Best kept secret was we had the same split on the first 400
Nor was it “The Goggles,” my four years of suffering and trying to convince myself that Kareem Adbul Jabar and Michael Phelps wore them too so it couldn’t be too bad. The surprising part about the rec-specs era was the opposing crowds were never as bad as I feared they’d be. The worst of the taunts was simply, “You wear goggles!”
Kareem pulled off bald and goggles!
While both were painful, neither compares to the most disheartening moment of all. The scene: playing a basketball game against Saginaw Arthur Hill at Arthur Hill. The Lumberjacks actually started their bench and still had the lead over our starting line-up. Completely exhausted and gasping for air I looked over at the scorer’s table to see an even bigger more intimidating group of five ready to check in. As Dar Tucker and his gang of future college basketball players took the floor to begin their dunk contest, I just wanted to curl into a ball and hide in the Gatorade cooler.
Enter the 2010-2011 Los Angeles Lakers. Starting line-up takes the court and looks a little something like this:
(PG) Steve Blake- A solid point guard, somewhere in between Jayson Williams and Kirk Heinrich. By no means an all-star, but has averaged about 8 points and 5 assists on bad teams in his career.
(SG) Shannon Brown- One of about five players in the NBA who are capable of making you drop whatever you are holding, jump out of your seat, and run down the hallway in reaction to his dunks. He would start on about 15 teams in the NBA, but sharing a position with Kobe has limited his minutes.
(SF) Matt Barnes- Started for the 2nd best team in the East last season. A hard nosed defender with tons of athleticism will be a nightmare for small forwards (cough LeBron James cough) who go from being guarded by Ron Artest then Matt Barnes. A former Kobe enemy will now be helping him get to his sixth ring.
(PF) Theo Ratliff- Theo Ratliff has had a really weird career. I think he’s entering into his 25th season and he’s spent the better half of the last 10 years as a part of every major three team trade usually packaged with Shareef Abdur Rahim. He’s still a big body and may be able to tap into his inner PJ Brown and give the Lakers a similar boost that the ’08 Celtics received from an aging big man.
(C) Lamar Odom- Believe it or not, Odom is the starting center for the 2010 Olympic team. Versatile and incredibly hard to guard for big men, Odom provides the Lakers with anywhere from 5 to 25 points a night.
Boop. Boop.
With this starting line-up the Lakers are the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. First quarter ends, Phil looks down the bench from his strangely elevated seat and motions for his backups to come on in. Approaching the scorer’s table now are Fisher, Kobe, Artest, Gasol, and Bynum. Notice they are all at one-name levels.
At the end of Game 7 of the finals there were really only three teams in the league that could hold their own against the Lake show. Phoenix Suns, Oklahoma City, and of course the Boston Celtics. Since then the Suns swapped Amare for Hedo, Thunder added Cole Aldrich, and Boston lost Tony Allen, Sheed, and the verdict is still out on whether or not Perkins will be back to full strength for a playoff push. The path to ring number 6 looks pretty clear for Kobe, except for the emergence of the new look Heat.
Personally, I think if Perkins is healthy or Chris Paul ends up in Orlando, one of those two teams will go to the finals over the Heat. But let’s say everything works out for LeBron, Wade, and Bosh and they turn out to be the 70-win team that they very well could end up being. They sweep the 8 seed Knicks, beat the Bulls in 6, and win a hard fought 7 game series against Boston in the Eastern conference finals. At 70 wins they’ll have home court advantage and unless Durant really reaches MVP levels, the Lakers will get to the finals with ease. But even in a matchup between the Super Heat, at full strength, versus the Lakers with a healthy Bynum I take the Lakers in 6 or 7 games. The scariest part about this claim is that the Lakers would actually be the lovable team in this series!
Embrace my softer side.
Fisher/Blake is a better point guard combo than Mario/Arroyo. Kobe is better than Wade. LeBron is better than Artest, but being able to throw Artest, the best perimeter defender in the league (maybe second behind Kobe) and then Matt Barnes at LeBron will significantly slow him down. He’ll still get 20 ppg but it will be of the 5-18 shooting night variety. Pau Gasol, who I’ve struggled accepting as being legitimate, I now will go as far to say is the best power forward in the league. Taking his place as the new soft over hyped big man is Chris Bosh. Then at the center position Bynum over Big Z is really not even a question. Throw in an Olympian (Odom) and Shannon Brown coming off the bench with Phil Jackson as coach and I think the Lakers will actually have a much easier time getting through the Heat than they did with Boston. Boston is tremendous defensively, you could make the case between Garnett/Perk/Davis/Sheed they had a better front court, and Rondo may be the best point guard in the league. The Heat have Wade and LeBron, but the Lakers have been building their team for the last four years knowing they need to have an answer for King James.
Also don’t forget how well Kobe performs when his legacy is at stake. Before this Super Heat team was assembled, there really wasn’t going to be a way that Kobe could pass MJ. Even if he won 7 rings the argument would be, “Well three of those are really Shaq’s and the only worthy team you beat in the finals were the Celtics and the Celtics would’ve won if Perkins was healthy.” There’d still be a large chunk of fans that hated him (me included) and many would still argue Magic Johnson was the best Laker of all time. But then “The Decision” came and suddenly LeBron James became the most hated man in basketball. And yes it doesn’t completely make sense, he took less money, he probably forfeited several MVP awards and scoring titles, on paper it’s somewhat of a selfless move, but even for myself who was rooting for the Cavaliers, who “drinks to the King” (a game where you hold up a 40 and take a big drink every time LeBron does something amazing) could feel myself starting to majorly turn on LeBron.
Why I hate the Heat and would find myself actually rooting for Kobe and the Lakers is a complete mystery to me. Position by position I should love this team. LeBron: arguably my favorite player in the league. Wade: I remember watching the ’06 finals with my brother cheering for Wade and laughing at his chaotic supporting cast. Mario Chalmers miracle shot against Memphis led to one of the best nights of my life celebrating a Kansas national title and that picture of him on the cover of Sports Illustrated is framed and hanging in my bedroom. Honestly if my future wife were to tell me she slept with either Mario Chalmers, Sherron Collins, Darnell Jackson, or basically anyone from that ’08 national title team, I don’t think I would even be mad. And you can throw in Pat Riley into that mix too, because let’s be honest he’s the coolest man on the planet.
"I'm not even mad. I'm impressed... Did you get an autograph?"
I should love this Miami Heat team. But something about throwing them all together makes me want to see them lose. The idea of them being bounced this year by the Celtics, then next year by the Lakers, then victim to a Durant three-peat, throw in maybe a Magic or Knicks title, and then the ultimate when the Dan Gilbert prophecy comes true and the Cavs beat the Heat on the way to their first ever NBA title. That’s what I find myself rooting for. The Heat are the Yankees of basketball now, but that also means every game they play I know I’ll be watching. The season becomes a whole lot more interesting now. August 1st I’ll be finding out when the Heat are coming to Detroit and immediately trying to get tickets, also who wouldn’t want to be in Cleveland for LeBron’s first return home, and Friday nights I might stay in to watch a Thunder versus Heat game.
Having this love to hate team will be good for the NBA and for Kobe this is his chance to make a bigger name for himself and even become a lovable superstar. For Kobe, his second lap around the track may end up being better than his first.
"Talk to me when you get six"
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