Settle Down Laker Nation...
The heart is forever inexperienced. - David Henry Thoreau
It's just too damn long. I am referring to the NBA regular season. 82 games is just too many. From a business standpoint, it obviously works on some level to make owners money (though not all owners with the league's financial troubles for some of it's franchises). From my standpoint, one who has to focus on many things in life, I just don't have the time, energy, care, or patience to follow my Lakers for 82 freakin' games. With that being said, I try to force myself once in a while to seriously devote two hours of my time investing my full attention into a game. It is typically against a good opponent on a weekend or weekday in which I have the time and energy during the evening.
Recently, I decided to fully engage in the Lakers' recent match up against the hated Celtics. First, I'm not sure if L.A. fans are capable of seriously hating another opponent, even the Celtics, because L.A. fans are not that hostile. There's just too much going on in L.A. to be so angry with sports. We may make angry calls to a radio show or bitch at the local barbershop about how Phil Jackson needs to go (which is idiotic, by the way), but it only lasts for a day or two after a loss. Second, I don't hate the Celtics. I just do not like Paul Pierce. Yeah he's from Da' Wood and all, but I just cannot stand him. I hate the way he parades and carries himself as an elite player, which he may be, while at the same time being one of the games biggest floppers and drama kings. I get that there are floppers all around the league, such as Derek Fisher, but these are players that don't have elite talent and must do those types of things to increase their value in the league. Elite players are not floppers. I also hate the way Kendrick Perkins and Doc Rivers complain violently on every single call that's against them. I am, however, a huge Rajon Rondo fan, though he's becoming the point guard version of Shaq. He tends to dominate games, but becomes a liability late in games due to his average (at best) mid-range shooting and terrible free throw shooting. He's shooting just over 50% from the line this year and about 62% for his career. That is absolutely embarrassing for a guard. My theory for his bad shooting is that his ridiculously, relatively large hands impacts his shooting. His hands are ginormous for a guy that's 6-1.
Ok, so back to my experience watching the Lakers and Celtics. It looked like the Lakers were actually trying the whole game, so I actually watched the whole game, well almost. It was a good game by both teams. In the end, the Celtics were too much on this day, and prevailed. The Lakers were doomed at about five to six minutes left in the fourth quarter. This is when the Lakers reverted to the infamous Kobeball. Once Kobe goes into this mode, the Lakers are doomed. For whatever reason, he lost confidence in everything and felt the only way to win that day was to just dominate the offense, dominate the offense for himself. Game over. His teammates becomes useless. They lose confidence. They lose that extra motivation to play defense and hustle that happens when players feel like they are not involved. At this point, I felt there was no need to watch the remaining several minutes. The Celtics had the game won. They are way too good a defense of team to let Kobe alone win.
Even with this loss, and the subsequent manufactured drama caused by the local and national media and fans, I am not worried, and neither should you be worried. The reasons are plentiful. Here they are...
The regular season is just too f-ing long! I read a book called The Jordan Rules, which chronicled the Bulls' first title season in 1990-1991. There was so much drama going on that season. Jordan treated players terribly. Pippen was livid about his contract situation and pulled stunts to demonstrate his disdain (such as exaggerating injuries), while the organization was courting and making huge contract offers to a Croatian prospect, Toni Kukoc, who Bulls players did not think would hold up in the physical NBA. General Manager Jerry Krouse was a paranoid jerk at times. Stacey King was fat and lazy. Livingston griped about his playing time. Rookie B.J. Armstrong sulked at moments because he wasn't the focal point. Horace Grant and Bill Cartwright couldn't stand playing with Jordan at times. Jordan had ballhogging issues, as did Pippen at times. Will Purdue didn't like his small roll as a backup. Pippen did not like the special treatment Jordan received. John Paxson was underpaid to be a starting point guard compared to the rest of the starting point guards in the league. And there's much more that happened (it's a fun, interesting read). Through all that, they still prevailed (though I postulate their success was much ado about timing with a lesser quality of league). I am just finishing up Phil Jackson's book, The Last Season: A Team in Search of its Soul. Again, the 2003-2004 Lakers went through so much drama, headlined by Kobe and Shaq, and still got all the way to the NBA finals while not having home court advantage in the Western Conference semis and finals against the defending champion Spurs (though they loss several players from the previous year) and top-seed Timberwolves respectively. One of the unseen themes in these books is that the season is just long. Over the course of that span, as Forrest Gump says, S*** Happens.
Think about this for a second. NBA training camps open up in early October. The regular season goes all the way to April, six months. And if a team were to advance deep into the playoffs, we are talking about an additional two months. Now think about you at your job. Think about all the things that happen at your job and in your personal life and your colleagues' personal lives that affects your work environment. You get sick. Your colleagues get sick. You may have had a serious argument with your significant other that saps your energy at work. Your relative may have passed away. Your colleague may bring a bad attitude to work that impacts your performance. You may not like your boss. You may have technical difficulties with your working equipment. Your back may be sore for whatever reason. One of your children may get very sick. One of your colleagues may get perceived as being treated better than you. You may think you deserve a bigger role in the grand scheme of things. You may get into a car accident on the way to work. So on and so on.
