Jalen Brunson entered a sports pantheon reserved for legendary figures. Names such as Ruth, Mantle, Jeter, Taylor, Namath, Reed, and Frazier are revered in New York.

Brunson added his name to this exclusive club after leading the New York Knicks to their first NBA title since 1973. Brunson will be worshiped like a conquering hero for the rest of his life. His story will be told thousands of times. There will be a generation of young players who will emulate him. His legend will only grow as time passes.

Because he brought home an NBA championship to New York, Brunson earned a special badge of honor. When you win a basketball chip for New York, you get extra special treatment and recognition. He is arguably the greatest Knickerbocker. Basketball is deeply embedded in the fabric of New York. There are dozens of basketball courts spread across the five boroughs. And outside of a few pockets of Nets fans across Brooklyn, the vast majority of New Yorkers are Knicks fans.

“People don’t understand the weight of that jersey,” Knicks forward Josh Hart, Brunson’s teammate at Villanova, said about being a New York Knick.

Brunson understood the weight of wearing a New York Knicks jersey. He understood the assignment when he signed a team-friendly four-year, $104 million free agent contract in 2022. In four years, Brunson did something other Knicks greats like Patrick Ewing, Bernard King, and Carmelo Anthony couldn’t do. The fan base loved all of them. But none of them completed the job. Brunson was the one who carried the Knicks across the finish line. He won a chip. He ended decades of heartache and misery for a proud franchise.

Brunson has only been a New York Knick for four years, but winning a championship puts him on a whole different level.

“He’s a top-three MVP candidate,” Knicks head coach Mike Brown said of his point guard, who received the Bill Russell award for winning MVP of the 2026 NBA Finals.

“People say he’s too small,” Brown said. “People say he’s a 1-B or 2-B or whatever. He is a freaking 1-A. He is an MVP candidate, and I hope — and I’m talking to the media more than the fans — I hope you guys recognize what this man is about because he is an A1 MVP. He is him. He is him.

“Jalen Brunson is him when it comes to New York basketball. He is freaking him, man.”

Brunson, who is listed at 6-2, became the fourth second-round pick to win Finals MVP. The last second-round pick to win Finals MVP was Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic in 2023.

Despite winning two NCAA titles at Villanova, Brunson kept hearing the same negative scouting reports. Too short. Too slow. But all he does is win. He keeps proving the doubters wrong. He certainly made a believer out of the San Antonio Spurs.

The Knicks captain averaged 32.6 points per game in the five-game series against the Spurs. He didn’t shoot particularly well (42.1% from the field), but he was magical when it mattered most. He scored 15 of his 45 points in the fourth quarter of Game 5. It was the most points scored in a road close-out game of the NBA Finals since Michael Jordan did it in 1998.

Game 5 played out the same as the previous four Finals games. The Spurs jumped out to a big lead in the first quarter. The Knicks slowly chipped away. The Spurs struggled to close out the game. Once the game got tight, it was Brunson — dubbed Captain Clutch for making big shots in the weighty moments — who seized the moment and put the Knicks on his back.

Brunson made a driving layup with 4:38 left in the fourth to tie the game at 83, capping off a 10-0 Knicks run. Then with 3:40 remaining, he drew a foul on Devin Vassell while shooting a 3-point shot. He knocked down all three free throws to give the Knicks the lead at 86-85.

Karl-Anthony Towns picked up his fifth foul with 1:53 left while defending 7-foot-5 Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs pushed the lead to 88-86 after Wemby made one of two free throws.

After Spurs rookie Dylan Harper tied the game at 88 with a short turnaround jumper in the paint, Brunson delivered a quick and decisive response on the next possession as he dribbled past Stephon Castle, who made him work for every shot in the series, with a floater from inside the dotted lines to give the Knicks the lead at 90-88 with 1:06 remaining in the game.

The Knicks never relinquished the lead. Brunson finished Game 5 making 14 of 27 shots from the field and four of seven 3-pointers. It was his fourth game with 30-plus points. No other Knick scored more than 14 points in Game 5, and only four tallied double figures.

“He is generationally great offensively,” Knicks guard Landry Shamet said of Brunson, the NBA’s clutch player of the year in 2025.

“There’s not a whole lot to say,” Shamet added. “We all saw it. He carried us in many different ways. What he does is not really a surprise to us anymore.”

