the worst loss I’ve seen. It sucked that they have this mentality that they can’t finish games, and they think teams are going to just lay down for them, and they got to change that. This was really ugly. I don’t have a whole lot to say. I’d put them on Greyhound and let them drive back to L.A. and think about it. You cannot perform like that. You can’t be a Laker and play like they did tonight. … That’s a mindset. They don’t have it yet.”

“And if they don’t change something, and I know it’s early in the season and people say they’re going to get it together, but this wasn’t one of those games. They should’ve won this game, and it’s just the disrespect that they showed for Oklahoma by not being professional and finishing the job is not Lakers style. They got to figure it out. That last shot by (Malik) Monk, I don’t know what that was.”

This loss came after the Lakers went to the final seconds against the San Antonio Spurs, another game in which the Lakers allowed the opponent to catch fire and go on a big run. However, L.A. managed to come back in the fourth quarter to win, but that wasn’t the case this time.

Los Angeles has an easy start to the schedule, but these losses could come back to bite the squad.

[listicle id=51043]

[mm-video type=video id=01fk14jkp9s7a6czq7z1 playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fk14jkp9s7a6czq7z1/01fk14jkp9s7a6czq7z1-1f18c349fe05b3d3eaaba532dfd0bbda.jpg]

James Worthy: Thunder win over Lakers ‘might be the worst loss I’ve seen’

Lakers legend James Worthy did not mince his words after LA blew a 26-point lead to the OKC Thunder.

Los Angeles Lakers great James Worthy had an immediate reaction to the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 26-point comeback victory over his former team:

Send them home on the greyhound so they can think about their mentality.

“I’ve seen a lot of Lakers games, and I don’t know, this might be the worst loss I’ve seen,” Worthy said on Sportsnet Live following the 123-115 Thunder win.

Los Angeles led 41-19 after the first quarter, but Oklahoma City scored 37 points in the second quarter and 41 in the third to claw their way back. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 14 points in the final three minutes of the third quarter to give the Thunder the lead, and the Lakers missed three 3-pointers — two of which were airballs — in the final 30 seconds of the game.

“You have to finish the job, regardless of who you’re playing,” Worthy said. “You cannot disrespect the worst team in the league. In fact, you make sure you put them away and let them know that they don’t have a chance.

“… I know it’s early in the season, but this wasn’t one of those games. They should have won the game, and the disrespect that they showed for Oklahoma by not being professional and finishing the job, it’s not Lakers style.”

Ironically enough, it was the Lakers who took offense to the Thunder finishing the job. With OKC up by five points with four seconds remaining, Rajon Rondo threw in a lazy inbounds pass. Darius Bazley picked it off and slammed home the exclamation point.

Russell Westbrook led Bazley know that he broke an unwritten rule of not throwing down fun slam dunks to cap off 26-point comeback victories. The former Thunder star picked up his second technical foul of the game and was ejected.

“They think that teams are just going to lay down for them, and they’ve got to change that. This was really ugly. I don’t have a whole lot to say,” Worthy said.

“I’d put them on the greyhound and let them drive back to LA and think about it, cause you just cannot perform like that.”

[lawrence-related id=447480,447474,447468]

“Early on, I wasn’t that familiar with …

“Early on, I wasn’t that familiar with him in college,’’ Frazier told The Post in a phone interview Tuesday from his Harlem residence. “Anyone who plays for Dean Smith, he holds them back. Vince Carter, (James) Worthy. You never know the versatility of these guys when they play for North Carolina. He keeps them in a team system. No one knew he was going to do what he did.”