OAKLAND (KCBS) – Playing with a sprained right ankle, Stephen Curry had 25 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds as the Warriors beat the Lakers 109-103 at the Oracle Arena Monday night.

“I don’t mean to be a ten cent psychologist,” John Madden told the KCBS morning crew, “but I think if you have an injury, you tend to concentrate a little more… Not that I would ever recommend it, but you know a guy gets hurt, or (has) an ankle sprain, you know, twists a knee or something like that, and then he plays better.”

Former NFL quarterback Vince Young may be looking to make a comeback when he takes part in Texas’ Pro Day in Austin Tuesday.

“If you’re a coach or a scout, you want to look at that guy,” Madden said, noting Young’s ability to run the option. “You know where he was, and you think ‘doggone it if there’s not an injury or something like that, it still has to be there somewhere, and I’m going to be the guy that finds it.'”

Young didn’t play last year after being cut by the Buffalo Bills. (7:20)

Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

OAKLAND (Bleacher Report) — Unlikely as it is to sustain momentum for four whole years, the Golden State Warriors are building something already.

Their new waterfront arena in San Francisco is planned for 2017. It will be a game changer in every way, turning an admirable niche team in Oakland into a mainstream, marquee destination in San Francisco.

Up there rivaling the mighty big-city names of the Knicks, Bulls and Lakers will be the Warriors.

So it was a particularly interesting point that Warriors coach Mark Jackson insisted on making Monday night. Jackson’s team overwhelmed the Lakers in Oakland, and he wanted everyone to know that the story wasn’t just the Lakers losing.

The Warriors have been winning, and they deserve some respect for it.

READ MORE from Bleacher Report on the Warriors momentum…

(Copyright 2013 CBS San Francisco & Bleacher Report. All rights reserved.)

OAKLAND (CBS / AP) — Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut sprained his surgically repaired left ankle against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.

Warriors coach Mark Jackson said Bogut would not make the trip to Los Angeles for Friday night’s game against the Lakers.

Bogut exited Golden State’s 116-97 loss with 2:55 remaining in the first quarter. He went to the locker room for observation and did not return to the bench.

The 7-footer from Australia has missed 48 of 79 games this season, most due to the ankle he broke in January 2012 before coming over in a trade that sent Monta Ellis to Milwaukee. He had microfracture surgery on the ankle last April. Thursday night was his 19th straight game played.

The Warriors already have clinched a playoff berth.

(Copyright 2013 CBS San Francisco. All rights reserved.)

OAKLAND (Bleacher Report) — It was not too long ago that Dwight Howard turned down the thought of playing for the lowly Golden State Warriors. It was also not long ago that Howard received an elbow in the face from Warriors forward David Lee and responded with “I will remember.”

Howard is now reportedly remembering the Warriors’ surprising surge through the first round of the Western Conference playoffs and taking the San Antonio Spurs to six games in the second round.

Howard is now said to be considering the Warriors in free agency this off-season along with the Lakers, Atlanta Hawks, Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks.

READ MORE from Bleacher Report on the possibility of Howard becoming a Warrior.

(Copyright 2013 CBS San Francisco and Bleacher Report. All rights reserved.)

OAKLAND (CBS SF) — The Golden State Warriors will open the 2013-14 regular season at home at Oracle Arena against the Los Angeles Lakers on Oct. 30, according to the National Basketball Association’s official schedule released Tuesday.

Additionally, as CBS Sports previously reported, it is now confirmed that the Warriors will play host to the Los Angeles Clippers at Oracle Arena on Dec. 25 in the night-cap of the NBA’s annual slate of Christmas games.

The Warriors, coming off a season in which the team posted a 47-35 regular-season record and made an appearance in the Western Conference Semifinals, are slated to make a franchise-record 17 national television appearances this upcoming season.

Golden State will be on the road for 14 of its first 22 contests to start the season, but will end the regular season schedule by playing 13 of its final 20 games at home.

Click here to download a printable schedule (.pdf)

(Copyright 2013 CBS San Francisco. All rights reserved.)

By Scott T. Sterling

While NBA fans around the world are preparing for this year’s playoffs, which kick off in earnest this weekend, the members of Linkin Park will have to endure two of their favorite teams not making the cut.

The band’s frontman, Chester Bennington, is a native of Phoenix, Arizona, and maintains a fierce allegiance to his hometown NBA team, the Suns. For band leader Mike Shinoda who hails from Agoura Hills, CA, however, it’s all Los Angeles Lakers everything, even as his team just suffered the worst season in franchise history.

“It’s a great moment in a Lakers fans life to be tested and to say my team is losing,” laughed Shinoda during an exclusive interview. “They are playing terribly. We still go to the games, we still cheer the team on. We’ll get ‘em next year.”

