Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The Later On Show...


So now that the Superbowl matchup has been set, it’s time to do the obvious.  Talk about the NBA of course!!!  What an incredible year it has been so far in the land of Stern.  Basketball has been fantastic this year, and the stories… you couldn’t ask for better.  There are so many already.  The Clippers rise to prominence, the Thunder thriving after trading one of the best players in the league, the amazing team ball being played in Oakland under head coach Mark Jackson, New York playing inspired defense for the first time in over a decade, and of course Miami’s first go round as the defending champion.  Pro basketball is in Brooklyn, and now most likely, also back in Seattle next season.  And, oh yeah, San Antonio is good.

We will get to all of these fantastic story lines in the coming weeks, but since I’m in LA, I have to chime in on the Laker season so far.  Sorry to do something so run-of-the-mill, but I just have to.  Really, what can you say?  It’s been absolutely incredible.  It’s what soap operas are made of, and so much more.  The irony of course is that you’d expect this kind of stuff in tinsel-town on the low-brow screen, new drama everyday, but not in real life; and certainly not involving the NBA’s most storied franchise.  What is going on around here?

I have many die-hard Laker fan friends and it’s been something a case study observing the emotional roller-coaster they’ve been on this year.  Really, the Lakers ARE this town and although Laker fans take a lot of heat, undoubtedly spoiled by years of success, they are very good fans for the most part.  They are extremely passionate; they live and die by Lakers' wins and losses, even in November and December, when most NBA cities are barely paying attention.  I have to respect that, even if I don’t feel sorry for the fan base that has had great teams in every single era throughout the NBA’s history.  Even the Boston Celtics can’t make that claim. 

Which brings us to this year, when the mighty Lakers were supposedly bringing greatness into the new era.  They had constructed a super-team in the off-season, bringing in not one, but TWO future Hall-of-famers, one of them in his prime, Dwight Howard who also was widely considered the best center in the league.  So you team them with two future Hall-of-famers already on the roster in Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, and theoretically you had not just a super-team, but the super-team.  One who’s pieces fit together more harmoniously than other combinations we have seen around the league in the last few years.  It was “can’t miss,” and every single sports radio loud-mouth in this town was letting us know it.  Everyone was stoked for the start of the season.  And then it started. 

I’ve never seen anything like the outrage that happened here in those first three weeks.  The Lakers went 0-8 in the preseason, which people weren’t happy about, but wasn’t of much concern.  Coach Mike Brown was tinkering with his lineups and guys were learning the new system.  But in the regular season it wasn’t much better.  The team looked lost, uninspired, and out-matched even by average teams.  Laker fans were frothing at the mouth!  The obvious solution was to replace Mike Brown, who was the wrong coach to hire in the first place the year before, as I always contended.  (Not to toot my own horn or anything; lots of people knew this, except for Lakers owner Jim Buss apparently.)

So it happened, and everyone knew what was coming next.  Reports surfaced that the Lakers are talking to Phil Jackson.  It made so much sense.  He lives in Manhattan Beach, pretty close to the practice facility, he is virtually married to Jeanie Buss, (a team Vice President, real owner’s daughter, and current “acting” owner’s brother,) his specialty is facilitating egos and finding ways for great players to co-exist and thrive in his system, he only takes jobs with veteran teams that have to win now (and this team desperately fits that description,) new franchise cornerstone, Howard (who is a free agent at the end of the season) was dying to play for him in the triangle, and the fans were chanting “we want Phil” at the end of games while the Lakers were playing under interim head coach Bernie Bickerstaff.  Oh, and it’s also worth noting that Phil Jackson is the greatest head coach of all-time in any sport.  He’s already won eleven championships as a coach, including five here with the Lakers.   

It was a done deal.  Everyone knew it, and this town was percolating in blissful anticipation and already dreaming of a deep play-off run.  Phil was ready to come back to cement his legacy here, and to erase the memory of his uncharacteristically unsuccessful last game back in 2011.

And then the news came down.  Ownership passed on Phil Jackson, in favor of Mike D’Antoni.  I still can’t believe this happened.  In real life.  In a film or cartoon, or a soap opera, it would have been implausible; unbelievable.  It’s so ridiculous that no credible writer would put it on the page.  You’d lose your audience, they’d be insulted, unable to suspend their disbelief.  But it did really happen.  So now ownership had to explain it. 

They brought in D’Antoni and his up-tempo philosophy and he waxed poetic about bringing back the old days of “showtime,” which was predictable.  The Lakers were trying desperately to save face and what better way than to get nostalgic.  Fans were weary though.  They wanted to know what had gone wrong with the obvious hire, and in response to this question came forth the most egregious lie I’ve ever heard from an NBA team’s management. 

Jim Buss said, that the front office’s collected opinion was that the current roster was more suited for D’Antoni’s system than it was for Phil Jackson’s triangle.  He actually said that!  Meanwhile every Laker fan knew this to be untrue.  Like all fans who play attention to basketball they knew that with two 7-footers who can co-exist together as great passers, two heady back court players, Nash, who is also one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, and then Kobe who is, well Kobe, the triangle was a natural fit.  Add to that a semi-decent supporting cast and you can win over 50 games and make a deep playoff run.  And even if the triangle isn’t the perfect fit (which it is) the single offense that you wouldn’t want to implement is D’Antoni’s uptempo offense, which needs young legs, stretch fours who can shoot, and totally undervalues post players, as well as defense.  The Lakers exploited their own weaknesses and negated their own advantage!   It was absolutely incredible.  The other GM’s in the West must have toasted each other that day.  Lakers management had taken a huge risk, and it was clear that other factors must have been in play.
 
Because any objective person would agree that in your particular situation, with Phil Jackson available and willing to coach your team, even simply from a business perspective, you make that move 10 times out 10.  100 times out of 100.  3,456,687 times out of 3,456,687!!!  What???  Wow.  What could have been?  Sit down with Phil Jackson, sign him for one or two years, give him a piece of management decisions, have him mentor someone to take over when he retires.  Then your franchise is set for the next ten years, with Dwight Howard and whoever else you bring in after the rest of these guys retire.  But none of that happened, and Laker fans are still shaking their heads.  Or sitting in the front row wearing funny glasses.      

The diehards talked themselves into it, and got behind D’Antoni, and the rest is history.  Although not the good kind.  This “super-team” is flirting with missing the playoffs entirely, or at best, squeezing into the seventh or eighth seeds and going out in the first round.  Either way, even diehard Laker fans won’t look you in the eye when it comes up in conversation.  It’s too painful for them.

And yet this is what underdogs are made of.  They are certainly the most unlikely underdog in history, but here they are, the 2012-2013 Lakers.  The little juggernaut that could.  It'll be fun to see how far they can go.
And how this town will deal with it.    

Thanks for reading,
Underdogs OUT!

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