2009 NBA Champions! We love it!
Much respect to the Magic, the first playoff team to have to face three 60+ win teams, but boy did the Lake Show finish this in style.
Lakers' fifteenth. Kobe and DFish's fourth. Phil's fourth Laker and 10th overall (that "X" hat is hard as nails. I already have my man DDubs keeping his eyes peeled for one for me).
Point of emphasis: Doug Collins' didn't do shit with MJ and Del Harris didn't do shit with Shaq AND Kobe, so yes, Phil Jackson is god. I mean, just look at him. Listen to him. You're enraptured by the beatific glow he omits. You know it's true. Man, if I were still in L.A. I'd go to the parade with my homemade Red Auerbach effigy, whereupon I'd stick a cigar up its ass and light it on fire. Smoke that ya crusty bum! Phil beat you and he did it with the Lakers--that's gotta sting. May he continue to dance on your grave!
Point of emphasis: Derek Fisher will never be in the Hall of Fame. But he will be the first non-member to have his jersey hang in the rafters at Staples, mark my words.
Though they weren't always a delight to watch this season (which still sounds crazy to say about a team that won 65 games, but it's true), when they were on, they were molten magma. The fast break transition game. Pau's silky inside-out side post consistency. Kobe from any spot on the floor with an "I'm not touching you!" hand in his face. Coast-to-coast L.O., yo. BurglAriza swooping into passing lanes and sparking runs. Derek Fisher slinging those from-the-hip, rainmaking threes (and delivering titanic forearm shivers!). Luke Walton refusing to stop pointing at a teammate after he scores, regardless whether that player was involved in the play (a trademark gesture used by the Threepeat team that Kobe and Fish appear to have left in the past). Josh Powell eating up regular season minutes with 15-foot jumpers. Shannon Brown emerging from the bench to drain threes and suck the air out of the Staples Center crowd with fast-forward-like dunksplosions. Andrew Bynum showing flashes of future freshness right now. Sasha slinging bricks from start to finish, whining and flopping about in the process. Vlad Rad digging a hole that led straight to Charlotte. Jordan Farmar carrying the mercurial Bench Mob on his shoulders and surviving a mid-playoff loss of mojo.
This team's got the talent, the coach, the GM and the owner to catch and overtake Boston's 17 banners. That is a tall, TALL task. But such are the trials of the Los Angeles Lakers, for they are sporting royalty, the avatar of the city they represent. They are a repository of goodwill, a tie that binds the far reaches of Southern California to its center, stretching back into our youth and out into our lives.
We love it.
........so, is Chad Billingsley gonna be the Senior Circuit's All-Star starter? Can't wait to see the Blue Crew take on the Mets out at Flushing Meadows July 7-8-9.
I'm starting the new drama right now . . . Kobe cannot win a championship without Derek Fisher! ;0)
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