Smush Parker wants to team with Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom in Ice Cube's 'Big3' league
Never assume that Smush Parker is out of ideas.
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The former Los Angeles Lakers guard and Kobe Bryant combatant, last seen dominating (seriously) in the Mongolian and Tunisian basketball leagues, would like in on Ice Cube’s new three-on-three basketball league, the Big3.
He would like to slide back into the triangle offense, alongside Bryant and former teammate Lamar Odom, still in recovery after a reported drug overdose nearly took his life in 2015.
Parker, as you’d expect, made his suggestion on TMZ:
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Kobe?
The 35-year-old Parker hasn’t played in the NBA since 2008, when the Los Angeles Clippers waived him. He worked with Bryant for just two seasons in 2005-06 and 2006-07, causing enough lasting enmity for Kobe to call Parker “the worst” in 2012, with Parker’s defense coming in the form of asking Bryant and others to try and learn more about the “misunderstood” man they call “Smush.”
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Bryant, who turns 39 in August, walked away from the NBA in 2016 after a Hall of Fame career. Odom has not played in the NBA since a 2014 tryout with the New York Knicks ended without him playing a minute for the club.
Bryant might have been sturdy enough to drop 60 points in a game nine months ago, but he was the worst big-minute player in the NBA in 2015-16, and Parker (at age 35) is no spring chicken himself. Perhaps the only enthusiasm shared by both Kobe and Smush during their two-year stint playing alongside each other in Los Angeles was the glee the two took in breaking the triangle offense to chase down shot attempts, so that particular offense might not be much of a help in this instance.
It was nice of Smush Parker to bring a sense of awareness and … wait, no, check this out:
“I think back then, we were both immature versions of who we are today … we work well together and I wholeheartedly, no doubt in my mind, know that we could’ve been the best backcourt in Lakers history.”
Kobe couldn’t even achieve “best backcourt in Lakers history” status alongside Derek Fisher (or even Gary Payton or Steve Nash). But don’t try telling that to a man in Smush Parker who probably doesn’t want to be bothered with tales of Jerry West and 25.9-points-per-game scorer Gail Goodrich, or Magic Johnson and Michael Cooper.
How about just Smush Parker, one-on-three in the Big3, with Kobe Bryant commenting with full and an FCC-free range of movement when it came to cursing? Now that’s something we’d pay to see.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!