Lakers forward Julius Randle doesn’t look at home at Dallas
It was not the best homecoming for Julius Randle.
His Lakers team dropped a 90-82 game to the Dallas Mavericks and his play wasn’t that good either.
Randle missed seven of his nine shots and turned the ball over six times. He did have 10 rebounds.
“Regardless, I don’t care where we’re at, I just want to get the win,” Randle said. “It’s upsetting.”
Randle, who grew up outside of Dallas and attended Prestonwood Christian High in Plano, Texas, played in American Airlines Center for the first time Friday night.
But he did attend Mavericks games when the Lakers came to town.
“From sixth grade on, I pretty much came to every Lakers game they played,” Randle said.
Randle recalled how he had courtside seats when he watched Kobe Bryant, Metta World Peace and Lamar Odom play for the Lakers against the Mavericks.
“I watched those guys and was going crazy,” Randle said, smiling. “I was sitting next to [Dallas owner] Mark Cuban’s wife It was fun.”
Moment of silence for Paris
Before the Lakers and Mavericks played Friday night, there was a moment of silence for those killed in the horrific Paris attacks.
“I don’t think there are words to describe it. It’s tragic,” Bryant said after the game. “All we can do is just pray, try to figure out the root of it all and try to do the best we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again. There is evil in the world. The best thing we can do is to try to protect our children from it.”
Bryant was asked what he would say to the victims’ families.
“We’re all praying for you,” Bryant said. “We’re all praying for you.”
Etc.
In keeping with the spirit of this possibly being Bryant’s last season, a local reporter asked Lakers Coach Byron Scott if Bryant was the greatest Laker of them all.
Scott, who played with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points, and Magic Johnson and played with Bryant his rookie season in 1996-97, couldn’t quite give it to Bryant alone.
“I think if you talk about those in general, those two [Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson] and plus Kobe, are probably the three greatest Lakers,” Scott said.
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