“I think that’s the thing the Lakers have going for them – their legacy,” chimed in Bennington, who also admits that over the years he’s developed a fondness for L.A.’s purple and gold team. “Naturally, as an athlete, if I was going to be in the NBA, if I had a choice of where I’d want to go, the Lakers would be on the top of the list. You know that your chances of doing something great there are much higher. And I think that that’s a testament to the Lakers tradition and their team.”

Watch the full interview clip to find out Bennington’s favorite basketball player of all-time, what it’s like when Shinoda takes him to Lakers games, and what they think will happen at this year’s NBA Finals.

Linkin Park’s new album The Hunting Party is out June 17, and the band will embark on a world tour and the end of May. Get all the details at the band’s website.

Every one of us sports fans has our favorite teams. And in this age of free agency, we try our darnedest to root for the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back. Who knows when/if that superstar in his contract year will be shipped away for a player to be named later?

Teams with dumb names make it a little harder on their fans. I mean, how do you cheer for a Pelican or a Brown? But teams that go beyond dumb to nonsensical make it damn near impossible to cheer for them. The NBA seems to be particularly good at bad names, though the NFL and MLB won’t be outdone.

1. Utah Jazz

The Jazz as a team name makes sense… in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. That’s where the team got its start. But 35 years ago, the New Orleans Jazz packed up the wagons and headed west to Salt Lake, which isn’t generally known as a jazz hotbed. To further confuse things, the team’s logo features its name emblazoned across a mountain landscape. Why not just go full bizarre-o and add clouds raining musical notes?

2. Los Angeles Lakers

Los Angeles isn’t known for its lakes. The big body of water out there — for the geographically challenged among us — is the Pacific Ocean. And while the Los Angeles Oceanographers would be ridiculous, at least it would make sense (and explain Kurt Rambis’s nerd-tastic glasses). The Lakers name is a vestige of the team’s origins in Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes. Sorry, Magic, Kareem, Kobe and, of course, Kurt, your careers are permanently tainted.

Kurt Rambis (Photo Credit: Mike Powell/Getty Images)

3. Memphis Grizzlies

Memphis, Tenn. is grizzly bear country… except it’s not. Vancouver (and north), where the team got its start, is home to the feared predator. Memphis is known for blues and barbeque and Beale Street and the birthplace of rock, Sun Studio, but no bears of the grizzly variety, unless you go to the zoo.

4. Washington Wizards

Once upon a time, DC was the country’s murder capital. And its basketball team was called the Bullets. You see the problem. So in fan-rallying fashion, the team tapped the wisdom of the masses, who came up with five even worse options: Express, Stallions, Dragons, Sea Dogs (go ahead, clean your glasses, it will still say “Sea Dogs”) and Wizards. Apparently local basketball fans forgot that Washington is our nation’s capital. The only upside is that it could have been even worse.

5. Washington Redskins

Look at that, another team from our nation’s capital; there seems to be lots of stupidity in that part of the country. The Redskins have found themselves in the news a lot lately, and not for winning. Okay, so it’s not football season. But they generally win the same number of games in May as they do in October. The team’s name — a derogatory term for Native Americans, which offends many of our fellow citizens — is the issue. Set aside your opinion on the name and answer one question. Does it make sense for the team from the city that represents everyone to have such a divisive mascot?

(Photo Credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

6. Indianapolis Colts

Like many NFL teams, the Indianapolis Colts hail from somewhere else. Though whereas the Oilers, for example, had the good sense to become the Titans after moving from Houston to Tennessee, the Colts stayed the Colts. Alas, Indianapolis just doesn’t have the horse racing and breeding tradition that Baltimore does. They do seem to know a little something about quarterbacks.

7. Los Angeles Dodgers

Dodgers is short for Trolley Dodgers, which is what New Yorkers called Brooklynites back before the two cities combined and we started calling them hipsters. The Brooklyn Dodgers eventually moved to Los Angeles, where nobody walks and nobody has to dodge anything other than advances from less famous people. Yet the Dodgers name stuck. Go figure.

Check out even more Sports Lists.

Norm Elrod likes sports and other sanctioned forms of craziness.

By Jason Keidel

» More Columns

Curt Flood and Marvin Miller must be smiling.

While the baseball titans never worked for the NBA, you have to wonder if this tornadic, free agent anarchy was their goal. And if their mission is finally accomplished.

For far too long, pro athletes were the exclusive domain of the team that drafted them. Baseball was the only sport with the antitrust exemption, but the corporate rigidity was felt across American team sports.

But If you needed any more proof that the NBA is a now player’s league, just browse the events of the week. Last night, the NBA Draft just spawned a new brood of millionaires, all of whom hope to reach the high-orbit of basketball royalty, like the bejeweled group of free agents who will become filthy rich after July 1.