When a reporter asked Brunson if he felt any added pressure to deliver a title to New York, he said there was “no pressure whatsoever.”

“I’ve described pressure in the past, my dad being on eight or nine unguaranteed contracts for his career,” Brunson said. “Not knowing whether he’ll get cut, when a team needs to move on from you while your family is on the East Coast or wherever you are in the country, that’s pressure.”

Jalen Brunson witnessed his dad, Rick, work out three times a day in the summertime and watched him push himself just to get a training camp call-up. He said that was real pressure.

“I’m very fortunate to be in the position I am, and I’d like to think I’ve worked pretty hard,” the 29-year-old Brunson said. “So when an opportunity presents itself like it did [in Game 5], I just trust my work. I’m never afraid to fail.”

Brunson has skyrocketed into the national consciousness this postseason after barely being a blip on the radar. The NBA is seeing historic viewership thanks to Brunson’s Knicks and Wemby’s Spurs. The Knicks-Spurs series averaged nearly 20 million viewers, the highest viewership in 28 years. The basketball world is now seeing what New York has known.

Euphoric New Yorkers flooded the streets to celebrate the Knicks’ historic moment, many of them chanting Brunson’s name. One New York superfan captured what many Knicks fans feel about their newest idol.

“Jalen Brunson is my doctor. He’s my engineer. He’s my mechanic. He’s my subway driver. He’s my pilot. He’s my dad,” the fan said.

“Everything I did was for Jalen Brunson.”

The Knicks had four winning seasons in a 21-year span before Brunson arrived. They’ve had four winning seasons since Brunson’s arrival. They’ve now won eight playoff series with Brunson in the lineup; they won seven series, total, from 1998 through 2022. With Brunson leading the way, the Knicks have been to two conference semifinals, two conference finals, and one NBA Finals.

After completing a season in which he led the Knicks to an NBA Cup title and the franchise’s first NBA title in five decades, it’s safe to say that Jalen Brunson has earned the title of KNY — King of New York.

Joel Huerto is editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. He hosts a sports podcast on YouTube @onemanfastbreak1.

Love it or hate, the NBA Cup is here to stay. And years from now, we’re going to look at it differently.

The New York Knicks became the latest team win the NBA Cup, defeating the San Antonio Spurs 124-113 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It’s the first time in 52 years that the Knicks have ever won anything in the NBA. The last time New Yorkers celebrated a professional basketball title, Knicks superfan Spike Lee was only 16 years old.

Lee, now 68, witnessed his beloved Knicks beat Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs in Las Vegas. Wembanyama, 21, wasn’t even born yet the last time the Knicks reached a championship game. It was 1999 and the grit-and-grind Knicks were coached by Jeff Van Gundy and spearheaded by Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley, John Starks, and Anthony Mason.

Now, the Knicks can finally hang a banner at Madison Square Garden next to NBA titles won in 1970 and 1973 thanks to a new group of gritty guys, headed by Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Karl-Anthony Towns.

“This is on the road to an NBA championship,” Lee said on “NBA Nightcap” on Amazon Prime. It’s a great day. It’s not done yet. It’s a tough league. It’s gonna be a fight.”

Brunson put on an MVP performance in Vegas, scoring 40 points in the semifinal win over the Orlando Magic and 25 points in the championship game against the Spurs.

The former Villanova standout is playing at an elite level. New York Knicks coach Mike Brown hammered home a specific point he’s been making in recent weeks — that Brunson, even this early in the season, belongs in the regular-season MVP conversation.

“He makes the game easier for everybody,” Brown said. “That’s what MVPs are supposed to do, and he definitely did that tonight. … At the end of the day, he carries you home. It’s beautiful to be able to see him do what he’s more than capable of doing on a national stage like this, in an environment like this. Hopefully you guys as media and the fans out there can continue talking about him as an MVP of this league because that’s exactly what he is.”

If Brunson keeps playing this way, the MVP case is going to get even more compelling.

He was the NBA’s clutch player of the year last season, so it’s not like he’s been ignored by voters. Brown just wants him to be in the hunt for a bigger trophy.

“You see a lot of other great candidates that are well-deserving but I don’t ever hear Jalen’s name,” Brown said. “When you’re first or second in either conference, and you’re putting up the numbers that he’s putting up, his name’s got to be one of the first names coming out of somebody’s mouth.”

