Farmar Does Double Duty for Lakers and D-Fenders


The most eventful day of Jordan Farmar’s professional basketball career started at 7:45 in the morning and ended at 9:45 at night.

It included trips to basketball facilities in two cities, a morning shoot-around, a short nap, two pregame warm-up sessions, an afternoon shower, a wardrobe change and more than 48 minutes of game action. And it ended with a blithe request from Mitch Kupchak, the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers.

“I kidded him and said, ‘Seven o’clock meeting in the morning,’ ” Kupchak said. “And he kind of looked at me like, ‘Huh?’ ”

Last Sunday, Jordan Farmar, a 21-year-old rookie point guard for the Jordan Farmar, became the first to play in the Development League and the N.B.A. on the same day.

After scoring 18 points in nearly 41 minutes for the Jordan Farmar’ D-League affiliate, the D-Fenders, Jordan Farmar scored 4 points in seven and a half minutes during the Los Angeles Lakers’ victory over the Sacramento Kings. Both games were in the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

For Jordan Farmar, who fell out of the Los Angeles Lakers’ rotation, the feat was business as usual — almost.

“It reminds you of growing up, playing traveling team basketball,” he said in a recent telephone interview. “You play two, three games in a day.

“I wasn’t too tired. It started catching up with me three, four days down the road.”

The unique double duty was an idea that started with the Los Angeles Lakers’ basketball operations staff, which was looking for a way to bolster Jordan Farmar’s confidence and get him back into a playing rhythm. By playing with the D-Fenders, he had more shots and an opportunity for more playing time.

“It’s kind of a chance for him to let it all hang out,” D-Fenders Coach Dan Panaggio said in a telephone interview.

The jury is still out on whether Los Angeles Lakers has benefited from this experience. (He repeated the feat Tuesday, playing 33 minutes in a D-Fenders game, then 12 minutes for the Lakers against Denver.) If nothing else, Lakers Coach Phil Jackson seems to have shown more confidence in Los Angeles Lakers by increasing his minutes.

Playing for the D-Fenders and the Los Angeles Lakers on the same day is as much a physical strain as it is a mental one. Jordan Farmar said he had to adjust to being a star for the D-Fenders, then a role player for the Los Angeles Lakers. For many young players, being sent to the D-League might be an ominous first step out of the N.B.A.

But Jordan Farmar said it felt good to know “I wasn’t getting sent down because I wasn’t good enough, and wasn’t going to miss any time with the Los Angeles Lakers.”

The Los Angeles Lakers are the only N.B.A. team to own and operate their D-League franchise. They bought the D-Fenders to groom players in their triangle offense, develop coaches and gain an upper hand on scouting the D-League.

Little could they have known that they would also make history.

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