Letters: Lakers pointed in the right direction with Steve Nash

The Los Angeles NBA universe restored to balance: Steve Nash to the Lakers (made possible by the Lamar Odom trade), where he can chase a championship and the Lakers can rejoin the league elite, and Lamar Odom to the Clippers, where his inconsistency and mental instability can lead his team out of the playoffs and into their rightful place in the lottery.

Frank Shapiro

Chatsworth

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Mitch Kupchak said he was trying to hit a home run. Well, he hit a grand slam getting Steve Nash. If he gets Grant Hill too, that’s double on the court and a home run in the locker room. Dwight Howard for Andrew Bynum? Equivalent to two grand slams in the same inning! What time does the parade start next June?

Allan Kandel

Los Angeles

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Where are all those Mitch Kupchak critics now? Those who were maligning Kupchak for “giving away” Lamar Odom to Dallas failed to give any value to the trade exception the Lakers got in return — the trade exception that made the Steve Nash trade possible.

Managing rosters, salary caps and team finances is a complicated business, and Kupchak — who is smart, egoless, and learned from the best, Jerry West — continues to go about his business of keeping the Lakers in contention year after year after year.

John C. Germaine

Granada Hills

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“Luxury tax threshold” … “mini mid-level exception” … “traded player exception.” …Put all of this NBA lexicon in a jar, shake well, and see how Steve Nash just sold out the Suns to their worst enemy for draft choices that will not amount to a hill of beans! And this was the guy who one week earlier stated he could never see himself in a Lakers uniform. How do you feel, Phoenix fans?

Gary Engstrom

Mission Viejo

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If anyone can get Andrew Bynum to grow up and put his diapers away, it’s Steve Nash.

Bill Cooley

Los Angeles

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Though on its face, the Steve Nash deal looks solid, it also confirms that the Lakers are committed to staying long in the tooth. It all smacks of taking one last shot for Kobe. Fact is, the rest of the quality teams in the league are younger and invariably better down the playoff stretch. If they can’t complete the Dwight Howard deal, this is likely nothing more than window dressing.

Bud Chapman

Northridge

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Because Jim Buss seems so dour during his interviews, I assumed he had no sense of humor but now I realize he is a laugh riot. Who but a premier jokester would replace an aging point guard who can’t play defense and can’t effectively penetrate to score (Derek Fisher) with an older point guard who has the same problems (Steve Nash) while paying him twice as much?

Thomas Bailey

Long Beach

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Hey, Steve:

As a Canadian, how does it feel to be traded to a basketball team in a hockey town?

Jim Meaney

Camarillo

I won’t get overly excited about the Steve Nash deal until I’m sure the Lakers don’t try to bring back Karl Malone from retirement.

PJ Gendell

Beverly Hills

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Magic Johnson’s sports prowess has made him a successful and rich businessman. That does not entitle him to Times headlines every time he has a thought about the Lakers or sits at Dodger Stadium.

Werner Haas

West Hollywood

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With the signing of Lamar Odom, it appears the Clippers are reverting to their old ways and will make the acquisitions of Benoit Benjamin and Baron Davis look good.

They gave up a good shooter and productive scorer in Mo Williams for this stiff who has been surviving in basketball since high school on “potential.” He showed his potential last season when the Mavericks quickly tired of his crybaby antics and paid him not to show up for their games. Not many players can claim this on their resume.

The Clippers, after moving forward last season, have taken a giant step backward.

Joseph Argenta

Los Angeles

On thin ice?

I hate to douse Helene Elliott’s enthusiasm about the Kings’ mad rush to shower Jonathan Quick and teammates with fat contracts, but Elliott and others caught up in the giddiness of the Kings’ success are in for a big letdown.

Never again will this bunch experience what they recently have. Repeat results are virtually impossible in a sport determined by chance as much as by talent. Of course, owners think that past results are a predictor of future success, so they open their wallets, theorizing that big bucks will equal continued competitive success, and thus continued commercial success.

Enticing, but untrue. Professional sports are littered with rewards of fat contracts for players who failed to deliver, and that includes players who had yet to even play on a professional level. (see the Dodgers’ $42-million gift to Cuban expatriate Yasiel Puig). Speaking realistically, the Kings will be lucky to even qualify for next year’s playoffs.

