The Official Site of Jordan Farmar

Tue, Dec 16th 2008, 09:31

Jordan's Playboy.com blog - Five on 5 week 5

One beautiful thing about being a Los Angeles Laker is that you run into cool people all the time, girls and guys. Actors, musicians, you name it, they come to our games, and we enjoy what they do as well. Our paths cross very often. There’s hardly anybody who I really like and would love to meet who I haven’t run into in some way. It’s great to cross paths with all these cool people. For example, there’s a little video with me and some friends out for dinner with Rihanna, goofing off to the song “Soulja Boy.” We were just hanging out. I’m a big fan of her music and we’re friends. Watch video here

Ne-Yo’s song “Miss Independent” gives a shout-out to self-sufficient women, and that’s definitely a big trend today. Women being strong and independent is more prevalent. The separation of the sexes has narrowed. We have women getting close to becoming President. Times are changing, whether it’s race barriers or gender lines. Top female tennis players can make just as much prize money as men in the big tournaments. Women are starting to do whatever men do. That shout-out is a tribute to women who actually achieve that, who are smart, use their education and stand on their own feet. Michelle Obama is another strong woman with impressive credentials.

We’ve reached 20 wins and are in first place in the West, but December 25 is coming fast in more ways than one. That’s when we have our showdown with the Celtics, last year’s champs.

The last two times the Lakers have gone to the Finals, the franchise has lost to the eventual champions in the East, the Pistons (in ’03-‘04) and Celtics (‘07-‘08). We only see these teams twice each during the regular season and the Pistons beat us in our first meeting back in November. We didn’t play the Pistons the right way that night and it was an early test but it’s all part of an evolving process.

During the Lakers’ so-called Showtime years in the 1980s when Magic and Larry Bird were competing against each other, the Celtics and the Lakers were big, winning eight titles combined (we got five of them). And it’s still a big rivalry and always will be, especially with the teams we have now. Pistons assistant coach Dave Cowens, who played just before the great Magic and Bird teams, was asked if he cheered for his old team the Celtics and said: “Oh, sure, especially when they’re playing the Fakers.”

That’s funny. But we know they’re waiting down the way. They’re getting ready, we’re getting ready. Hopefully, if our plan goes right, if we continue to do what we want to do, we’ll be there at the end ready to go against them. And if so, it’s going to be great. I have a sense we’ll be able to give each other a run for top overall seed during the regular season and hopefully meet up in the Finals again and create something special. It’s great for the sport, the fans, and for TV — a few weeks ago, TNT had the Celtics and Lakers both at home in a double-header. That’s no mistake. It’s great to create special memories and a great rivalry. We see the Celtics on Christmas Day so it will be either a nice present for us or a tough Christmas. We have a lot of confidence in our abilities and we’ll be ready to play.

When President-elect Obama recently appeared on 60 Minutes, he talked about needing to break our addiction to oil, that we have to change and make some sacrifices. We already know it’s coming, especially for us who make a certain amount of money. We’re going to have to pay a lot more taxes, and that’s a big sacrifice for a lot of us. But I totally agree with Obama, I’m big on a green initiative and alternative energy.

We all have to try to do something. If the auto companies make more fuel-efficient cars, then it’ll be much easier for all of us to go that route. In my opinion, they need to make the cars cool, too. You need to make the fuel efficient cars so people want to drive them — make them good for the environment but with some luxury if that’s what people want.

Back to basketball. People have noticed that I can get some air. It’s true, I do have a 43-inch vertical leap, one of the highest on our team. My dad was a pro ball player, I’ve always been a good athlete, so it’s been a sort of natural attribute, to be fast and able to jump. In high school, I’d do track and field events like long jump and high jump. They’d just pull me out of class, without me practicing, and send me to the meet to compete. It just came naturally, I’ve always been able to do it. I think I’ve been able to dunk since I was 13, my freshman year in high school. For me, it’s all about having core strength. I want to start my jump off by getting my center of gravity as low as possible, then I use my arms to get a lot of upward force — and then I let the ball go on the way down.

There’s a Fox Sports Net show called Sports Science that did an episode called “Hang Time,” and they invited me to be their guinea pig. I went to this huge airplane hangar, where somescientists used cutting edge, motion-capture tracking technology to uncover whether “hang time” — you know, how some basketball players like Michael Jordan seem to defy gravity — really exists. I’ll give you a hint: a dude on the show talks about Sir Isaac “Buzzkill” Newton. Check out the episode and see what you think.

Watch out for my new dish next week.

— JFARM