We forget that athletes are human beings too with the same issues regular folk have. Those things that I mentioned in the previous paragraph happen to people all the time, and definitely happens within a six to eight month period. This happens with the Lakers and all other teams in the league. Maybe not all of these particular things, but things happen over the course of the year. There will be drama and conflict. It is inevitable, especially when you cram fifteen male egos together. No need to worry. At least there is no need to until the final results of the season are reached. It is merely February.
We've seen this too many times before. Every year, we go through the same story. The Lakers have those inexplicable loses (more on this later) and moments when Kobe becomes moody and agitated. We all know what to expect. Remember, it is a long season. Even in successful years, there will always be drama. Back in 2008, when the Celtics beat the Lakers for the title, ESPN's Bill Simmons was on a plane back to L.A. He just so happened to be sitting next to Ray Allen's father. They talked a little bit. Ray's father harped about how Doc Rivers sat Ray down at times and didn't run that many plays for him because he did not want his son to win the finals MVP. This is after his son and the Celtics smashed the Lakers in game six to win the title! He manages to throw in some drama about his son being sabotaged, which is insane.
We also have to remember several things. First, Los Angeles is the second biggest media market in the nation. Second, in a huge, diverse city, the Lakers actually galvanize the city. They are one of the only, if not thee only, entities that brings together all races, ages, nationalities, classes, and educational backgrounds in a very, believe it or not, segregated metropolitan area. Third, the Lakers are a historical, star-studded franchise. Next to the Yankess, you can argue the Lakers are the next best sports franchise in the U.S. Los Angeles loves winning, and will go off to do one of thousands of other satisfying things in L.A. if the Lakers become terrible. Our not so harsh winters allows us to still go out during the winter. Lastly, with all of this mixed together, the media is going to be all over the Lakers, looking for little nuggets of controversy to sell newspapers, or whatever medium they are using, to this huge market of fans. They prey on the passion and abundance of Laker fans in L.A. Given this, little things that go on every year and with most franchises, including successful ones, gets blown up to ridiculous proportions. Phil Jackson notes this in his book. With his Jordan-Pippen Bulls, the media was plentiful, but they were more in awe of the teams. In L.A., however, the media is plentiful and relentless too, but they are constantly poking players, coaches, and management for drama and nothing else. No need to worry. Just remember drama sells, and a huge media market that has a franchise as prodigous and prestigious as the Lakers will amplify things that are mostly frivolous.
It is hard for the Lakers to get motivated at this point. Think about the great-looking girl that can have any guy she wants. She will naturally get the top-notch guys, right? Well after she gets with several of these guys, she has been to the top. After that, is she really going to get that excited when she is approached by the subsequent guys, especially when most of those guys are not top-notch? Once in a while, she may step her game up for a few, but overall she will not get as excited as she was when she was first getting those top notch guys.
The Lakers are like the aforementioned girl. They are on their fourth straight NBA finals run. Since they have made three straight finals runs, they played basically an extra regular season at playoff intensity. They know what it takes, and the regular season is a marathon. They may appear arrogant, but then again, what do they have to prove? The three best teams right now, Spurs, Celtics, and Heat, all have much more to prove than the Lakers, who have won two finals in a row. The Spurs want to get their dynasty back while Tim Duncan still has some gas in the tank. The Celtics want redemption for losing a title they felt they lost rather than the Lakers winning, which is amplified by Perkins being injured for the last game. The Heat are looking to silence their critics, but I think they will start their title runs next year and beyond (when the Celtics aren't as much a threat in the East). The Laker's don't have any of that type of motivation, and Phil knows it. This is probably why he's making it known that this is his last year to provide some, perhaps artificial, motivation. After three straight finals appearances and knowing they are virtually guaranteed to make the playoffs (and they will be a top three seed since the Pacific Division is bad), it is very difficult to get up for a December game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Relax, they will be up for the stretch run and the playoffs.
