If you know anything about me regarding sports, you know that I like players, not teams. Teams evolve year after year and I couldn't possibly identify with an organization simply because they bare a certain name, color, or because I was raised where they play. The only team that I will forever cheer for is my alma mater, my Uconn Huskies. For me being a Huskies is indelible and they will always be my team.
Moving on...
Let's face the fact, I am a Kobe Bryant fan. There is no disputing that, but I would like to believe that I remain unbiased in conversations regarding basketball. I know that many people will say that I am wrong when I say that Kobe Bryant is the best NBA basketball player of all-time, but that is neither here nor there.
Since I am a huge Kobe fan, that would make me a Los Angeles Lakers' fan since he is currently on that team (I was a huge New York Knicks' fan back in the day when John Starks played, then Allan Houston and Latrell “Choke” Sprewell) . I have been seen roaming the streets of Boston in my Magic Johnson Lakers' jersey because Magic Johnson is my favorite player of all-time.
Right now the Lakers are in disarray. They were just embarrassed, humiliated, and dethroned by the Dallas Mavericks. Trust me, I hate people that ride the bandwagon. I stick with my player/team through the good times and the bad times, but I turned the television off in the middle of the third quarter after Ron Artest missed a lay-up. Enough was enough.
For a franchise with so much rich basketball history, for them to be belittled on national television, on Mother's Day, a day you show your mother what kind of man or woman you've become, was too horrid to watch. And then to hear that they started acting like spoiled toddlers because things didn't go their way just the icing on the cake. I will solemnly say that I am ashamed to be a Lakers fan after that display.
Now I know you can't win them all, and I have been preaching for a long time that it's not about winning and losing, for me at least. Sometimes the ball just don't fall, sometimes you're an inch out of place, sometimes the ball slips out of your hand, or sometimes you slip, shit happens. What I care about when I watch or play basketball is intelligence and desire, two things the Lakers didn't show, specifically, in game four and for much of the series.
To me the only players on the Lakers that seemed to give a damn were Bryant and Lamar Odom. Odom played hard all series. Of coarse we know Kobe takes each game to heart, but I saw a fight in Odom that can't be forgotten. He on several occasions took the ball hard to the whole and played defense the best he could. He unfortunately missed too many free throws, but that happens, even though it shouldn't, they are called “free” throws, got to make them count.
To be honest I don't even want to talk about Paul Gasol's performance in the playoffs this year, but mentioning his name gives me a segue to my next topic, next year for the Lakers.
By now you have probably heard talks about Dwight Howard possibly going to the Lakers and what the Lakers would have to give up to get him. What should the Lakers give up to get Howard you might ask? Everything but the kitchen sink, and I shouldn't have to tell you that Kobe is the kitchen sink, or do I (smiley face)?
Now the first thing that popped into my head when I heard about the Dwight Howard rumors was, “Hell yeah!” But then I started to think and I was like, “Whoa, I don't want the Lakers to be next year's Miami Heat team, bringing superstars together because individuals can't hack it on there own is sad (Sorry ass LeBron).” But then I got to thinking about Michael Jordan and inevitably Scottie Pippen. Without taking anything away from Jordan and how dominate he was, he was not wearing rings until Pippen was in a Bulls' jersey and when Pippen was wearing that Bulls' jersey in the 90's he was wearing the hell out of it.
Like my friend Mr. Jenkins loves to say verbatim, “Men lie, women lie, numbers don't.” Scottie Pippen put up numbers when he played with Jordan and when he played without Jordan. And for his play on the court he received honors as being one of the fifty greatest basketball players of all-time. Say what you will about Pippen and how Jordan made him a better player, I don't believe that flummery; slouchers don't get named as one of the fifty greatest players of all-time, so realize that.
Therefore, I want to say that a championship team should be allowed, with no prejudice to have two all-stars on their team at the same time. I think three is unfair and poor sportsmanship, but I think two is a fair number. Like I already mentioned, the Bulls did it in the nineties along with the Houston Rockets (Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler), the Lakers in 2000's (Shaq and Kobe) with the San Antonio Spurs (Tim Duncan and David Robinson) just to name a few.
Basketball is a team game, but teams need superstars to win championships. So with that said, Gasol in this year's playoffs was no superstar by any stretch of the imagination and that's what hurt the Lakers greatly. Next year, if Dwight Howard gets that epiphany and the Lakers hit my cell phone up looking for Derrick Fisher's successor, you can bet your bottom dollar that the Lakers will be in the Finals next year, even if they don't call me, even though they should.
Mr. Felder
