Halftime Hype

As the Los Angeles Lakers tipoff in Portland, a fan can only hope that the basketball gods break their routine and allow Kobe & Co. to escape unscathed. If history is any indication, this game should already be added to the loss column. The Lakers are 4-18 in their last 22 meetings and the Lakers have not been able to finish a back-to-back stretch with a win at all this season.

There's a simple key to victory though that Dwight Howard touched on: the Lakers must "play big." It's no secret that the Lakers are an old, slow team. The only unique advantage that separates this squad from the other 29 in the Association is its frontcourt starring two future Hall-of-Fame, seven-footers in Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard. If the Lakers slow down this game and make the Trailblazers battle the bigs down low, the Lakers will secure a much-coveted win.

From this point on, sitting half a game ahead of the Utah Jazz, the Lakers control their destiny. Basically, they need a squeeky clean record the rest of the way. There's especially no room for error since the Jazz own the tiebreaker. A win tonight is not enough for the Lakers though. Coach Mike D'Antoni has to watch Kobe's minutes. Even if the Lakers make the playoffs - and right now that's a big "if" - will the Black Mamba have enough gas left in the tank to lead the Lakers past the first round?

Ever since Lakers guard Steve Nash sustained a leg injury in October, the organization has been counting down the days 'til his return and justifying their poor performances.

When Coach Mike D'Antoni, who previously coached Nash during their stint with the Phoenix Suns, has been confronted by the team's poor offense, he has consistently reassured that the return of Steve Nash will take care of the kinks. When Pau Gasol struggled to keep up with D'Antoni's high-octane system - before the Spaniard was sidelined with tendonitis - all he could do was pray for Nash's recovery.

Essentially, any time the Lakers have been cornered with questions about their failures  both offensively and defensively, the answer has remained: "Just wait 'til Nash is back."

Who would have thought that a star-studded team including Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, and Gasol would have to cut excuses, much less bestow their championship shoulders of a 39-year-old point guard? Granted, Nash is a two-time MVP, perennial All-Star, and future Hall-of-Famer. His return will definitely help the depleted Lakers, whose home games might as well take place at local Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.  But is Nash really the "savior" that the organization has made him out to be?

Nash certainly will not solve the team's defensive woes. According to ESPN's Defensive Efficiency rankings, the Lakers are in the middle of the pack, tied for Washington for 14th. Nash's return might actually add to the Lakers' defensive problems. Help defense will be crucial when agile opposing point guards like Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook and the Los Angeles Clippers' Chris Paul blow by the Lakers' front line. Just this week, Nash himself confessed to the Los Angeles Times' T.J. Simers: "I'm not a great defender...Whatever I say, I'm never going to overcome the reputation."

Nash's return could very well return to the team to their desired championship trajectory, albeit indirectly. While the point guard's stats and ability to space the floor may not be sufficient, he will incite a boost of confidence. Howard and Gasol will not only get easier looks at the basket, but they will also have a positive mindset. Bryant will not need to rant about the necessity of "big-boy pants" and lividly admonish his teammates. In the end, Nash's much-anticipated return is mere placebo.

Days after the Los Angeles Lakers were reported to have signed Mike D'Antoni as their next head coach, skeptical pundits and fans like myself are still struggling to find the words that accurately encompass the Lakers' recklessness. Whether or not Phil Jackson's alleged demands - greater authority in personnel decisions, skipping some road games, etc. - will always be a contentious debate. At the end of the day, though, we will never know what happened behind closed doors.

According to Jackson's agent, Todd Musburger, and a statement released by Jackson himself, the 11-time champion made no such demands in his hour-and-a-half long meeting with Jim Buss and general manager Mitch Kuptchak on Saturday. Apparently, Jackson was given until Monday to make a decision and he was about to accept the job. In one of the most sly negotiations in sports history, though, Kuptchak awakened Jackson with a phone call right after midnight on Sunday night - technically, Monday morning - to inform Jackson that they had hired D'Antoni instead.

In an article by Mike Bresnahan in today's Los Angeles Times, Kuptchak is quoted as saying: "There was no agreement to wait for [Jackson's] response on Monday. He told us that's when he would get back to us. I could see where he might interpret that as 'I thought you guys would wait for me.' But I thought when I said I had to go on and interview other candidates that it was clear I had a job to do."
The entire situation appears, as Jackson described the midnight call, "slimy."

According to Kuptchak, if Jackson had immediately confirmed his interest in returning to coach the Lakers at Saturday's meeting, the job was his. Instead, Jackson's request for two days to think the matter over completely changed the trajectory of the Lakers' future.