LeBron James singularly orchestrated the Big Three union. And now that he has opted out of his Miami Heat contract, he’s once again the Alpha Male of pro sports. Teams are scrambling to find the proper finances and expiring contracts, flipping over cushions for salary cap coin.

Everyone has a theory. The Clippers, where Chris Paul is LeBron’s de facto brother. The Lakers, where he would join Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant, even if Kobe is the only one actually there and has inhaled nearly half the team’s cap space.

It’s hard to imagine two Type A players like LeBron and Kobe sharing a court. And then asking Anthony to check his colossal ego at the door for “not one but two” players.

Even the Cavaliers were a possibility, with the whole homecoming hero thing. They reportedly pondered a trade – their top pick and some dead weight for Kevin Love, leaving LeBron with a gold-plated path home. (At least until Love said he wouldn’t sign an extension with Cleveland.)

We’ve even heard about the Rockets dumping Jeremy Lin to make room for LBJ, leaving Harden, Howard, and James. And, if you want to stretch the fantasy until it snaps, he could come to New York, play for a pittance with Melo, and then get his money in 2015.

You can make a montage of scenarios where LeBron takes his talents away from South Beach. But does he want to be seen as the ultimate mercenary, a hard-hearted star who refused to play unless he was assured the best roster?

The inherent heroism of a champion is his willingness to conquer some colossal deficit. If LeBron just drifts across the map every few years, then he will have no historical home. And that should matter to him. Every NBA icon is associated with a particular team, from Russell to Magic to Michael. So LeBron needs more than a ring or two and his ephemeral perch as the best player on the planet.

If Dwyane Wade shaves his salary and Chris Bosh follows suit, would LeBron really uproot his family again? It says here that his sense of his sport’s history is too keen to become an athletic vagabond, no matter how well-heeled he would be.

No, it says here that LeBron James is too savvy to jump ship just because he fell three games short of a title to the selfless yet ravenous Spurs, who had momentum, mojo, and revenge on their side. But he surely will make the Heat sweat, which is a good thing. Complacency is the bane of any dynasty. And LeBron will make his money without having to leave the nest.

Even in baseball, we’ll see Mike Trout sign a $144 million contract before he hits his epic maturity. Not even Flood and Miller could have seen their beloved game blossom into a sport of tycoons, where the average yearly salaries have mushroomed from five-figures to seven or eight digits.

Sports have become the province of players, as it should be. We don’t attend games or click on our plasma screens to watch the owners own, the general managers manage, or the coaches coach. We lust for those glistening gladiators on the hardwood, gridiron, and diamond, the very ones who made us frothing fans in the first place.

It’s good to be the king, and no one knows better than King James. Somewhere, the true kingmakers are smiling.

Twitter: @JasonKeidel

Jason writes a weekly column for CBS Local Sports. He is a native New Yorker, sans the elitist sensibilities, and believes there’s a world west of the Hudson River. A Yankees devotee and Steelers groupie, he has been scouring the forest of fertile NYC sports sections since the 1970s. He has written over 500 columns for WFAN/CBS NY, and also worked as a freelance writer for Sports Illustrated and Newsday subsidiary amNew York. He made his bones as a boxing writer, occasionally covering fights in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, but mostly inside Madison Square Garden.

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OAKLAND (CBS SF) — Stephen Curry has surpassed LeBron James for the most popular jersey in the NBA.

The Golden State Warriors star and league MVP topped the list of jersey sales in the NBA for the first time Tuesday. Teammate Klay Thompson ranked fifth, with Draymond Green taking the fifteenth spot on the list, the Warriors also led the team-merchandise sales list during the playoffs.

LaBron James, who held the top spot at the end of the regular season, dropped to second. Chicago’s Derrick Rose is third and Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving is fourth.

WARRIORS TEAM PAGE

After the NBA champion Warriors on the team-merchandise sales list are the Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs.

The rankings are based on overall sales on NBAStore.com from April through June.

SAN DIEGO (CBS/AP) — Jordan Clarkson scored 17 points and Julius Randle had 14 to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to an 85-70 win over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night in a preseason game that was stopped late in the third quarter due to unplayable conditions on the court.

The game was called with 2:16 left in the third because of moisture spots caused by the ice below the court at the Valley View Casino Center.

WARRIORS: Stephen Curry led all scorers with 19 points and had four assists. … Ezeli Festus had 10 points and nine rebounds. … Jason Thompson had a game-high 11 rebounds.

LAKERS: Rookie guard D’Angelo Russell, the team’s top pick, started after missing two games with a bruised glute and had two points. … Kobe Bryant was out with a bruised left leg.

STAR WATCH: Curry had 14 first-half points, included 4-for-8 shooting on 3-pointers.

