Nuggets make history for wrong reasons
JERRY CROWE
Text messages from press row ...
Are Kobe Bryant and the Lakers that good, or were Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets that inattentive and uninspired? . . .
The Nuggets, who made history two years ago in becoming the first team in NBA history to lose a playoff series to a team owned by Donald Sterling, this year became the first 50-win team to be swept out of the playoffs. . . .
Kudos to Phil Jackson's crew for taking advantage. . . .
Anthony, his May calendar wide open again this year, won more NCAA tournament games during his one season at Syracuse than he has won NBA playoff games in five seasons with the Nuggets. . . .
The Memphis Grizzlies, whose shuttling of Pau Gasol to the Lakers is the gift that keeps on giving, weren't the first team to trade him. . . .
In 2001, the Atlanta Hawks made Gasol the third pick in the NBA draft before sending Lorenzen Wright, Brevin Knight and Gasol's rights to the Grizzles for Shareef Abdur-Rahim and the rights to Jamaal Tinsley. . . .
The Boston Celtics, who've got their hands full already with Joe Johnson and Josh Smith, are lucky Gasol didn't stay in Atlanta. . . .
Johnson made like Michael Jordan on Monday night. . . .
For those keeping track, the Charlotte Bobcats will be the eighth NBA team coached by love-'em-and-leave-'em Larry Brown, who also coached two teams in the American Basketball Assn. and in college at UCLA and Kansas. . . .
Note to ABC's Michael Wilbon, who in naming Jerry West one of the NBA's top clutch performers cited West's memorable shot "to beat the Knicks in Game 3 of the 1970 Finals." As Lakers fans sadly know, the shot only tied the score, the Lakers lost in overtime and the Knicks won the series in seven games. . . .
If nothing else, adding shops and restaurants at Dodger Stadium will give fans a reason to visit in October, when all is usually quiet in Chavez Ravine. . . .
UCLA freshman Kevin Love co-stars in "Gunnin' For That #1 Spot," a documentary by Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys that debuted Monday night at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. . . .
Love and 23 other high school stars, Arizona-bound former Compton Dominguez High point guard Brandon Jennings among them, were brought together in the fall of 2006 for the "Elite 24" All-Star game at Harlem's famed Rucker Park, an outdoor court that has served as a proving ground for legends such as Julius Erving, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. . . .