For the past three years since its inception, the NBA Cup has seen its share of detractors. One of the loudest critics is The Athletic’s John Hollinger, who suggested that the in-season tournament forced players to play more games leading to potential injuries.

Critics also say the whole thing is a gimmick, from the outrageously loud and colorful courts to the somewhat confusing group tiebreakers.

Say what you want about the NBA Cup, at least the NBA is making an effort to make waves in the fall season and put a small dent on the NFL’s stranglehold on viewership.

It appears to be working. The NBA has seen a surge in fan interest in the early portion of the 2025-26 season, with a 92% bump in viewership for nationally televised games. Thanks to new broadcast partners NBC and Amazon Prime, joining ABC/ESPN, the league is enjoying its best viewership numbers in 15 years.

But the biggest win so far is the fact that the players are embracing the NBA Cup. They competed hard each and every night the Cup games were held, injecting a playoff-type atmosphere that has resulted in some fantastic games.

“This is not a typical regular-season game,” Wembanyama said after beating the Oklahoma City Thunder in the semifinals. “We knew if that if we lose, we’re out. And you know, some people are built for these moments. Some aren’t. But we definitely are.”

The NBA Cup games in Las Vegas have replaced the league’s Christmas Day lineup as the Association’s marquee event of the fall. It hasn’t overtaken the NFL yet, but in three short years it has generated a lot of buzz and made the early portion of the season far more interesting.

The NBA Cup final didn’t count in the standings, and the stats won’t be added to any official totals. A trophy was at stake and $533,000 cash bonus for the winning team.

It was the third different finals matchup in the NBA Cup — which was initially referred to as the In-Season Tournament. During its inception, the L.A. Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers. In the second year, Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Milwaukee Bucks to a convincing victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Add the New York Knicks to the champions list.

“The Cup is special. I think you saw tonight, here in Vegas the semifinals and finals, it brought out the best in all the teams,” Knicks center Towns said while proudly wearing a championship T-shirt.

“For us to be in a position to say that we won and we’re the champions, and to have this dope-ass shirt on with the Knicks saying as champions is humbling and an honor.”

Tom Thibodeau did something no New York Knicks head coach hadn’t been able to do in 25 years. Make the Knicks relevant again.

In his fifth season, Thibodeau led New York to a top-three seed in the Eastern Conference. However, the playoff run ended in disappointment, as the Knicks fell to Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers in the conference finals.

Just as Thibs seemed poised to lead the Knicks back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, the rug was pulled from under him. In a major shift, the Knicks fired the defensive-minded Thibodeau and replaced him with Mike Brown, a coach known for favoring a faster tempo. Brown, a disciple of Steve Kerr’s pace-and-space methodology that powered the Golden State Warriors to four NBA championships in eight years, brings a new approach.

Brown takes over a Knicks squad led by reigning Clutch Player of the Year Jalen Brunson.

Brunson, who averaged 26.0 points and 7.3 assists per game last season, is the unquestioned leader of the Knicks and arguably the franchise’s best star player since Patrick Ewing. Brunson, along with Knicks teammates Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges, played college ball at Villanova.

In Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, the Knicks have one of the best guard-center combos in the league, and Brown will lean on both to help him establish a more diversified offensive attack.

Towns fit in seamlessly with the Knicks and earned a fifth All-Star selection. OG Anunoby, Bridges, and Hart formed a sturdy perimeter wall, locking down opposing wings and bringing toughness on both ends of the floor. The Knicks, with their core under contract for the next few years, are well-positioned to contend for a championship. The last time the Knicks won an NBA title, “The French Connection” won Best Picture at the Oscars. That was 54 years ago.

OneManFastBreak projects the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference.

1-New York Knicks — Devastating Achilles’ injuries to Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton open the door for the Knicks to climb into the top spot and become beast of the East. The addition of free agents Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele should bolster the Knicks bench.

2-Cleveland Cavaliers — The Cavs won 64 regular-season games a season ago but got bounced early in the postseason. The pressure is on All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell to help the Cavs rebound from last season’s disappointing finish.

3-Detroit Pistons — Cade Cunningham took his game to a new level under J.B. Bickerstaff. Motor Cade got a taste of the postseason last season, and another year under his belt will only increase his stock. Jaden Ivey returns to the lineup after missing 52 games due to a knee injury.