MIDSEASON FORM: The Lakers’ Nick Young hit three straight 3-pointers in less than two minutes in the second quarter. On his third one, he was fouled and converted his free throw for a four-point play.

UP NEXT: Golden State visits the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday.

© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

OAKLAND (CBS / AP) — The defending champion Golden State Warriors set the record for best start in NBA history at 16-0, as Stephen Curry had 24 points and nine assists in a 111-77 rout of the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.

With their coach sidelined, the Warriors surpassed the 15-0 starts by the Washington Capitols of 1948-49 and 1993-94 Houston Rockets.

Confetti streamed down when the final buzzer sounded and Golden State’s players barely celebrated.

Kobe Bryant shot 1 of 14 for just four points, matching the worst-shooting performance of his career in a game where he had at least one basket. The Lakers dropped to 2-12 with the second-worst record in the NBA.

Draymond Green added 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists as the Warriors extended their franchise-record home winning streak to 27 games with coach Steve Kerr watching from behind the scenes while recovering from complications following two back surgeries.

Interim Luke Walton is leading the way, and it might have been a little sweeter to set the record against the Lakers franchise he helped win two titles.

Golden State became the sixth team in NBA history to win 20 consecutive regular-season games, a streak dating to last season. The Suns have the next shot at stopping this incredible start when the Warriors visit Phoenix on Friday night.

Curry only had to play 30 minutes, taking a seat for good with 6.5 seconds remaining in the third to huge cheers from a sellout crowd of 19,596 that was really closer to 20,000 with all the standing-room only tickets sold.

Bryant went 1 for 7 from 3-point range in 25 minutes as Los Angeles lost its fourth in a row and eighth in nine.

He also finished 1 for 14 last season against San Antonio, according to STATS.

Klay Thompson had 11 points but missed his first seven shots and, as has been the case in a handful of these wins, the Warriors took a few minutes to get rolling — and then they were off and running.

Golden State missed five of its first six shots before Curry’s 3-pointer from the left wing at 8:28. The Warriors knocked down five of their first 12 from long range to build a 27-9 lead with 1:41 left in the opening period.

J-RICH HONORED

Former Warriors shooting guard Jason Richardson couldn’t believe the fortunate timing: Golden State honored him Tuesday and he got to be at Oracle Arena to see his old team make history. He received a framed jersey from Adonal Foyle in a presentation after the first quarter.

“Even though I didn’t retire a Warrior, you guys make me feel like a Warrior for life,” he told the crowd.

Richardson, part of the 2007 “We Believe” team that reached the second round of the playoffs after ending a 12-year drought, has been a big supporter of Green, who took a similar path from Saginaw, Michigan, to Michigan State to Golden State. Green wears Richardson’s No. 23.

“I think Draymond shocked everybody besides himself,” said Richardson, Golden State’s first-round pick taken fifth overall in the 2001 draft.

SCOTT REMEMBERS

Los Angeles coach Byron Scott was part of his share of special teams with the Lakers, too. He recalls when they were winning nearly every night.

“I think once it’s all over, you look back and realize how much fun it was,” Scott said. “One thing Riles (Pat Riley) wouldn’t let us do is live on what we did the last night.”

TIP-INS

Lakers: The Lakers were outscored 35-17 in the third and have lost eight of 11 at Oracle. … Chasing a loose ball in the first, Bryant slid right into the courtside area by owner Joe Lacob, who gave him a safe sign. … Nick Young borrowed ex-Warriors guard Gilbert Arenas’ black and gold shoes.

Warriors: Golden State has won six straight at home against the Lakers for its longest streak since seven in a row from 1993-95. … The Warriors have scored 100 or more points in 43 consecutive home games, longest since the Nuggets did so in 47 straight from Feb. 1, 1990-Feb. 23, 1991. … Walton confirmed before the game his car was stolen last week in Oakland and he credited authorities apprehending and charging a suspect. “That’s part of life,” he said. “They did a good job.”

UP NEXT

Lakers: At Portland on Saturday.

Warriors: At Phoenix on Friday.

© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

NEW YORK (CBS SF and AP) — When it comes to the value of a NBA franchise, winning doesn’t necessarily earn a team a high franchise valuation.

According to the latest Forbes valuations released Wednesday, the lowly New York Knicks are worth $3 billion while the high-flying NBA Champion Golden State Warriors were valued at $1.8 billion.

Forbes said the Knicks regained the top spot from the woeful Los Angeles Lakers thanks to a 20 percent value increase from 2015. It says the increase was driven by a new cable deal and the highest premium-seating revenue in the league.

The Lakers have a value of $2.7 billion. The Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Clippers rounded out the top five.

Forbes says the average NBA team is now worth $1.3 billion, a 13 percent increase from 2015, and the $5.2 billion in revenue teams generated last season was a record for the league.

LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — Jordan Clarkson scored 25 points, D’Angelo Russell added 21 and the Los Angeles Lakers stunned the Golden State Warriors 112-95 on Sunday, handing the defending NBA champions just their sixth loss of the season, all on the road.

Kobe Bryant added 12 points in helping the Lakers earn one of the biggest upsets in NBA history and their biggest victory in a downtrodden farewell season for Bryant, who spent the fourth quarter on the bench resting his aching right shoulder.

Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 18 points on a day when they were awful offensively. Klay Thompson added 15 points, but the Splash Brothers were a combined 1 of 18 from 3-point range. In all, the Warriors missed 26 of 30 attempts from long range.

Golden State fell to 55-6 and the Lakers improved to 13-51.

The loss snapped Golden State’s seven-game winning streak and was their first since a 32-point blowout defeat at Portland on Feb. 19.

Draymond Green just missed a triple-double, with nine points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.

The Lakers effectively put the game away in the second quarter, when they built a double-digit lead that Golden State threatened just once. Thompson had four points and Andrew Bogut two in a 6-0 run that drew the Warriors to 65-57 early in the third.

That was as close as they got the entire second half.

Clarkson answered with a pair of 3-pointers sandwiched around Julius Randle’s dunk and the young Lakers kept on rolling. Brazilian Marcelo Huertas fed Larry Nance Jr. for an alley-oop dunk in the fourth that had the fans exploding in cheers, seemingly exorcising the demons of another losing season for the once-proud franchise with the league’s third-worst record.

The Lakers stretched their lead to 16 points in the third, when both teams scored 24 points apiece. The Warriors scored five straight to trail 84-73 going into the fourth.

Nick Young hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Huertas scored four in a row to keep the Lakers ahead 95-79 in the fourth.

Bryant made it back for his final career game against the Warriors on national TV after sitting out Friday’s loss to Atlanta. Gleeful fans chanted his name in the fourth while he grinned from the bench, clearly delighted that his junior teammates rose to the occasion, with seven players in double figures. The Lakers had lost two straight and 10 of 13 coming in.

The Lakers had their beleaguered fans in a first-half frenzy when they led 60-49 at the break. Russell hit three consecutive 3-pointers, helping the Lakers to a 39-29 lead. The Warriors fought to get back within three before the Lakers closed on a 13-5 run that produced their largest lead of the half.

TIP-INS

Warriors: They were 3 of 15 from 3-point range in the first half, when Green had three fouls and Curry two. … Curry’s streak of at least 30 points in the last five games ended. … G/F Andre Iguodala sat out for the second time in three games with left hamstring tightness.

Lakers: They wore Bryant-themed socks in purple, gold, white and black with No. 2 on the right sock and No. 4 on the left. The socks are made by Stance, the NBA’s official on-court sock provider. … Bryant’s wife and daughters sat across from the team bench. … Jack Nicholson made a rare courtside appearance, yelling, “Come on” in the fourth. … Rihanna and Floyd Mayweather Jr. attended.

UP NEXT

Warriors: Host Orlando on Monday.

© Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

By Jason Keidel

It’s become trendy to bash the embellished exhibition we witnessed on Wednesday night in Los Angeles. The Staples Center doubled as a de facto runway for Kobe Bryant’s retirement. Soft defense and referees who gulped the whistle were on display for a conga line of luminaries that rivaled the red carpet on Oscar night. Social media served as an echo chamber for his fans, from Kanye West to Dirk Nowitzki to POTUS and FLOTUS.

And Kobe delivered, scoring 60 points in the most elaborate swan song in history, a solo that rivaled ‘Stairway to Heaven.’

Kobe haters say it was a perfect microcosm of his career, during which the sheer force of his skill, will and ego eclipsed his teammates, making the game a showcase of his talent rather than a referendum on winning.

And it puts yours truly in the odd position of defending him. Kobe Bryant largely embodied all the hallmarks of the modern NBA. He was a me-first gunner who got tendonitis taking 50 shots per game to score 60 points, and had to wake up his teammates during timeouts to remind them a game was going on.

The only problem is he won… a lot. In the zero-sum game that is sports, where rings shine with solar intensity, Kobe’s five chips equal that of the Lakers’ patron son — Magic Johnson.

Yet we regard Magic with godlike reverence. Along with Larry Bird, Magic literally saved the sport. He picked it off the trash heap of the ’70s, when there was more talk about kilos of cocaine than pick-and-rolls, when the NBA Finals actually aired on tape delay.

Check out our NBA Playoff Previews: East | West

Since Michael Jordan retired, the game has slipped into some kind of cauldron, at least in terms of perception. It’s not nearly as sexy to pass the ball as it is to dunk it. Perhaps no one exemplifies this more than the All-Star in my backyard — Carmelo Anthony — who has been hailed as a hero despite never sniffing the NBA Finals, much less a Larry O’Brien Trophy.

