Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak has stated that the plan is to bring 18 players to training camp, which begins Sept. 30, at the Lakers’ regular-season El Segundo practice facility.

With two spots still to fill, it is not too late for the Lakers to strongly consider bringing in unrestricted free agent guard Shaun Livingston, who has been rounding into training camp shape at Tim Grover’s Attack Athletics training facility in Chicago.

If Livingston indeed will be healthy enough to play this season - as Grover vowed to me last week he would - then Livingston would be a asset to whichever NBA team signs him.

In the case of the Lakers, they have no one on their roster with the playmaking ability and court vision that Livingston possesses.

And consider this. Yes, really consider this.

Subtracting this past season, which Livingston missed entirely, to rehabilitate his surgically-repaired left knee, he still has three NBA seasons under his belt.

 Yet, at the age of 22, he is two years younger than Coby Karl, who was a rookie last season, 18 months younger than four-year veteran Sasha Vujacic and three years younger than Dwayne Mitchell, who was signed this summer as a rookie free agent.

Livingston is just nine months older than the rookie Crawford, 14 months older than two-year man Jordan Farmar and two months older than the Lakers’ second-round pick of last year, Sun Yue, who recently was signed to a contract.

With Wednesday’s signing of Joe Crawford (check out Janis Carr’s story), the Lakers will have no less than four players (Crawford, Sun Yue, Dwayne Mitchell and Coby Karl) battling for what could be the final roster spot.

Floor burns are coming. Crawford showed well in the NBA summer league, as did Mitchell. Sun opened some eyes in the Olympic Games. Karl, who was the Lakers’ star in the summer league, is the grizzled veteran of the group.

According to the Miami Herald, Mbenga, one of several big men to work out with the Heat, has a minimum-level offer to return to the Lakers. According to the report, though, he wants more and is waiting to see a counter offer.

Check back later today to see what the Lakers are thinking.

Don’t look for any parades or celebratory homecoming party for Kobe Bryant and his gold medal a la Dwyane Wade. The Lakers superstar turned down a chance to show off his hardware and discuss his Olympic experience.

The Miami Heat will honor Bryant’s Team USA teammate, Wade, with a public ceremony Thursday at AmericanAirlines Arena and raise an Olympic banner alongside team’s division and championship banners.

Bryant, no doubt, has bigger issues to contend with — like surgery on his pinkie.

Shanghaiist, a Shanghai website, is skeptical about Sun’s ability to find a spot in the Lakers’ crowded backcourt, calling his 6.8 points during the Olympics “pedestrian.”

It added that if he does stick around, the second-round draft pick’s presence will only serve “to sell a few jerseys on Wangfujing, and cement more Laker loyalty among the Kobe-loving Chinese market.”

The website further demeaned Sun’s nickname of “Chinese Magic Johnson” by saying that it won’t stick in a city that knows how the original Magic Johnson played.

They do have a point there. Just because you’re 6-foot-9 and can handle the ball doesn’t make you magic. Or Magic.

Bryant initially suffered the injury Feb. 5, in a game against the New Jersey Nets. However, instead of opting to have immediate surgery, Bryant he chose to play through the remainder of the season, the playoffs and NBA finals, and the recently completed Beijing Olympics.

Bryant had hoped to be recovered from his surgery for the start of training camp. However, the Lakers report to training camp Sept. 30 and it is highly probable that Bryant’s recuperation will take longer than the 3-4 week prognosis that previously had been reported.

Imagine the Lakers without their foreign players.

Vlade Divac would not have been a Laker nor would have Slava Medvedenko. Even newly-signed Lakers guard Sun Yue of China might not have been given a chance had the NBA adopted the same rules as the LPGA is toying with.

The women’s golf association is contemplating instituting a rule that would require all golfers to speak English or face suspension.

NBA players, like other professional athletes (e.g. Major League Baseball players) have had paid interpreters help navigate them through their first few years in the big leagues.

Given the Lakers’ sudden influx of foreigners – Pau Gasol, Vladimir Radmanovic, Sasha Vujacic, Sun – the locker room would be a quieter spot if the NBA followed the LPGA.

According to the Grand Forks Herald, the Lakers coach spoke about the need for the school to drop its nickname “Fighting Sioux” because “it’s not beneficial to these people.”

“I think that as we move past this, we can make this change gracefully, even though we’ve all loved participating and we loved the spirit of this campus, my colleagues and myself we don’t feel there’s any decrease in our spirit or our enthusiasm for the university’s teams,” he added. “I think we’re still going to be a mighty powerful team regardless, whether we’re the Flickertails or the Sioux.”

(more…)

And it wasn’t Michael Jordan.

Or Kobe Bryant.

Or Shaquille O’Neal.

Not Karl Malone, Derek Fisher, Rick Fox, Scottie Pippen, Steve Kerr, Bill Cartwright or Smush Parker (OK, so he might not belong).

No, the player Jackson called the greatest that he has coached is that wedding dress aficionado and Newport Beach police’s favorite basketball bad boy, Dennis Rodman.

That’s right. No need to rub your eyes.

“He could probably play a 48-minute game and play the 48th minute stronger than the first minute of the game,” Jackson told the crowd at UND. “He was that terrific an athlete.”

Jackson credited Madonna for helping Rodman overcome his “shy” personality.

“Madonna saw what was in there and wanted him . . . to do what she does: be outrageous, and kind of talked him into opening up his character,” Jackson said. “And Dennis didn’t know how many ways he could open up his character.”

Sun, a 6-foot-9 guard, was selected by the Lakers in the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft, but put off signing until after the Olympics so he could focus on playing for the Chinese National Team. He averaged 6.8 points, 1.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.33 steals in 28.0 minutes.

Originally selected by the Lakers in the second round (40th overall) of 2007 NBA draft, the 6-9 guard started for the Chinese National Team this past month in the men’s basketball tournament at the Beijing Olympics. In six games, Sun averaged 6.8 points, 1.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.33 steals in 28.0 minutes.

Playing for the Beijing Aoshen Olympians of the American Basketball Association for the past three seasons, Sun, 23, was named first team All-ABA in both 2007 and 2008 while earning second team honors in 2006.