Canadians that have gone onto NBA.com recently will have been treated to an advertising alerting them of the opportunity to meet NBA legend Jerome Williams at Best Buy in the coming weeks. I’m quite amused that a player who averaged 7 points and 6 boards a game and was out of the League by the time he was 32 is being referred to as a “legend”.
Which brings us to talk about something truly legendary – this year’s Lakers team. After seemingly playing around with the Rockets before knocking them off, L.A. has the look of a champion now, or to get all cliche up in here, they have the “eye of the tiger”. In their dismantling of Denver last night, Kobe and the boys appear to be out for blood. And it probably won’t even matter who the Eastern Conference crowns as their champion, because the Lakers are stronger than both Cleveland and Orlando. As already mentioned here, Cleveland has been exposed as a championship-contender fraud, and Orlando probably doesn’t have a legit chance at beating L.A. unless they get really hot from long range for the whole series.
Meanwhile, all the pieces are there for the Lakers to dominant the Finals – a superstar with a killer instinct, a big man who is happy playing the part of secondary star, role players willing and able to play their roles, and a coach with the most rings in NBA history. In fact, considering Kobe and Derek Fisher are the only members of the team who have blown out 30 candles on a cake, this Lakers team could be dominant for a long, long time. Assuming they can resign Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza, who has probably earned himself a big raise after his play this playoffs.
Which means I’m going to have to come to grips with my hate for the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite possessing the only Lakers home jersey with CEBALLOS on the back of it left in existence, the Lakers have always worn the black hat in my world. My distaste for them has only increased with the rise of Kobe Bryant. While commiserating with a fellow Lakers hater (who especially hates them due to Sasha Vujacic screwing him out of winning bets twice by hitting meaningless three-pointers at the buzzer of blowouts instead of dribbling out the clock), he hit the nail on the head why we don’t like this team. In his words, they are like the spoiled rich kid villains in movies (Caddyshack, Revenge of the Nerds, Animal House, etc.) that terrorize the heroes, steal the girl and have everything go their way, only to have the heroes turn the tables and vanquish the bad guys at the end of the movie. Except, in the Lakers case, it doesn’t appear like it will blow up in their face this year.
Additionally, as a Kobe “hater”, both of the way he plays the game and the way he carries himself, I’ve always had the “can’t win a ring without Shaq” defense in my arsenal. Looks like that is going by the wayside also. All biases aside, Bryant is having a great playoffs and is one of the rare players who actually posts better stats in the playoffs than in the regular season. I still believe LeBron is the best player in the game right now, but with the game on the line there is no one I’d rather have take the last shot than Kobe Bean. As much as all this pains me to say, the truth can not be denied.
So Lakers haters will have to come to terms with the fact that L.A. is probably going to win the title this year. And this could just be the start of the purple reign.
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