NBA News 2013: Andrew Bynum’s former high school administrators and coaches don’t get why he ‘act(s) like that’

Andrew Bynum of the Los Angeles Lakers. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Longtime Newark Star-Ledger columnist and possible Greatest Sportswriter Ever Dave D’Allesandro is always quick to trump up the merits of his Jersey Guys. The NBA is full of them, both in the playing and coaching ranks, and Andrew Bynum is still technically one of those Jersey Guys – even if he won’t play a single minute in a Philadelphia 76ers jersey during 2012-13.

Critics of Andrew Bynum aren’t hard to find. I rail against the guy constantly for his dangerous and stupid habits behind the wheel (driving on the wrong side of the road in order to illegally pass people, parking in handicapped spots while healthy), and others have gone after him for his iffy rehabilitation efforts or needless flagrant fouls. Dave D, in his latest column, dug a little deeper than that – talking to Bynum’s former high school coach and the athletics director of St. Joseph of Metuchen in order to draw up a little more dirt on a player who chooses not to be associated with his alma mater.

We’re all allowed the right to turn our back on whatever institution we choose – I live in the same town as the high school I graduated from and I’m not exactly pumping the red and black pom-poms of my Jefferson High School Bronchos. Andrew Bynum is a busy 25-year old professional that spent all but one of his seven NBA seasons playing out of Los Angeles, kinda far from Joisey, and his seventh season has been mostly confined to the Philadelphia 76ers’ rehabilitation center.

With that in place, how far do we have to go to find one person with anything nice to say about this guy?

We’ve spent all year piling on Andrew, and are hesitant to add to the chorus that Dave D describes as referring to Bynum as “a feckless clod victimized by his own negligence,” but this is also the gentleman that decided to take his skinned-up knees bowling last fall, possibly ending his season in the process.

Working at an NBA level with a lacking amount of cartilage in your knees is an incredibly painful situation, especially for someone Bynum’s height and weight. Still, it nearly goes without saying that he’s going to have to come through with an awfully impressive 2013-14 season (with whatever team signs him this summer) for us to re-think our perception that Andrew Bynum only maybe kinda sorta likes the game of basketball.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/andrew-bynum-former-high-school-administrators-coaches-don-204123676--nba.html

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NBA News 2012: 76ers Bynum hopeful of return

English: Andrew Bynum playing with the Los Angeles Lakers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Andrew Bynum still has pain in his left knee that has kept him from making his debut with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Bynum is in pain when he walks or attempts even light physical activity, except for swimming. He had been recovering from a bone bruise in his right knee and injured his left knee while bowling last month.

The 7-foot center will have his knees examined again Dec. 20th and did not know if he'd need an MRI.

''Worst case scenario, it's another month,'' he said Monday night. ''Best case scenario, I can ramp it up.''

Bynum has not or practiced or played for the Sixers since he was acquired in the offseason from the Los Angeles Lakers. Bynum said his right knee has improved to the point where he might have been able to play. He was again listed as inactive for Philadelphia's game against Detroit with ''bilateral bone bruises.''

''There's nothing I can do about it,'' he said. ''It's arthritis in the knees. Cartilage is missing. That's not going to regrow itself. Maybe in the future, next three to five years, there may be something out there that really does help. Right now, it's kind of a waiting game.''

Bynum, 25, is in the final year of his contract and could sign a five-year deal worth more than $100 million in the offseason, if he's healthy. But his uncertain status could be costing the All-Star millions.

Bynum won two NBA titles in seven seasons with the Lakers. The Sixers were hoping he could help them become one of the league's elite teams.

He has tried not to think about the fact he might never play for the Sixers.

''I really think I'll be fine,'' he said. ''If my left knee gets better, and feels like my right, I'll be playing.''

Bynum announced in May, while still a member of the Lakers, that he was going to Germany in September for the Orthokine blood-spinning treatment in his knees that other professional athletes have sought. The Sixers announced before training camp that Bynum needed to delay his return to allow the effects of the Orthokine treatment to work.

The bone bruise in his right knee caused the Sixers to push the return date from training camp to the regular season and now possibly to midseason.

But the Sixers are still looking long term with Bynum, who's in the last year of his contract.

Bynum said the Sixers haven't really put pressure on him to return.

''I think initially,'' he said, ''but then I realized more of the pressure was coming from myself. I just had to kind of relax a little bit and let this time pass.''

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/76ers-c-bynum-hopeful-return-235128506--nba.html

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NBA News 2012: Bynum's setback

Andrew Bynum (Photo credit: Keith Allison)

The Philadelphia 76ers fear All-Star center Andrew Bynum might have done additional damage to his knees while bowling, according to sources close to the situation.

Multiple sources told ESPN on Saturday that Bynum suffered an unspecified injury this month while bowling. On Friday, Bynum revealed that — on top of the issues with his right knee that could keep him sidelined until January — he also had suffered a “setback” with his left knee.

