Halftime Hype

I remember attending a Lakers game the year right after Shaq had been traded. It was April 17, 2005, the last home game for the Lakers. The Mavericks were in town to play Kobe & Co., who didn't make the playoffs for the first time since the 1993-94 season. The Lakers were down by quite a bit, rallied, but still ended up losing by two, 114-112. It was after that game, and several times throughout the course of that season that I wondered what Charlotte Bobcats fans have been pondering for years, "Why should I continue supporting this team?" There was no particular indication that things would get better. Phil Jackson was on hiatus, calling Kobe "uncoachable" in a book he published about the '04 season, The Last Season. With Rudy Tomjanovich's resignation and assistant Frank Hamblen's miserable tenure as interim head coach, things couldn't have gone worse. But unlike Charlotte Bobcats fans, I had an answer to my question: These are the Los Angeles Lakers. They are practically the identity of the NBA. Kobe Bryant, one of the most talented basketball players ever, is on our team. A super-rich owner is pulling the strings. The legacy and significance of this team is just too great. Things will turn around."

And they did. Nevertheless, it's almost funny to think about how things, indeed, could have gone much worse. The organization was on the verge of collapse when Kobe demanded "bring new players in, or I'm out." During his rampage, he also declared that he was open to the idea of playing on Pluto, which would subsequently lose its status as a planet. With tensions flaring, it would have been so easy for General Manager Mitch Kuptchak to abide by Kobe's demands and indeed "ship Bynum's a-- out" or outright trade Kobe. At the time, Kuptchak was one of the most despised - and misunderstood - men in Los Angeles. In fact, at a season-ticket holder event, one fan asked the GM to resign. I don't know how he kept going, but he did - and God bless him for it.

Mitch Kuptchak slowly and secretly repaired the roster. Phil Jackson was back on the sidelines. Kwame Brown and Smush Parker were gone. Derek Fisher was back. Trevor Ariza was acquired. Andrew Bynum developed - making Kuptchak look like a genius for drafting him. Kobe eventually won an MVP award. The Lakers would advance to the NBA Finals, and #24 found yet another source of motivation: Shaq's amateur rap taunting the Black Mamba ("Kobe, tell me how my a-- taste"). Two Lakers championships and a couple NBA Finals MVP trophies later, the stakes have reversed. Two years it ago, as Kobe has admitted, Boston was clearly the better team. This year, as the record shows, the Lakers held the upper hand.



Although the end result of this season and last season were the same, the unique paths to the title were quite different. In '09, the Lakers actually seemed to care about the regular season. This year the Lakers played like high school seniors: as long as your results/grades aren't too poor, you could still get to your destination (the college you want to go to, in the case of a high school senior; the NBA Finals in the case of the Lakers). Last year, the Lakers were also under more pressure to win a ring. Frustration was mounting and Kobe could not let another year go by without adding jewelry; that ring belonged to the Lakers. This season, it was "been there, done that. Don't stress about this loss; focus on the title." Still, in both circumstances the Lake Show finished as the best in the West.

Despite winning a championship in '09 and '10, the two Finals' series differed immensely. The Orlando Magic didn't pose a threat at all to the Los Angeles Lakers. All-Star and starting point guard Jameer Nelson was injured for part of the series and Dwight Howard just couldn't do it all by himself. All the talk of Kobe not being able to win without Shaq was all gone. After seven long years, L.A. could finally raise another banner. On the other hand, this year was all about defending the title and proving that the previous championship wasn't a fluke. There were whispers about how far Boston could have gone if Garnett wasn't sidelined for part of the playoffs. Kobe and the Lakers proved they would have none of it, though. They sealed the deal by earning another ring after Game 7. Now, Kobe has surpassed the man who, to him, was nothing but a Big Bully.

The main difference, however, was Ron Artest. Plenty of folks doubted how effective he could be when he first came to Los Angeles. Even Kobe wasn't sure if Ron could replace Trevor's role. Regardless, word on the street was that Phil Jackson had lobbied for the acquisition. In hindsight, Ron didn't have a particularly memorable season. He was lost on the offensive end and had a big defensive game seemingly once every blue moon (do people still use that expression?). He was an "enigma" as Andy Garcia narrated in the documentary of the Lakers 2009-2010 season, The Association.



There was no question about his desire to win, though. During the ring ceremony at the season opener, Artest stayed in the locker room, "sick to his stomach", according to his agent. As written in Lee Jenkins' article for Sports Illustrated, "It's not that he didn't want to see the rings (he downloaded photos of them onto his phone)...It's that he didn't feel he deserved the privilege. Even in the days leading up to the Finals, when ABC asked the players to pose with the Larry O'Brien Trophy, Artest refused to touch it." What's more, Artest, in a way, had predicted this championship long ago. After the Lakers lost to the Celtics two years ago, Ron met up with Kobe in the locker room - or more specifically, when Kobe was in the midst of a shower - and ensured that #24 wouldn't be let down again. Ron would come to the rescue. Indeed, he did. He stepped up in the playoffs, forced Durant and Paul Pierce into tough shots, and even had some notable offensive games of his own (Game 3 against Utah; Games 1 & 6 vs. Phoenix; Games, 1, 6, and 7 in the NBA Finals). Without him, who knows how Game 7 would have ended.

At the end of the day, the Lakers have won their sixteenth championship and fifth in the last ten years. Everybody made key contributions. Whether it was the dominant post presence of Pau & Bynum or the leadership and clutch shots by Fisher, Kobe's brilliance or Artest's stellar defense, General Manager Mitch Kuptchak's organization of the roster or Dr. Jerry Buss' willingness to open his check book, Phil Jackson's genius or Lamar Odom's acceptance of coming off the bench, there were many pieces to the puzzle. The quest to defend the title was a formidable trek and, as history will forever show, the Lakers were successful.