4-Milwaukee Bucks — Giannis Antetokounmpo is coming off a superb summer, leading his Greek national team to a bronze medal at EuroBasket. As long as the Greek Freak is healthy and happy, the Bucks will always be a threat.

5-Orlando Magic — The addition of shooting guard Desmond Bane should make life a little easier for Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero. Wagner is coming off a sensational summer after helping Germany win a gold medal at EuroBasket.

6-Atlanta Hawks — The Hawks opted not to offer point guard Trae Young a max extension. Trae will be highly motivated to show the Hawks that he’s worth the $229 million investment.

7-Miami Heat — Heat Culture took a hit last season, winning only 37 games and finishing 12th in the conference. Erik Spoelstra won’t let it happen again, and he’ll have a new spark plug in Norman Powell to fire up the offense.

8-Boston Celtics — Tatum’s Achilles’ tear drastically alters the Celtics’ plans for this season, but it doesn’t mean they are going to tank. Finals MVP Jaylen Brown is still on the roster, and expect expanded roles for Payton Pritchard and Derrick White.

Play-In teams: Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers

Mike Brown was fired as Lakers coach after a 1-4 start in the 2012-13 season. (GETTY IMAGES)

So, the Los Angeles Lakers decided to fire Mike Brown on Friday afternoon just 71 games into his Laker coaching career.

I thought it was a horrible time to make the move, to be brutally honest. The Lakers had several new key players (Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, and Antawn Jamison) and a brand new system to install, the Princeton offense. Howard’s clearly not 100% yet, Nash got hurt and Jamison’s playing time was severely limited. That last one is the only real problem I had with Brown, his substitution pattern was highly questionable.

There is no way Bernie Bickerstaff is the permanent replacement and L.A. general manager Mitch Kupchak confirmed that at the press conference. So, let’s take a look at the options to replace Brown:

Phil Jackson

This is the one Lakers fans want to take place. NBA insiders are mixed on whether or not he would come back. The fact Howard is asking for Jackson to return has to be an ego booster for Phil, and he is reportedly in good physical health. Bringing back the Zen-master for a third time would be ideal because he is familiar with most of the players and Howard would give him one of the best big men he has ever had.

Mike D’Antoni

D’Antoni would bring a high-octane offense and has experience coaching Steve Nash in Phoenix and Kobe in the Olympics, but it just wouldn’t be that feasible to run older players like Kobe, Nash, and Pau Gasol ragged. They wouldn’t have much left in the tank for the postseason. However, he and Jackson have to be the favorites to be the Lakers’ next coach.

Nate McMillan

McMillan doesn’t have a flashy career coaching record. He has won just 51.4% of his 930 career games, but when you look a little closer it isn’t a big deal. Not when he coached in Seattle at the end of Gary Payton’s tenure there and they went into rebuild mode. And he was the architect of rebuilding the Trail Blazers, winning just 21 and 32 games the first two years, but they improved enough to win 54 games.

Byron Scott has only won 45.8% of his games, but very few people would say he can’t coach. Very few coaches that take over reclamation projects post gaudy win-loss records. The knock on him is his playoff record (just 14 wins and 20 losses), but he has never had the talent he would have in L.A.

Brian Shaw was the smart choice when Phil walked away, but it’s unlikely Shaw would return after the way things ended before. And I just don’t see Jerry Sloan coming to Los Angeles after the way his tenure ended in Utah with Deron Williams.

Despite my initial reaction when I heard Brown was fired, I think Jackson will see the moves the Lakers made in the offseason and ultimately decide to come back. Especially, if Jeanie Buss has anything to say about it. Women have their ways of getting what they want.

Darren Jacks is a regular contributor to OneManFastBreak.net. Send him an email at: djroxalot@hotmail.com

Head coach Mike Brown and point guard Steve Nash are still searching for their first win together. (GETTY IMAGES)

Things went from bad to worse for the L.A. Lakers, as starting point guard Steve Nash will be sidelined for at least one week after suffering a small fracture in his left leg.

The Lakers announced the results of their point guard’s MRI exam Saturday, throwing yet another complication into their dismaying start to the season.