Lawrence M. Kates

Los Angeles

Not a hit

Years ago when the Dodgers were slumping, Tom Lasorda used to coach third base to turn things around. Rather than give Tim Wallach some time off, I think Don Mattingly would be better off inserting himself in the No. 3 or 4 spot in the batting order.

Paul Shubunka Sr.

Santa Clarita

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After watching the Dodgers lose yet another game in yet another listless effort against the rival Cincinnati No-Names at the stadium Monday night in the “Dodger Dog Days” of July, I came to realize that the Dodgers are not sluggers, they are just slugs.

Jeff Drobman

Westlake Village

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In 53 years of following the Dodgers, the report of players laughing and playing music after losing 10 of 11 games and being shut out five of six games is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard. I shudder to think what an old-school manager would do if he heard this in the clubhouse. The players would be benched, traded or sent to the minors.

Gary Cocayne

Santa Monica

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The Times reports that the Dodgers are still rockin’ the locker room, if not the playing field. While I’m no Rick Dees, I have compiled a playlist to be considered.

“ Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,” “Help!,” “Nothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing,” “I’m a Loser,” “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” “Running on Empty,” and for no particular reason, “Me and Bobby (Abreu) McGee.”

Marty Foster

Ventura

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What’s with this rehabbing in the minor leagues? If this were late September and the Dodgers were trailing the Giants by a game or less, would Matt Kemp and Mark Ellis be “rehabbing” in Rancho Cucamonga?

Jack Wishard

Los Angeles

Star-struck

Lance Pugmire is now wearing Bill Plaschke’s Dodgers jersey with its big blue letters across the back: “We may not be able to beat you on the field but we can still whine you to death!”

The seemingly never before revealed wisdom of Pugmire’s July 3 article [“Baseball’s Big Rig”] isn’t wise and it was already revealed long ago, the first year the fans started voting for the All-Star team. The only thing that got Pugmire’s rehash front and center on the Times’ sports section was a desire to take a shot at the Giants after they humiliated the Dodgers last week and pushed them out of first place.

Regardless of who voted for him, or why, Melky Cabrera deserves to be an All-Star. And doesn’t Buster Posey also deserve recognition for batting over .300, being on pace for 85 RBIs and being considered by many the smartest catcher in the league? Does Pablo Sandoval deserve to start ahead of David Wright? No, but these sort of mini-injustices started long before cellphone voting. And as long as fans elect the All-Star members, they will continue.

Thomas Bailey

Long Beach

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Baseball’s All-Star balloting procedures are no better than when America votes on reality shows.

It’s not the person who deserves it that wins, but the most popular or best marketing campaign who wins. Baseball needs to go back to where the players and managers have the majority say in who is having the better season and allow only a couple of players on the teams by fan vote. Otherwise it really isn’t what the All-Star game’s intentions originally were. You might as well change the name to the All-Popular game.

Steve Shaevel

Woodland Hills

Run this off

Will the U.S. Olympic Committee please accept the following bylaw revisions:

In the event a dead heat in the women’s 100 meters, the following shall occur:

A. Tell the IOC the USA is sending four runners in the 100 meters, thereby bumping some unqualified, poorly trained runner from an obscure country from an embarrassing 14-second spectacle in the first round.

B. If the IOC balks, the U.S. networks with broadcast rights shall crank up the heat until things are made right.

Brad Kearns

Auburn

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Pierre de Coubertin phrased the Olympic creed as “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part.... “

I am saddened and disappointed at the declined vision of USATF and the lack of compassion of Jeneba Tarmoh’s competitor, Allyson Felix, who already had made the Olympic team. Tarmoh will be remembered as a great Olympian who was never given a chance to take part, let alone to win.

With this decision, we have lost the true spirit of the Olympic Games.

Tennyson Wang

Long Beach

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In the Allyson Felix-Jeneba Tarmoh fiasco, wasn’t one of the options in determining the third spot in the 100 meters the flipping of a coin? Was Tarmoh afraid of losing that too?

Dan Anzel

Los Angeles

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