Weapon of Mass Destruction: Unleashing the AMMO Within

During the past few years, Adam Morrison has drawn a closer resemblance to Academy Award-Winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio than to any passable NBA player currently playing in the league right now. As a more than likely, soon-to-be inductee into the NBA Busts Hall of Fame, Morrison, who once led the nation in scoring while he was at Gonzaga, has seemingly solidified the fact that you can never trust really good, collegiate white players who come out of Gonzaga (see Dan Dickau...John Stockton doesn't count; he was clearly black). While in college, Dan Dickau was to Steve Nash as Adam Morrison was to Larry Bird. In the NBA, both have just become 'was-es' who now only gain notoriety through mention of their past collegiate careers.

As far as the Lakers are concerned, during summer league and into training camp, Morrison was able to make progressive strides in his rehabilitation from a freak knee injury and substantial swagger-loss by averaging 20 pts in summer league play and adopting the role as the team's purest 11am shooter in training-camp. But through the Lakers' first few preseason games, Morrison has seemed like the same timid and lost player that he was just a year prior when he couldn't crack the rotation in either L.A. or Charlotte. On Sunday night during the Lakers preseason game against the Clippers, however, Morrison was determined to prove to the world that unlike Leonardo's sinking fate in Titanic, he wasn't ready to see his own NBA career forever submerged by the depths of utter suckness.

After finally getting some consistent playing time, Morrison was able to settle himself down, patiently find his spots on the floor, and hit his wide open threes en route to an efficient 14 point-outing (easily the most anyone has seen him score in purple and gold) - which also included one off-the-dribble, jump-stop jumper over an opponent that brought back flashes of Gonzaga glory. Ok fine, so the 4 threes that Morrison hit were as wide open as houses with no doors, and the opponent he was able to take advantage of on his one driving shot was former-Laker Kareem Rush, who has had just as hard a time trying to find minutes as Morrison has - but let's not take too much away from a humble, awkwardly-humored guy who can use any positive signs of hope to hang onto in his current state.

Aslan, is that you?

Speaking for myself personally, it's hard not to root for the former college-superstar who has patiently and humbly accepted his lowered state of debasement and stuck through with the gradual renewal process of his NBA game from such a standpoint - this on top of all his struggles with diabetes, crying, making bad commercials about making other people cry, and being unable to bounce back from disappointing seasons marred by injury. But if Morrison can fully regain his confidence and continue to build on his 11am shooting masterpieces by inching closer, hour by hour, to showcasing some of that touch in more real-game situations, he just might be able to reinvent himself as a contributing role-player. Whether or not he'll have any chance to prove himself for the Lakers this upcoming season is unknown, but hopefully for all of Lakers Nation, he'll continue to shoot the lights-out in practice and push Sasha Vujacic to be the best and most annoying Sasha that he can be.

Judging from Morrison's showing on Sunday night, things can only look up from here. He may look like Leonardo Dicaprio, but he sure doesn't want to simply 'act' his way through an NBA career - he wants to truly play it out and belong. His fast track to success: working hard and doing the right things everyday (watch the video for the tips):

That 'stache holds too much depth.