Nash got hurt in a collision with Damian Lillard on Wednesday night, bumping legs with the Portland rookie in the second quarter. The two-time NBA MVP attempted to keep playing in the second half, but quickly left the game again.

Nash missed the Lakers’ 105-95 loss to the Clippers on Friday night, dropping the Lakers to 0-3 for the first time in 34 years and just the fourth time in franchise history. The Lakers host Detroit on Sunday night.

The Lakers initially announced Nash had simply bruised his leg, but the MRI exam revealed a small fracture on the head of his fibula. Such injuries vary widely in their severity, and the Lakers will re-evaluate Nash next weekend.

Coach Mike Brown acknowledges Nash is the key to the Princeton-style offensive sets installed by the Lakers this fall, but the star guard looked just as uncomfortable as his teammates in that offense during the Lakers’ 0-8 preseason and again in the regular season.

The Lakers have committed 59 turnovers in their three games, including 20 against the Clippers.

”For us, I guess it’s been the same song the last couple of games,” Brown said Friday night. ”We played well in stretches, moved the ball well, moved our bodies well, we get great looks, and then we get bogged down by turnovers. … We gave ourselves 20 less opportunities to get a bucket. It negates everything else that you’ve done out there.”

The 38-year-old Nash joined the Lakers last July for his 17th NBA season, agreeing to a three-year, $27 million contract before his trade from Phoenix. He embraced his role as a facilitator with the Lakers, committing himself to setting up Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard in Brown’s motion offense.

From the Associated Press

Steve Nash left Phoenix for Los Angeles to have an opportunity to win his first championship. (GETTY IMAGES)

After a second straight postseason where they lost in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers decided to go all in and make a run at a few more NBA titles.

They started by trading very little (future low level first-round picks in 2013 and 2015, plus a couple of second-round picks) to the Phoenix Suns for perennial All-Star point guard Steve Nash. They were able to acquire Nash (who signed a three-year deal worth $27 million) because of the trade exception they got in return for Lamar Odom when they traded him to the Dallas Mavericks.

Nash gives the Lakers an immediate upgrade over Ramon Sessions. Sessions played well for the Lakers at times after his trade from the Cavs (for Luke Walton and a first-round pick), but he was unable to create opportunities for the rest of the Lakers like Nash will surely be able to do. Nash will give L.A. the best pure point guard they have had since Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

Antawn Jamison was signed to come off the bench and help the worst backup unit (scoring wise) in the NBA. Jamison averaged 17 points per game and six rebounds per game as a starter for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He won’t be expected to start, but he will be available to provide about 22-25 minutes. He can play some at power forward and small forward in a big lineup, and his outside shooting will be an asset.

The capper on all the offseason moves was the biggest blockbuster in many years when they acquired Dwight Howard from the Orlando Magic. They basically traded Andrew Bynum to the Philadelphia 76ers in order to get Howard. Howard’s offense isn’t as good as Bynum’s, but he provides a better rebounder and defender, plus 100% hustle all the time. Too often, Bynum was lackadaisical on defense and rebounding the ball. Not to mention, he developed a penchant for shooting 3-pointers last season.

They also acquired Jodie Meeks to back up Kobe Bryant. Meeks and Nash should be able to help a poor outside shooting attack last season, as L.A. was 25th in 3-point shooting.

Add all this to the present cast of Kobe at shooting guard, Pau Gasol at power forward, and Ron Artest/Metta World Peace at small forward. They have one of the best starting units in the league and have an improved bench. That was strengthened when the Lakers re-signed Jordan Hill, who was acquired around the trade deadline for a first-round pick and Derek Fisher.

The biggest question is how will all these new parts fit. Well, if it was Mike Brown’s stagnant offense of last year when everybody watched Kobe handle the ball and end up shooting too often, it would be much worse. However, Brown recognized he needed help on the offensive end and went out and brought in Eddie Jordan.

He runs the Princeton offense, which is a motion offense and requires a lot of ball movement. So, in that aspect it is very similar to the triangle offense Phil Jackson ran when he was with the Lakers. Jordan learned it in the 1990s when he was an assistant coach with Pete Carril during their time with the Sacramento Kings. Carril ran the Princeton offense for years at the Ivy League school when he coached there from 1967-96. Jordan ran it in 2002 and 2003 when he was an assistant under Byron Scott with the New Jersey Nets. But, he failed in one season with the Philadelphia 76ers as the head coach. However, he made the playoffs in four of five seasons when he was the head man with the Washington Wizards.