So what’s the difference between Carmelo and Kobe? Well, winning, for one thing. Further, while Melo has similar talent on offense, and can match Kobe shot for shot, he falls woefully short on defense. Carmelo Anthony is largely allergic to that side of the ball. No one ever confuses him with Bill Russell or Gary Payton.

Kobe Bryant was first-team All-NBA on defense nine times — tied for the most in history.

And, for all his faults, Kobe has that certain thing the greats often do… a maniacal mechanism that makes him love winning but hate losing even more. Jordan, Magic and Bird had it. Pat Riley has it. The great ones can’t remember every shining moment, but they remember every bad one. Every double-dribble, bungled pass and wayward buzzer-beater is archived and on eternal loop.

While Kobe clearly isn’t MJ, he clearly isn’t Carmelo either. In fact, it’s hard to think of Kobe’s doppelgänger. Maybe Kobe is just Kobe.

No one has played more or done more with one franchise than Kobe Bryant has. His litany of deeds is too long to list here. Let’s just say that on a Laker franchise that has dominated the basketball for 60 years, and has more Hall of Famers than any west of Boston, Kobe is arguably the greatest ever. If you don’t believe me, just ask the one who most of us would label as the greatest Laker ever. That’s right, the Magic Man himself defers to Kobe. Whether that’s modesty or myopia is not for us to decide. But it’s his call to make, not ours.

And let’s not forget the other, singular Laker, who just happens to be the league’s logo. Jerry West, one of the five greatest guards to hold a basketball, went on to win 10 NBA titles as a GM. When it comes to total body of work, from the hardwood to the executive suite, no one has had an NBA career anywhere near his. West is a big fan.

Kobe could be the preeminent in purple and gold. The man played at an obscene level for at least 18 of his 20 years. He was an 18-time All-Star who scored more points than anyone in history except Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone. And, as mentioned before, he was a nine-time, first-team All-NBA on defense.

For perspective, here’s where the world was when Kobe Bryant was drafted (by Jerry West, of course)…

Derek Jeter had yet to win Rookie of the Year.

The average price for a gallon of gas was $1.17.

Bill Clinton was still serving his first term, about to run against Ross Perot for his second term.

The “Macarena” was the top song in Billboard.

Cuba Gooding Jr. had just won an Oscar for Jerry Maguire.

The top non-fiction book was Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus.

Rick Pitino was coaching the other team in Kentucky.

George Burns had just died.

Mad cow disease was wrecking England.

Princess Di was divorcing Prince Charles.

The Dow had topped 6,000.

Erik and Lyle Menendez were convicted of murder.

So slide on your stone-washed jeans and long wool coat, slide in your VHS copy of Clerks or Pulp Fiction or Good Will Hunting for the 10th time. It’s time to reminisce, and admire the man who played two decades of basketball at a level worthy of an Oscar.

Jason writes a weekly column for CBS Local Sports. He is a native New Yorker, sans the elitist sensibilities, and believes there’s a world west of the Hudson River. A Yankees devotee and Steelers groupie, he has been scouring the forest of fertile NYC sports sections since the 1970s. He has written over 500 columns for WFAN/CBS NY, and also worked as a freelance writer for Sports Illustrated and Newsday subsidiary amNew York. He made his bones as a boxing writer, occasionally covering fights in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, but mostly inside Madison Square Garden. Follow him on Twitter @JasonKeidel.

LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — Luke Walton is going home to rebuild the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Lakers reached an agreement Friday night with the Golden State assistant to become their head coach, dramatically choosing a young leader for their new era after Kobe Bryant.

The Lakers grabbed Walton just five days after they fired Byron Scott, who led the 16-time NBA champions to the two worst seasons in franchise history.

Walton spent nine seasons as a forward for the Lakers, winning two championship rings as a smart, steady contributor. Three years after his retirement as a player, the 36-year-old Southern California native is back to become the 26th head coach in franchise history.

“We’re excited to bring Luke back to Los Angeles, where we feel he’s going to start an outstanding coaching career,” said Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, who drafted Walton 13 years ago. “He’s one of the brightest young coaching minds in the game and we feel fortunate that he’ll be leading the on-court future of our team.”

Walton seemed to be the ideal candidate for the Lakers from the start, given his equal fluency in the Lakers’ history and the Warriors’ cutting-edge brand of beautiful basketball. He’ll have the chance to mold the Lakers’ on-court approach in any way he chooses, with the franchise ripe for reinvention after the 20-year career of Bryant.

“We are thrilled for Luke,” Warriors general manager Bob Myers said. “This is a tremendous opportunity for him to return home and serve as head coach for one of the most storied franchises in sports. Luke has done an incredible job during his two-year stint with our team and has played a significant role in our success.”

