Sasha Vujacic’s vision for his official Web site was ambitious: create a place where he could interact with his fans, showcase the work of talented contributors and reflect the open nature of the Web. To my knowledge, Sasha is the first NBA player with this type of site, and I am honored to serve as its Managing Editor. But this site doesn’t just consist of Sasha, myself and our wonderful team of contributors. You – our readers – form a big part of it, which is why I am instructing all of you to pat yourselves on the back. We all got an A!
In his recent review of Lakers players’ Web sites, Colin Ward-Henninger of the Los Angeles Lakers Examiner awarded SashaVujacic.com the top grade and said we’re “heading in the right direction.” Read on for Colin’s report card… And keep your comments and suggestions coming so we can continue to make this the best player site on the Web.
Lakers’ personal websites need some work
By Colin Ward-Henninger
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.
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-
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.
Originally posted at Los Angeles Lakers Examiner
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March 3rd, 2009 at 10:37 am
Whoo! Horray for an A! ^_^
hehehe
<333
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Yo Colin - how did Pau Gasol earn A - you can’t even compare his website to this website…confusing to use….look and feel is grade below Sasha’s…that website is B and if you really like Pau that much B+. Other than that - great idea to write about this and good article….
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Congrats E!!!!!!!!
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:07 pm
of course sasha’s is the best… he’s the hot one.
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Pau’s is in…some language and I couldn’t understand it, and Kobe’s didn’t work. I love Fisher’s and Bynum has a weak front page. No effense
March 4th, 2009 at 3:14 am
Congratulations everyone who works here. I was excited when I first heard this site was coming and didn’t expect it to be as amazing as it is now. I am truly happy for you guys…
March 4th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Nice job Emily & team!
March 4th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Forgot to congratulate you guys! Sorry! Congrats! But it would be nice to have an OFFICIAL fan club on his OFFICIAL site.