You need the right players to run it, just like the triangle. And the Lakers have a very good passing big man in Gasol, a very good scorer in Kobe, and an aging but still solid PG in Nash. Howard gives them a luxury in having an elite big man who can do a little bit of everything.

The bench should be much improved, the defense will be even better with Howard and the offense should suit the players more than last year. L.A. has the players to make another championship run for a couple seasons before Kobe rides off to the sunset. It’s just a matter of executing the offense and defense. There are no excuses for the Lakers who have gone out and made another flashy makeover to their team.

Projected finish in Pacific Division: First

Darren Jacks is a regular contributor to OneManFastBreak.net. Send him an email at: djroxalot@hotmail.com.

Forward Antawn Jamison averaged 17 points and six rebounds for the Cleveland Cavaliers last season. (GETTY IMAGES)

Antawn Jamison has reportedly agreed to a one-year deal at the veteran’s minimum to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, reuniting him with his former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown.

Jamison’s deal with the Lakers was a bit of a surprise since many thought he would choose the Charlotte Bobcats because he is from North Carolina, where he played high school and college basketball. The Brooklyn Nets also made a bid to get his services as they try to assemble another super power in the Eastern Conference.

But, it’s apparent Jamison clearly wants to pursue a championship, and L.A.’s championship hopes were bolstered by the acquisition of Steve Nash through a sign-and-trade with the Phoenix Suns.

Jamison had a good season as a starter for the Cavaliers this past season, averaging 17.2 points and 6.3 rebounds. For his career, Jamison has been a consistent player, usually on bad teams such as Golden State and Washington. He has a career scoring average of 19.5.

A lot of people might not like the decision because Jamison doesn’t play defense, but that isn’t the biggest need for the Lakers. The Lakers improved their team defense in their first year under Brown. Jamison will most likely come off the bench for the Lakers, something he did in 2003-04 when he was a member of the Dallas Mavericks (he averaged 14.8 points for the Mavs).

The Lakers are hoping Jamison can bring some much-needed scoring punch. Matt Barnes was the leading scorer off the bench last season and offense isn’t Barnes’ forte. Jamison is an instant upgrade to their bench and he can be the main guy on the second unit, plus he can come in and relieve Pau Gasol at power forward and play with the starters and help stretch the defense with his outside shooting.

If the Lakers decide to go all out in their pursuit of Dwight Howard, they could offer Andrew Bynum and Gasol for Howard and another contract — possibly Hedo Turkoglu or Jason Richardson. They could start Jamison at PF and his perimeter game could be a nice complement to Howard’s inside game. That’s if the Lakers decide to include Gasol in the deal, but they haven’t to this point. They seem intent on getting a third team involved that can offer young talent and draft picks to the Magic.

In any case, Jamison has helped improve the Lakers’ chances of getting back to the NBA Finals.

Darren Jacks is a regular contributor to OneManFastBreak.net. Send him an email at djroxalot@hotmail.com.

L.A. Lakers reserve forward Devin Ebanks lost his cool in playoff game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. (GETTY IMAGES)

Taking your jersey off after getting ejected from a basketball must for a L.A. Lakers thing. Last season, when the Lakers were swept by the Dallas Mavericks, Lakers center Andrew Bynum decked Mavs guard J.J. Barea and on his way to the locker room he rips off his jersey as he walked off the court in Dallas.

In Monday’s 119-90 blowout loss in Oklahoma City, Ebanks channeled his inner Bynum by doing almost exactly the same thing. After a tussle occurred during a loose ball, Ebanks shoved Thunder guard Royal Ivey and got a technical for it. When he continued to mouth off, he got a second technical and was thrown out of the game.

On his way to the locker room, Ebanks slams a chair on the Lakers bench and then ripped off his jersey. “You just can’t lose your cool like that,” Lakers coach Mike Brown said. Watch the classless act:

Watch Bynum’s ejection from the 2011 playoffs against the Mavericks:

Lakers center Andrew Bynum is all smiles after posting a triple-double against Denver. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

There are different sides of Andrew Bynum. There’s the immature side in which he tends to act like an 8-year-old kid who pouts when scolded. Then there’s the mature side in which he looks like the most dominant big man in the basketball

The 24-year-old center scored just 10 points on five shots against the Denver Nuggets, but Lakers head coach Mike Brown said the biggest reason why the Lakers are up 1-0 in the seven-game series is the very large man wearing No. 17 in gold.

