Ted Green: Andrew Bynum’s lack of effort is too frustrating to handle

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The headline (in the paper) read: Will the real Andrew Bynum stand up against little Suns?

My reaction: I’m afraid we’re seeing the real Bynum.

Sometimes good. More often mopey and invisible.

It isn’t easy to disappear when you’re 7-1, 290, but Andrew’s been MIA an awful lot lately.

Covering for the kid, Phil Jackson blames some of it on a lingering cold. Gazoontite, pass the tissues.

I believe the problem lies more with his heart.

Seven points and 21% shooting in his last 62 minutes on the floor? 1 for 9 and three points in Sacramento?

Those numbers scream of lack of effort.

But even more than stats, it’s Bynum’s bad body language that strikes me. Joyless. Sulking when he doesn’t get what he thinks are enough touches and shot attempts.

He was happy as a clam when Pau was hurt and out of action, and his productivity soared. But since Pau Gasol’s return, let’s be honest: He’s been about as impactful in the paint as Muggsy Bogues.

Still just 21, young Andrew doesn’t appear to understand that on a team with Kobe Bryant and Pau and now Ron Artest and Lamar Odom, too, he’s no better than a legitimate FOURTH option when the Lakers have the ball. Fourth options don’t get 20 shots a game.

What he needs to do is embrace the name of a hardware chain and figure out what his True Value is.
I hate to repeat what Phil’s probably told him a million times, but his true value is as a shot-blocker, shot-changer and rebounder in the lane.

If he were a defensive terror, which he is capable of doing if he would re-direct his focus, the Lakers would almost never lose.

Alas, these are not facets of the game he seems to love.

You can tell he sees himself as a scorer. And that it frustrates him knowing he’d be averaging 20 and 10 and making the All-Star team someplace else, albeit on a team going nowhere. I think Bynum should ask himself: Do I want to be THE guy on a bad team or ONE of the guys on a potentially legendary club?

He should take a cue from Derek Fisher, who’s never been a big scorer or made an All-Star team. But he’s won 4 titles, been part of something very special, and will be remembered as an extremely popular Laker fan favorite.

What has to be frustrating to the Lakers and to Mitch Kupchak, and galling to fans, is that they already gave him the big money… a $52-million contract.

And now he’s moping around like Joe Barry Carroll, whose initials JBC, we used to kid back in the day, stood for Just Barely Cares.

You’d think having the privilege of watching the way Kobe competes every night, with his body half broken up, would inspire anyone to play with some passion and purpose, but this is a message that obviously has not sunken in with Young Master Drew.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kurt Rambis did a lot of great work with his feet and fundamentals, and the Laker strength coaches have remolded his body so that it’s big, strong and cut, but who are they going to bring in to work on his head?

Or is it his heart?

Final word-up, Andrew: Whatever your little problem is, it’s time to quit moping. Grow up and wake up. Stop taking your charmed life for granted. Stop believing that having an overactive pituitary gland that made you 7 feet tall is enough. It was enough to make you rich, but not nearly enough to create any kind of athletic imprint.

Andrew, it’s time to realize how lucky you are to even be with the Lakers in the first place, and a starter, too. Time to remove your face from the nightly box scores and stat lines. Time to act like you care and earn all that long money they’re paying you.

-- Ted Green

Green formerly covered the Lakers for the L.A. Times. He is currently senior sports producer for KTLA Prime News.