Walton, who got a multiyear contract, will join the Lakers after the Warriors’ playoff run. That could take several weeks, because Golden State is headed for the second round with designs on a second straight championship.

The 6-foot-8 Walton, the son of Hall of Fame center Bill Walton, became a top candidate for coaching jobs earlier this season when he led Golden State to a 39-4 record as the interim head coach while Steve Kerr was sidelined by a back injury. Walton coolly stepped in and coaching the Warriors to an NBA-record 24-0 start before ceding the job back to Kerr.

“I kept waiting for you to change with your success,” Myers told Walton directly during Kerr’s news conference. “I’ve seen so many people change with success. I kept waiting for you to become someone else, because you were getting adulation. You were obviously making your own mark. But I never saw … you waver from your character and who you are and your support of Steve, and knowing that you were just holding down the fort. I just think that’s tremendous. That is such a rare quality, to be unaffected and to stay who you are. That was awesome, and I appreciate it.”

For his 43-game stint in charge of the high-flying Warriors, Walton even finished eighth in the voting for NBA’s Coach of the Year award, which went to Kerr.

“I’m incredibly happy for Luke,” Kerr said. “As we witnessed earlier this season, he has all of the intangibles necessary to be an outstanding head coach in this league, including a terrific understanding of the game the ability to communicate with a wide range of people. He’s certainly ready for this opportunity and I’m confident he’ll do a great job with the Lakers once our season is complete.”

Except Walton won’t have nearly the same level of talent in Los Angeles, which is rebuilding after the retirement of Bryant, Walton’s longtime teammate.

The Lakers’ core consists of recent draft picks D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson alongside an unremarkable collection of veterans and young players. Los Angeles went 21-61 and 17-65 under Scott, twice posting the team’s worst record ever.

But the lure of the Lakers is strong to Walton, a second-round pick out of Arizona. He was a depth forward on the Lakers’ championship teams in 2009 and 2010 before getting traded to Cleveland in March 2012.

After Walton stepped away from the court in 2013, he worked briefly for the Lakers’ television network as a broadcaster, and for their D-League team as a player development coach. Walton became an assistant in Golden State last season and earned promotion to the job of Kerr’s lead assistant this season after Alvin Gentry left.

“The way (Steve) leads and the responsibility he gives other people allowed us to succeed even when he wasn’t here to be that top guy,” Walton said earlier this week. “It speaks to his overall coaching and leadership ability.”

© Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — Lou Williams scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, and the Los Angeles Lakers snapped Stephen Curry’s NBA-record streak of 157 games with a 3-pointer in a 117-97 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Friday night.

Julius Randle had 20 points and 14 rebounds for the rebuilding Lakers, who pulled off their second straight shocking home upset of the mighty Warriors with an impressive effort from their exciting young roster.

Lakers coach Luke Walton also won his first meeting with his former team and his coaching mentor, Steve Kerr.

Curry scored 13 points while going 0 for 10 from 3-point range, ending several incredible long-distance streaks. He had hit a 3-pointer in every regular-season game since March 14, 2015.

Including the postseason, Curry had at least one 3 in 196 straight games, and he had also hit in 116 straight regular-season road games — both NBA records.

Walton was Kerr’s assistant during the Warriors’ 2014-15 championship season and again last year, when he led Golden State to a 39-4 start while Kerr was recovering from a back injury.

Golden State didn’t lose its second game under Walton that year until Dec. 30, but these reconfigured Warriors are off to a 4-2 start with this shocker coming one night after an important victory over Oklahoma City.

The young, exciting Lakers jumped to a 21-point lead in the third quarter with ball movement resembling the Warriors’ style. They fought off star-studded Golden State’s challenge in the fourth quarter with huge games from Williams and Randle, their versatile forward. D’Angelo Russell added 17 points, and rookie Brandon Ingram had 12.

Golden State lost 112-95 to the Lakers at Staples Center in March, one of the biggest regular-season upsets in NBA history and one of the Warriors’ mere nine losses last season.

One night after Kevin Durant scored 39 points against his former Thunder teammates, the Warriors got off to an awfully slow start in LA.

The Warriors scored a season-low 15 points in the first quarter. That’s also the fewest points allowed by the Lakers in any quarter this season.

Golden State missed its first seven 3-pointers, only getting its first on Andre Iguodala’s buzzer-beater. Durant, Curry and Klay Thompson were a combined 5 for 18.

TIP-INS

Warriors: Durant scored at least 20 points for his 70th straight game, surpassing Michael Jordan’s 1990-91 streak and matching Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the sixth-longest such streak in NBA history. … G Patrick McCaw is still out with an ankle injury. … Drake, Denzel Washington, Dodgers slugger Yasiel Puig and Kings goalie Jonathan Quick were among the crowd that turned out to see the revamped Western Conference champions.