There are several activities that are prohibited in standard NBA player contracts, but bowling is not one of them. Bynum is known to enjoy bowling.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/source-bynums-setback-caused-by-bowling/

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NBA News 2012: Magic eye Lakers center Andrew Bynum

Andrew Bynum of the Los Angeles Lakers. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As the Orlando Magic work to unload superstar Dwight Howard, management is becoming increasingly focused on a potential trade package centered on Los Angeles Lakers All-Star center Andrew Bynum, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

The Lakers and Magic have had talks about a possible deal, and plan to talk further about constructing a trade. No deals are imminent, and the process has remained fluid as teams have begun to inquire with more serious offers for Howard.

Sources say there is one other trade scenario for a significant player that intrigues Magic general manager Rob Hennigan, but that target is unclear. Before the Magic would agree to consummate a trade for Bynum, they would need to know they could sign him to a contract extension, sources said. Bynum is entering the final year of his contract in the 2012-13 season.

What’s more, Bynum wouldn’t nearly be enough to satisfy Hennigan’s desires for a return on Howard. The Lakers would need to send draft picks and absorb long-term money off the Magic’s payroll, sources said.

The Lakers offered Bynum to the Magic for Howard at the March trade deadline, but the deal never materialized because Howard eventually waived his early termination option for this summer, and Orlando pulled Howard off the market.

The Magic are in no rush to make a deal for Howard, sources said. Howard is rehabilitating from back surgery in Los Angeles, and it’s unclear whether he would even be ready for the start of the regular season in November.

However positively the Magic feel about Bynum, they still need the Lakers to take back one of their expensive veteran contracts – Hedo Turkoglu or Jason Richardson – as part of any proposed trade. With Bynum, Orlando could use cap space to quickly retool its roster around him and become an Eastern Conference contender. Bynum is coming off his best season for the Lakers, averaging 18.7 points and 11.8 rebounds. Still, his immaturity at times left Lakers coaches and officials unsettled about his disposition to be an every-night dominant player.

Nevertheless, the Lakers believe that once they bring Howard into their winning culture, the Hollywood celebrity scene and tradition of great centers, that there’s no team elsewhere offering salary-cap space to sign him in 2013 that could get Howard to leave for less money than they could offer him with his Bird Rights. The Lakers have wanted to know that Howard would sign an extension should they trade for him, but with the Nets' salary cap space gobbled up, the chances of Howard agreeing to a deal will likely increase dramatically.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--magic-eye-lakers-center-andrew-bynum-as-target-in-potential-dwight-howard-trade.html;_ylt=ApOBf3pf3nIxgfN1hNOu9UC8vLYF

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NBA News 2012: Andrew Bynum showing more defensive ownership

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 13: Andrew Bynum #17 of the Los Angeles Lakers controls the ball against JaVale McGee #34 of the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center on April 13, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. The Lakers won 103-97. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
Bynum scored only 10 points in the Lakers' 103-88 Game 1 victory Sunday over the Denver Nuggets, but Lakers Coach Mike Brown rightly described him as the "difference in the game." Bynum didn't speak to reporters on the podium reserved for the game's top performers, but Kobe Bryant  predicted Bynum "takes the majority of the headlines." It remains to be seen if Bynum will become one of the Lakers' storied centers, who include George Mikan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O'Neal. But he's already linked to them in history.

Bynum's triple double featured 10 points, 13 rebounds and a Lakers playoff-record 10 blocks, eclipsing Kareem Abdul Jabbar's nine in 1977 against Golden State and tying an NBA playoff record co-owned by Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon and Utah's Mark Eaton.

"The bottom line is wins," Bynum said. "Obviously I want to score more points, but sometimes that's not what's available to you so you have to do the next best thing."

Bynum couldn't score many points because Denver shuffled in its frontline combinations quickly -- Nuggets Coach George Karl compared it to  hockey teams' switching lines. The Nuggets used an array of combinations, including Kosta Koufos, Al Harrington, JaVale McGee and Timofey Mozgov.  The strategy ensured that Bynum didn't equal the 24.8 points on 66.1% shooting he averaged in four regular-season games against Denver.

But it hardly worked in other areas.

Bynum quickly passed out of double teams to ensure fluid ball movement, helping the  starting lineup and Jordan Hill to post double figures. Bynum's  help in the lane contributed to  Ramon Sessions' holding Denver guard Ty Lawson to seven points. His seven-foot frame proved so intimidating that Harrington threw up an airball hook shot as he drove past Pau Gasol in one second-quarter sequence just to avoid Bynum. That was one example where Brown said Bynum "changed a gazillion shots in the paint."

"It makes us a championship-caliber team," Bryant said of Bynum's defensive presence.

But he hasn't displayed that characteristic consistently. Eighteen days ago, Bynum became the fifth player in Lakers history to grab 30 rebounds, in a game against San Antonio. But in five of his next six games, he averaged single digits in rebounds, and Brown actually sat Bynum out of last week's Oklahoma City game in the second quarter. After Jordan Hill surprised everyone with his energy and defense, Brown kept him in during the fourth quarter and subsequent overtimes.