My frustration extends beyond the Lakers' disrespectful, or at least slimy, negotiations. The Lakers claim that Jackson's "Triangle offense" was the deal-breaker; the offense resembled the "Princeton offense" that Mike Brown failed to instill. With Dwight Howard as the team's cornerstone going forward, D'Antoni's up-tempo offense would have a better chance of convincing Howard to resign with the Lakers at the end of the season as opposed to Jackson's methodical triangle. Jackson was also rumored to have wanted $10 milion or more annually in addition to other ludicrous demands.

No matter how many excuses the front office come up with, the organization knew what it was getting into when it pursued Jackson. Yes, the Princeton offense and Triangle offense do require practice in order to execute well, perhaps more practice than other offenses. But prior to the Lakers' Tuesday night loss againt the Spurs, the Purple and Gold had only played 6 games. There were still months of practice remaining and 76 games left to master the offense before the playoffs. And, unlike Jackson's second return in 2005, the Lakers have a core group of players already familiar with this offense - leaders in Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and, dare I say, Metta World Peace - who could help in the instructional phase.

Much has been reported of Jackson's alleged demands. For the most part, all of them have been false. According to Bresnahan's article, "Jackson told Jim Buss and Kuptchak that he wanted the same communication between them on personnel decisions that he held in his second tenure from 2005 to 2011."  All the crazy talk of Jackson wanting to skip road games and seek an ownership stake in the franchise was absolute nonsense.

Even if Jackson actually made some extra demands, other than skipping road games, he has every right to ask for a little more. The Lakers are the one in the desperate situation seeking his services, not the other way around. Plus, Jackson, a mastermind who has played and coaches in the Association for decades, certainly knows more about the game than Jim Buss. The illustrious coach seems to have a rocky relationship with the younger Buss, but respects Kuptchak, and with good reason. When Kuptchak has taken the lead in decision-making the results have been much better than when Jim Buss stepped up (i.e. hiring Mike Brown). Any personnel decisions would likely have been made in conjunction with the expertise of Kuptchak. Yes, Jackson would have likely commanded $10-12 million in annual salary. But what happened the last time the Lakers were stingy about hiring a head coach? Oh, right.

With regard to retaining Howard, the center could have either learned under an 11-time champion coach who took Shaquille O'Neal to the Promised Land three consecutive times or from a coach whose own post player of several years, Amar'e Stoudemire, says that D'Antoni did little to foster his post skills. However, we should not be too worried about the post skills because, at its prime, the Nash-Stoudemire pick n'roll tandem was nearly flawless. What it comes down to is whether Howard will be more content with winning championships, albeit with less flare, or flashy wins without the silverware to back them up.

There were no surprises with Jackson. If the front office claims that they did not sign Jackson for basketball reasons, then they should not have even interviewed Jackson in the first place. They already knew Jackson's fundamental philosophy, the Triangle offense, so if they did not think the 11-time champion would be a good fit, it was inappropriate to even meet with Jackson and offer the job to him.

There's the problem, though: The Lakers front office passed on an 11-time champion, much less for a coach who has never been to the NBA Finals. The messianic Jackson, arguably the greatest coach in pro sports history, by far had the most credibility of any possible coaching candidate. No one believes D'Antoni is a bad coach or unfit for the job. In fact, Bryant himself told Jim Buss that his top preference was D'Antoni, until he found out Jackson was an option. Criticism of D'Antoni's lackluster defensive teams is not necessarily valid with a Lakers team that has two former defensive players of the year in Howard and World Peace alongside a 12-time All-Defensive team selection in Bryant. My argument is not one against D'Antoni, but for Jackson. Heck, I'm even willing to admit that D'Antoni was a better long-term solution for the Lakers. But for an organization that claims to be driven to win now, Jackson would have been the best man for the job.

Current Phoenix Suns head coach Alvin Gentry captured my sentiment best when he commented on the Lakers' shocking decision: "The one thing I don't understand is that guy [Jackson] has been to [13] out of 20 NBA Finals and won 11 of them. I don't know how you can pass on a guy that can pretty much guarentee you a championship every other year."

Ultimately, any front office is confronted with the following options in order of priority.
1) Optimal scenario: Win a championship AND be exciting.
2) Second-best scenario: Win a championship, but perhaps without an exciting offense.
3) Last resort if you do not have the resources for a championship-caliber team: Excite the fans.

The front office has made a huge gamble: either the Lakers will thrive in the optimal scenario or be victims of a general manager's last resort, where mind you, anything less than a championship will be considered a disappointment and anything other than a Finals appearance considered an utter faliure.