Lakers: Timofey Mozgov played despite a bruise around his left eye, courtesy of an elbow from Indiana’s Jeff Teague earlier this week. The Russian center was considered doubtful for the game after missing Wednesday’s win in Atlanta, but Mozgov played 16 minutes. … The Lakers wore throwback uniforms from their Showtime era, although their current uniforms are only slightly different.

LUKE’S GUYS

Walton couldn’t start work with the Lakers until Golden State lost Game 7 of the NBA Finals last year, but the former Lakers forward immediately set out to build a team with ample use of Kerr’s blueprint. Walton joked that he had been getting trash talk from his former players, and he replied with some of his own.

UP NEXT

Warriors: Host Pelicans on Monday.

© Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The pass-happy Golden State Warriors put on a spectacular offensive show for their former coach, and Luke Walton had to watch the onslaught against his Los Angeles Lakers from the other bench this time.

Stephen Curry had 31 points with seven 3-pointers and nine assists, Kevin Durant scored 28 and Golden State discovered an astonishing first-half offensive flow to run away from the undermanned Lakers 149-106 on Wednesday night.

The Warriors’ franchise-record 47 assists — on 53 baskets — are the most in the NBA this season and topped their previous best passing night more than 35 years ago.

“That’s pretty crazy. We almost have more assists than rebounds. That’s sick,” Durant said. “That shows we’re getting more comfortable with each other.”

It was the most assists in the NBA since Phoenix also had 47 on Nov. 29, 1991.

Golden State had 26 assists on 29 baskets before the break, as in sync as the Warriors have been since adding Durant during the offseason and far better than when they took a 20-point beating at Los Angeles less than three weeks ago.

Klay Thompson added 26 points with four 3s and Ian Clark scored 21 off the bench, while Draymond Green dished out 11 assists to go with nine boards in the Warriors’ ninth straight victory since losing at L.A. earlier this month.

Golden State took care of the ball, too, committing just 10 turnovers.

“That’s ridiculous — 47 and 10,” Thompson said.

Rookie No. 2 overall draft pick Brandon Ingram scored a career-best 16 points in his first start for Los Angeles, which had no answers defensively as Golden State shot 61.6 percent with 19 3-pointers.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr has repeatedly noted it might take time for his team to really click, yet at 15 games in Golden State was in top form — at least for one spectacular night of basketball.

“”I mean 47 is a shocking number but getting 30 every night is not surprising,” Kerr said.

“We don’t have to do anything spectacular, just keep the ball moving.”

Walton, the former top assistant for Golden State , returned to Oracle Arena and saw his old guys thoroughly dominate a young, beat-up Los Angeles squad that got more bad news regarding point guard D’Angelo Russell’s knee injury.

“That was a beautiful exhibition they put on us out there,” Walton said.

Walton spent the first 43 games last season as Golden State interim coach while eventual Coach of the Year Kerr took a prolonged leave of absence dealing with complications following two back surgeries. Walton guided the Warriors to a record 24-0 start and 39-4 overall record while in charge.

Golden State had 46 assists on Nov. 7, 1981, against Denver.

Curry shot 11 of 18 and 7 for 12 from beyond the arc. The two-time reigning MVP already set the single-season 3-point record with 13 on the way to 46 points in a Nov. 7 win against New Orleans — three days after going 0 for 10 from long range against the Lakers to have his streak with at least one 3 snapped at 157 regular-season games.

MORE MILESTONES

The 149 points and margin of victory — 43 points— set new highs for the Warriors, topping marks set in November 1966.

WALTON’S WARM WELCOME

Walton waved and smiled as fans cheered and jumped to their feet for a standing ovation when he was introduced before tipoff. They brought back their chant of “Luuuuuuuke!” that kind of sounds like boos.

“It is a little weird. It’s more strange tonight than it was in L.A., walking into this building, pulling up on a bus, seeing the fans, seeing some of the same security guards, being in the other locker room,” Walton said.

He and Kerr connected earlier in the day in Berkeley, where Kerr attended daughter Maddy’s final home college volleyball game at Cal.

TIP-INS

Lakers: Russell will be out for at least two more weeks after getting a platelet-rich plasma injection in his sore left knee. Jose Calderon started for the third time in Russell’s absence. In addition, F Julius Randle was out with a hip pointer.

Warriors: Green sustained a corneal abrasion to his left eye but is expected to play Friday. … The Warriors have a franchise-record nine straight games with 30 or more assists and 11 of 15 this season. It’s the longest consecutive game streak with 30-plus assists since Charlotte’s NBA-record 13 in 1989. … Golden State has a winning streak of at least nine games for the fourth straight season.