Penberthy Becomes Victim of Numbers

Mike Penberthy, whose journey from The Master’s College to the NBA included several international stops and a job driving a forklift, on Saturday was waived by the Lakers.

Rookie guard Joe Crispin was activated from the injured list.

The transaction, like the Brian Shaw move before it, was made with the looming luxury tax threshold in mind.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Penberthy, 26, said in a telephone interview. “I knew they wouldn’t keep 15 guys. I don’t think they’re going to keep 14. I knew when they got Brian back [after waiving him], the writing was on the wall.”

Penberthy’s $458,000 salary was not guaranteed until December.

Though he had hoped the NBA’s new defensive rules would make a shooter’s job more stable, Penberthy found his minutes short with the additions of Lindsey Hunter and Mitch Richmond. Crispin soon could find himself in the same predicament.

An unsettled basketball existence is not foreign to Penberthy, who will try to retrace his steps back to the NBA. Mike and his wife, Wendy, had a son, Tyler, in May, and they live in Santa Clarita, not far from The Master’s.

“This has happened to me before,” he said. “We’re not devastated by it. I thought this was the place I’d be able to do it. But, the business has changed. I’ll see who might be interested in a shooter. If nobody in the NBA is, we’ll find somebody who is, somewhere else in the world.”