After a tumultuous 0-8 preseason, Los Angeles Lakers fans, myself included, were ready for the "real deal." The preseason has minimal bearing on the season anyway, so there was absolutely no need to worry. Or so we thought. A season opener that was hyped to be a grand exhibition of invincibility quickly turned into sobering shellacking.

All the offseason chatter about a potential 82-0 record now seems even more foolish. Tthere will always be an adjustment period when a new team is assembled. With that said, last night's Lakers' performance was simply embarassing. While there's no doubt in my mind that Dwight Howard is currently a better center than Andrew Bynum, his free-throw percentage is nowhere near that of Bynum. As a team the Lakers may have missed 12 of their 31 free throws, but 11 of those misses came from D12. Fouling out only made Howard's debut that much worse.

Perhaps of greater concern is Steve Nash's lackluster performance. The two-time Most Valuable Player was outplayed by the Dallas Mavericks' Darren Collison, who eclipsed Nash with 17 points and 3 steals. Nash barely made a blip on the stat sheet, going 3-9 from the field for a total of 7 points and 4 assists. In order for the Lakers team to succeed, the Princeton Offense either needs to be reconsidered or Nash needs to pick things up quickly.

However, despite the disappointing Lakers performance, fans should worry too much - at least, not yet. Howard is still rounding into shape from back surgery, although his free throw percentage may take awhile to improve. Nash has the Herculean task of learning an entirely new offense in a short period of time. Hopefully, the team will begin to gel by Christmas Day because performances like that of last night will not only drive them away from the NBA Finals, but from the playoffs.

"I love the daunks"

For the past few years, it seems like the Dunk Contest is the main attraction of All-Star Weekend -aside from the All-Star Game itself, of course. This year happens to more exciting than the rest, though. In the past, Dwight Howard managed to earn high scores simply because he was a big name. Exhibit A: Superman doesn't even dunk, but throws the ball in a massive leap. Impressive, but not a dunk. Exhibit B: By far one of the stupidest and least creative dunks I've ever seen, Dwight puts a higher hoop and just jumps. This year, with Nate Robinson being a possible exception, none of the contestants have achieved superstar status.

Furthermore, there has been a new addition to the festivities. A dunk-in between Clippers guard Eric Gordon and Raptors forward Demar DeRozan will determine the fourth contestant. At the surface, it sounds like an amusing idea. Although after some thought, I realized it can only hurt Gordon and Dear; it would give the other three contestants - Gerald Wallace, Shannon Brown, and Nate Robinson - an advantage. Dear and Gordon will have already demonstrated some of their creative dunks, which will require either Demar or Gordan to practice more creative dunks with just one day to prepare.

Regardless, this year's contestant's are very amusing and the dunk-in method may prove to work out better than last year's fan voting. Honestly, I believe everyone knew Russel Westbrook deserved a spot more than anyone else, but Rudy Fernandez was just too funny in the commercials. With his thick Spanish accent, you couldn't help yourself; you just had to laugh.

This year was somewhat unprecedented in the way fans showed their support - at least, for Shannon Brown. It's not a secret that he has hops. The only question was if he'd be able to show them playing alongside Kobe Bryant, Ron Artest, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom. Fortunately, he did. But throughout the season, fans showed their support for the Michigan State alum at letshannondunk.com. Quite interesting.

Overall, it seems like there's a little more buzz for this year's contest in small part because of the Lebron James debacle. He declared that he would participate if selected, then backed out. To add more hype to the frenzy, Shaq decided to become LBJ's manager and announce his client would only play if Kobe, Vince Carter, and other stars also participated - to which Kobe Bryant chuckled. For those that are disappointed that Lebron backed out, don't be. He would've automatically won and it would have been just another accolade for him. Let other rising stock receive popularity and get a ticket to All-Star Weekend. After all, Lebron is already participating in the All-Star Game itself.

With such diverse players, this year's Dunk Contest seems like it'll meet the hype, if not surpass it.

Ever since training camp begins in October, our minds are focused on this time of year. Besides graduation and the thought of summer vacation, we always look forward to the NBA Finals. This is the time of year when the pundits no longer define the predictions, but rather, the predictions define the pundits. This is when one NBA franchise seizes the opportunity to rise to the top, and one team has to settle for silver. This is when one winner will be the example for future generations and the loser only a distant memory in the mind of the average fan. This is when a band of athletes representing two cities look to build a lasting reputation. This is where amazing happens.

This year the quest for gold is between the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic. If you had asked most fans at the beginning of the year, they would have told you the Lakers would definitely make the NBA Finals. If you had asked most fans during the season, they would have told you the Lakers would be 1 of 2 lone survivors come June. If you asked most fans during the first round of the playoffs, they probably would have told you the Lakers would emerge as the alpha-dog of the Western Conference and move on to the main stage. But if you asked most fans during the semifinals or finals of the Western Conference playoffs, they may have expressed some doubt about the Lakers winning the NBA championship, let alone staying in the race until June.