“He can control a game without shooting a single shot if he wanted to. That’s how good he is.” Brown said of Bynum, who joined Mark Eaton and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players in NBA history to record 10 blocks in a playoff.

“He had 10 blocks, but I’m curious to see how many he probably changed,” Brown said. “He changed a gazillion shots in the paint, and that’s where Denver is good at. He was phenomenal. His impact on the game was absolutely monstrous. He was an absolute beast down there.”

Bynum also grabbed 13 rebounds to finish with a triple double in 35 minutes in a 103-88 win for the third-seeded Lakers.

“If he continues to play like he did, picking up the triple double, being the type of monster he was tonight patrolling the paint, we’ll be playing a long time,” said Brown.

Bynum’s game has been on an uptick ever since he has gotten his troublesome knees corrected. This season he posted career highs in points (18.7), rebounds (11.8) and minutes per game (35). Because he plays on a team with two popular All-Stars in Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, Bynum often gets overlooked by the casual fan. But his development and impact on the game is certainly not lost on his proud head coach.

“I look at Andrew’s game similar to a Willie Roaf or something like that. A great offensive lineman. You don’t know what they do down there in the trenches because it always doesn’t show up in the stats. And that’s where I go back to Andrew changing a lot of shots. He probably changed just as many as he blocked,” Brown said.

“Willie Roaf and Antony Munoz, even though they made it to the Hall of Fame, that’s not what the headlines are about after a big win.”

After the Lakers’ big win on Sunday, the headline should read: Bynum the Beast.

Lakers star Kobe Bryant is surrounded by reporters at the team's practice facility in El Segundo. (US PRESSWIRE)

You can’t blame Kobe Bryant for looking and feeling a little surly these days.

On the eve of training camp and the start of the 2011 free agency period, the Lakers thought they had All-Star point guard Chris Paul in a three-team deal. Just hours after the CP3 trade began circulating, commissioner David Stern nixed the trade citing the NBA-owned New Orleans Hornets were not getting enough in return.

Days after the Paul trade fell apart, the Lakers moved popular teammate Lamar Odom, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, to the defending champion Dallas Mavericks. How did Bryant react to the news? He said “I hope management knows what they’re doing!” Not exactly a ringing endorsement for general manager Mitch Kupchak and team executive Jim Buss.

Then, on Wednesday, the Clippers – the junior varsity team of Staples Center – landed the coveted Paul, and the Twitterverse started blowing up with plenty of chatter on how the Clippers have now surpassed the Lakers as the No. 1 in Los Angeles.

Two days later, on a very windy Friday afternoon in Southern California, TMZ reported that Kobe’s wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences” and asked for joint custody of the couple’s two daughters. TMZ said Vanessa is ending the 10-year marriage because Kobe has been unfaithful.

Talk about a rough last 48 hours for the Black Mamba! No wonder he left Friday’s practice without speaking to the media and was extra terse with reporters on Thursday when he was asked about the CP3 deal to the crosstown rival Clippers.

Despite all the trouble in Lakerland, Kobe Bryant remains focused on the task at hand, which is to chase his sixth NBA championship ring and a 17th title to the Lakers franchise.

Bryant reportedly looks great in practice and his troublesome knee seems to be healing well. Bryant still has 7-footers Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum to lean on offensively and defensively, and he still has good friend Derek Fisher by his side when things get crazy in the locker room. Newly acquired forward Josh McRoberts is a terrific athlete who will add energy and punch off the bench, and could start on occasion should Bynum or Gasol gets hurt. And don’t think for one second that the Lakers are done wheeling and dealing. They are still in play to obtain All-Star center Dwight Howard and they are still in the market for a point guard.

There are lots of questions left to be answered for the Lakers, including how the team will function without Phil Jackson’s trusty triangle offense and how long it will take them to trust first-year head coach Mike Brown. But one thing is for certain, Kobe Bryant is still one of the best players in the league and he will never allow the Lakers to play second-fiddle to anyone, especially the Clippers.

Kobe will file all the negativity surrounding his life and use them as motivation. Don’t ever count out Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.