Help decide which headband Sasha will wear.
AP Photo/Ben Margot
Did you ever want to take your fandom to the next level?
Why not follow in the footsteps of Emily Ho, who impressed Sasha Vujacic's "people" so much that she was named managing editor of his recently launched official website, sashavujacic18.com (also accessible via vujacic.net).
Sasha seems to be incredibly devoted to his fan base, pledging on his website:
Not only will I read all the comments, I will take it one step further: there is a headband section through which fans can tell me which color and style headband to wear at the games. Whichever headband the majority agrees on, I will wear. I will try to talk to my PR team about other ideas to integrate the Web site with my offline life.
Sounds like he's ready to run for political office. Maybe Sasha should spend less time reading comments and more time in the gym working on that 37% field goal percentage. Ooooooooooooh! Burn!
All Sasha jokes aside, I do think it's a cool idea to let one of your biggest fans be in charge of your website. It got me thinking about the other Lakers' official websites.
Who has one? Who doesn't have one? Whose looks like one of those old AOL hometown web pages with the Arial 12-point font and Cyan background?
Today, we'll take a look at the players with their own official websites. Then tomorrow we'll look at those that don't and, perhaps, should.
Kobe Bryant - kb24.com
The site is just like Kobe - flashy and bold, yet incredibly refined and polished. Ever the businessman, Kobe's site is bombarded by advertisements for his new shoes and summer basketball camp. Unfortunately, some of the areas require a $49.95 subscription to view. Lame Kobe...very lame. You do get this awesome "free" t-shirt with a subscription, however.
Grade: Would have been an A, but the subscription requirement bumps it down to a C-.
Pau Gasol - paugasol.com
Despite being en espanol (not a problem for many Laker fans, anyway), this is one of the best player sites I've seen. Homepage features include: animated slideshow, an artist's rendering of Pau as a comic book character (se invencible como Pau Gasol), and a mesmerizing spinning basketball. In the news section, Pau's head follows you as you scroll down with the Spanish equivalent of "Click Here. And careful with my face - and with the rest of my body." I'm sold.
Grade: A
Lamar Odom - lamarodom.com
Nice homepage animation, a video of Lamar describing his own clutch free throws against the Boston Celtics starts playing automatically, reminding us of the good old days in case his play starts to decline. Ads everywhere for "Rich Soil" entertainment and clothing make the site less appealing. If you so choose, you can be seranaded by the sounds of "Country & Fly RUFF" by Ali Vegas by clicking play in the bottom left corner. The first line is, "You know the boy got a thing for dem country girls with doobies and they sweats on." Indeed Lamar...indeed.
Grade: B-
Andrew Bynum - andrewbynum.com
Despite a sweet picture of a younger, flabbier Andrew Bynum in the top right corner, the homepage is pretty weak. I was excited for Andrew's own blog, but was disappointed to find that his last entry was Sep. 3, 2008. It was hard for me to tell at first because it started with, "Before my injury..." So sad. Nice photo and video gallery (no sign of the infamous "Make it Rain" video), but overall the site is pretty average.
Grade: C - As I learned the hard way: if you don't update your blog frequently, you lose readers.
Derek Fisher - www.derekfisher2.com
Nice welcome video by Fisher himself, but serious negative points for having a background photo of Fisher in a Utah Jazz uniform. Also gets some negative points for not being able to swindle derekfisher.com away from the Fishing Resources and Information website. The saving grace, however, is the "Flashback: 0.4" feature. No Laker fan can watch that without a box of tissues handy.
Grade: B
Jordan Farmar - www.farmarlive.com
Cool banner and slideshow at the top of the screen. Ads for his summer camp and...what's this? Jordan's Playboy.com blog? Jordan, we didn't know you rolled like that! I didn't click on it for fear of "Playboy.com" showing up in my browser history, but I'm sure it's wonderful. He also has four different options for Jordan Farmar desktop wallpaper, but honestly who wants to replace the picture of their cat dressed up as a pirate with a picture of Jordan Farmar? I know I don't.
Grade: B+
Sasha Vujacic - sashavujacic18.com or vujacic.net
Maybe because it's newer, Sasha's site seems to be heading in the right direction. An interview with Sasha (quoted at the top of this post), video, the Sasha Awards, and wallpapers, make the site full of goodies to download and interact with. The piece de resistance, however, is "Headband Watch," complete with avatars of every headband Sasha has worn to date. To top it off, it has this quote from Sasha:
Long hair is good karma. We can take a lot of positive things out of it, especially the female fans in LA.
If that doesn't earn you an A, I don't know what does.
Grade: A
So those are all the Lakers that have their own official websites. As you can see they vary in aesthetic appeal and content. My personal favorite is Pau's, but maybe that's becuase I know Spanish.
Here's part two - a look at players without their own official websites. Maybe you'll be inspired to create your own. AdamMorrison.com has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
Comments
Kobe's getting hit by this recession too. $24 million doesn't stretch as far as it used to.
As a die-hard Lakers fan I enjoy reading these updates that go beyond scores and highlights of games. It's a shame that Kobe's website charges that kind of money..can only imagine how many readers it is turning away.
What Sasha is doing is kinda cool..only if he worked on his skills a bit more. :)
at the bottom right of pau's site you can actually click on languages (catala, castellano, and english) that will translate the entire site. then it's easy to read but sometimes the english is funny.
Colin: congrats on the acknowledgment of your article posted on Sasha's website. Good for you
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