Bynum may not replicate Sunday's blocked-shots total, but he needs to show that kind of commitment on defense.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakersnow/la-sp-ln-la-andrew-bynum-taking-20120429,0,5463645.story

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NBA News 2012: Andrew Bynum (10 blocks) ties NBA record for blocks in a playoff game

Photo of Los Angeles Lakers Andrew Bynum. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum blocked 10 Denver Nuggets shots on Sunday afternoon, a mark that tied an NBA playoff record, secured just the second points-rebounds-blocks triple-double in NBA postseason history, and helped the Lakers score a 103-88 victory in Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series.

Bynum scored 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting and corralled 13 rebounds to go with the 10 swats, posting the first postseason triple-double by a Laker since June 12, 1991, when Magic Johnson scored 16 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished 20 assists in the fifth and final game of the 1991 NBA Finals, won by the Chicago Bulls.

He is just the third player to post double-figure blocks in a playoff game, joining former Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton, who set the record by blocking 10 shots against the Houston Rockets on April 26, 1985, and Hall-of-Famer Hakeem Olajuwon, who tied Eaton's mark with 10 blocks against the Lakers on April 29, 1990. Olajuwon, too, posted a triple-double, scoring 11 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.

The 24-year-old Lakers center rejected attempts by Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried and Al Harrington in the first period, then got Lawson again in the second quarter to enter halftime with four blocks. He sent back two Faried tries in the first five minutes of the third quarter, got Harrington again and blocked an Andre Miller attempt to head into the fourth with eight blocks. His ninth block of the game, on a Danilo Gallinari layup attempt at the 6:11 mark of the fourth, tied a Laker playoff record previously held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Bynum took sole possession of the franchise mark by notching his 10th block with just over three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, sending back an optimistic lefty hook attempt (termed "kind of a hesitant move" by Bynum in a post-game interview) by Denver center Timofey Mozgov to stake his claim to a piece of NBA history.

After the game, Bynum told ABC sideline reporter Lisa Salters that the Laker bench told him "he needed two more [to get the record], and I was just jumping at everything trying to get it."

"You know, it was very big," Bynum said of the accomplishment. "It shows I can do two things out there, offense and defense. Today, I was just being an animal out there on defense and we won by 15. So maybe, you know, note to self: The more I play D, the better we'll be."

Recording 10 or more blocks in a game, while certainly not a regular occurrence, isn't necessarily the rarest accomplishment; it's been done 98 times since the 1985-86 season, according to Basketball-Reference.com's box score research tool. But it's only happened two other times in the playoffs, and while both Eaton and Olajuwon met with defeat in their 10-block playoff games, Bynum's Lakers exit the Staples Center with a 1-0 lead.

The 10-block playoff triple-double is just the latest career milestone in what has been Bynum's most productive season as a pro (and, also, a year at times fraught with controversy). In his seventh season since being drafted out of high school in 2005 and becoming the youngest player ever to appear in an NBA game, Bynum averaged a career-high 18.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game, earned his first All-Star selection and became one of just nine players since '85-'86 to snare 30 rebounds in a single game. Now, he's got one more achievement to add to his resume.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/andrew-bynum-10-blocks-ties-nba-record-blocks-224738606.html

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NBA News 2010: Where Does Andrew Bynum Rank Among NBA's Top Centers?

Image via WikipediaAndrew Bynum may be one of the most talented true centers to enter the NBA in some time, but it's hard to tell because so far his brief career has been defined by injuries.
When the Los Angeles Lakers selected Bynum with the 10th pick of the 2005 draft, general manager Mitch Kupchak envisioned a player in the mold of Kareem-Abdul-Jabbar, but that hasn't been the case.
Kareem has instilled his knowledge of the game in Bynum, and the youngster is blessed with plenty of fundamental talent, but his body has not been a willing participant in Bynum's quest to be a great center.
It may seem like Bynum has been around forever, but some people forget he was the youngest player ever to appear in a NBA regular season game. During his brief periods of health, Bynum has shown flashes of his potential.
The Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard is universally recognized as the NBA's top center, the league's most dominant physical force, and the defending NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
In terms of pure athleticism, Howard wins the battle easily, because he is simply the most intimidating post presence in the game today, but when it comes to the merits of a true center, Bynum has a place in the argument.
Bynum is much further along in the fundamental development of his game than Howard, and he has absorbed the tutelage of Abdul-Jabbar very well.
Bynum has a true back-to-the-basket game, great footwork in the paint, and he can spin to either shoulder and finish at the rim with either hand.
His true value however lies on the defensive end, because he has become an intimidating presence in his own right, and while Howard's defense is based on vicious blocks, Bynum's is rooted in philosophy.
Bynum's purpose on defense is to keep his opponent in front of him, and to defend the basket once the perimeter has been breached. He is not overly quick, but Bynum's seven foot frame lessens his recovery time if he is beaten in the post.
But protecting the basket was the area Bynum excelled in last season, and although he didn't account for a ton of blocks, he did alter the trajectory of numerous shots.
I would give the edge to Howard simply because he is a more dominant player than Bynum, but in truth Howard doesn't really fit the profile of a true NBA center.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/439277-where-does-andrew-bynum-rank-among-the-nbas-top-centers

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