On the other hand, not many people would have told you that the Magic had the ability to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers, otherwise known as "The Lebron James Show", and contend for 1st place. They could've brought up a number of excuses: The Magic doesn't have the experience. Jameer Nelson is injured. Van Gundy isn't the right coach. LBJ and the Cleveland Crew will surely beat them. Well, the Orlando Magic have come a long way. Dwight Howard proved that in a defense vs. offense showdown, the Defensive Player of the Year has the edge against the offensive-minded MVP. I thought the Lakers were getting too much hate. Turns out, the Magic weren't getting any love. Even after going 6-3 this season against Boston, the Lakers, and Cleveland, the blue-and-white bunch weren't getting any credit.

Let's not forget about the league, though. This is not the best situation for the NBA, who was ready to settle the "who's best" debacle by letting LBJ and KB play it out - which would have meant historically high ratings. Just think of all the time that was spent making the Kobe-Lebron puppet commercials. It would have been the match-up of a lifetime: Cleveland vs. Los Angeles, Kobe vs. Lebron, 24 vs. 23, Past vs. Future, Experience vs. Hype (in this case, I'm not rooting for hype). Take a second to ponder how much could have been written about such a series. Thousands of columns, hours of TV, and plenty of books would have been devoted solely to the 2008-2009 NBA Finals.



However, let's not forget the storyline we're working with here. We still have the Lakers, who are desperately looking to redeem themselves after last year's embarrassment against the Celtics. A championship now would allow Phil Jackson to stand on a pedestal of his own - without the presence of Red Aurebach. A title would also prove that Kobe could win without Shaq, although big men have been influential in this pusuit (see: Pau Gasol). Statistically, if the Lakers won, they would have a 50% success rate in the Finals (15 championships in 30 appearances). Then, there's a young group based near Disneyworld, who wants to shine up their fingers with a ring. Dwight Howard could prove he's more than just a big dude who can block shots; he could prove to be a legit leader in this league. By winning, the Magic could add to recent upsets against the purple and gold and be remembered as the ones who stopped Kobe Bryant in his trek. Most of all, they could bring basketball pride to a city without much sports glory.

Picking a winner for this series isn't easy at all. The Lakers have been playing rather inconsistently, with their most recent game being an exception. But then again, the Lakers do have the game's greatest closer in Kobe Bryant. Nonetheless, the Magic do have the momentum, winning round after round as an underdog. The Magic did win both meetings against the Lakers this season. They also found a way to control a team with this year's MVP. Will it be Disneyland or Disneyworld who is the victor in the match-up?

This time, I don't think I'm being biased when I predict that the Los Angeles Lakers will be the 2009 NBA Champions. Regardless of how much the Magic say they have grown throughout these playoffs, it's the Lakers who have learned the(ir) lessons. Last year, after "cakewalking" through the playoffs, as Kobe Bryant put it, the Lakers simply didn't show up in the NBA Finals. From that point on, they have been dubbed "softies" and have been on a mission. They won't settle for second-best. They could care less about being the Western Conference champions. In the last two series, they have banged around with some of the more physical squads in this league and regardless of what the media says, they have gotten much smarter defensively.

At the same time, though, I wouldn't be surprised if the Magic won. Well, I would, but only slightly. The Magic have the game's greatest defender in Dwight and one of the best 2-3 punches (ex. Gasol-Odom) I've seen in Lewis and Turkoglu. Additionally, Rafer Alston had a sensational series against the Cavaliers. With Lebron James' hand in his face, he stayed cool, calm, and collected as he banked a three-pointer. And Skip to My Lou hasn't been the only factor for Orlando. Pietrus has also put on a display of his skills by showing he can drain a long-range deuce just as easily as he can drive to hoop and convert.

But at the end of the day, the Lakers are the wiser, more poised team. They're just so much more lethal. Whether it's Kobe Bryant's scowl or Odom yelling at the top of his lungs, L.A. is just so much more dangerous. With Shannon Brown in the lineup, they have the edge against Rafer Alston. At shooting guard, nobody can stop Kobe. Odom and Ariza should be able to handle Lewis. And I can't wait to watch Gasol and Bynum take on Dwight. This is the crucial match-up here. If Dwight dominates the post, Orlando jurastically increases its chances of winning. But if Gasol and Bynum continue to display a daunting defensive presence, things may turn out to be slightly more difficult.