Remember, the Lakers have a home court disadvantage. I recently went to a Clippers game to see Blake Griffin live in action. I paid well over $100 to sit close to the action. My take on attending sporting events is that I would only pay for a ticket if I can be in a place that makes it better than watching it at home on my comfy chair-and-a-half (yes, it is bigger than a chair, but not as big as a love seat...I love that thing) in high definition. What I paid for those great Clipper tickets will get me in the 300 section at a Laker game. The point is that many of the die-hard, blue collar Laker fans that would make the games more raucous rather than having an upscale lounge feel to it are priced out. Bill Simmons pointed this out, and it's what I've thought all along, but I am obviously not famous. Laker home crowds are kind of terrible. Not completely terrible though. They sometimes have the ability to rise to the occasion. They are terrible on weekends. Whenever you can, watch a home Laker game on a Sunday. On the weekend, especially on nationally televised games, you get the high-roller, want-to-be-seen crowd. These people are not going to make as much noise as the blue collar Laker fans would. With some of the recent efforts by the Lakers, they would have been booed lustfully off the court for the entire game if it were a voracious crowd. That game against the Celtics was so quiet that it was maddening. If that game were in Boston, those Bostonians would be rocking all game with beat L.A. chants and the works. Instead, we get Adam f*****' Sandler (a Knicks fan, by the way), Brooklyn Decker, and Brooklyn Decker's [lovely] t*****s. Laker home games have become a joke to me. Due to the dull home crowds, the Lakers won't have that extra energy at times that they need to pick them up when they maybe don't have it on a particular day or night. They have less of an advantage than other teams in the league, especially when they roll into other towns as the league's premiere franchise. So, keep in mind that the Lakers get everyone's best effort while they don't get as much a lift from their home crowd as with many of the other teams.
I know it is hard for Laker fans to not overreact to every loss, especially when the loss is reprehensible, such as a 20-point loss at home to the Pacers. It's like when we tell ourselves that we are going to stop doing something, only to find that you are back in the drive-thru at McDonald's. We should know better. We should know that a Laker season, no matter how successful, will have artificial drama stirred up by the media that fans will adhere to because they are impatient and need to vent. It's a long, six to eight month season. We should at least wait until the final result of the season plays out before we lose our minds.
Recently, I decided to fully engage in the Lakers' recent match up against the hated Celtics. First, I'm not sure if L.A. fans are capable of seriously hating another opponent, even the Celtics, because L.A. fans are not that hostile. There's just too much going on in L.A. to be so angry with sports. We may make angry calls to a radio show or bitch at the local barbershop about how Phil Jackson needs to go (which is idiotic, by the way), but it only lasts for a day or two after a loss. Second, I don't hate the Celtics. I just do not like Paul Pierce. Yeah he's from Da' Wood and all, but I just cannot stand him. I hate the way he parades and carries himself as an elite player, which he may be, while at the same time being one of the games biggest floppers and drama kings. I get that there are floppers all around the league, such as Derek Fisher, but these are players that don't have elite talent and must do those types of things to increase their value in the league. Elite players are not floppers. I also hate the way Kendrick Perkins and Doc Rivers complain violently on every single call that's against them. I am, however, a huge Rajon Rondo fan, though he's becoming the point guard version of Shaq. He tends to dominate games, but becomes a liability late in games due to his average (at best) mid-range shooting and terrible free throw shooting. He's shooting just over 50% from the line this year and about 62% for his career. That is absolutely embarrassing for a guard. My theory for his bad shooting is that his ridiculously, relatively large hands impacts his shooting. His hands are ginormous for a guy that's 6-1.
Ok, so back to my experience watching the Lakers and Celtics. It looked like the Lakers were actually trying the whole game, so I actually watched the whole game, well almost. It was a good game by both teams. In the end, the Celtics were too much on this day, and prevailed. The Lakers were doomed at about five to six minutes left in the fourth quarter. This is when the Lakers reverted to the infamous Kobeball. Once Kobe goes into this mode, the Lakers are doomed. For whatever reason, he lost confidence in everything and felt the only way to win that day was to just dominate the offense, dominate the offense for himself. Game over. His teammates becomes useless. They lose confidence. They lose that extra motivation to play defense and hustle that happens when players feel like they are not involved. At this point, I felt there was no need to watch the remaining several minutes. The Celtics had the game won. They are way too good a defense of team to let Kobe alone win.
Even with this loss, and the subsequent manufactured drama caused by the local and national media and fans, I am not worried, and neither should you be worried. The reasons are plentiful. Here they are...
The regular season is just too f-ing long! I read a book called The Jordan Rules, which chronicled the Bulls' first title season in 1990-1991. There was so much drama going on that season. Jordan treated players terribly. Pippen was livid about his contract situation and pulled stunts to demonstrate his disdain (such as exaggerating injuries), while the organization was courting and making huge contract offers to a Croatian prospect, Toni Kukoc, who Bulls players did not think would hold up in the physical NBA. General Manager Jerry Krouse was a paranoid jerk at times. Stacey King was fat and lazy. Livingston griped about his playing time. Rookie B.J. Armstrong sulked at moments because he wasn't the focal point. Horace Grant and Bill Cartwright couldn't stand playing with Jordan at times. Jordan had ballhogging issues, as did Pippen at times. Will Purdue didn't like his small roll as a backup. Pippen did not like the special treatment Jordan received. John Paxson was underpaid to be a starting point guard compared to the rest of the starting point guards in the league. And there's much more that happened (it's a fun, interesting read). Through all that, they still prevailed (though I postulate their success was much ado about timing with a lesser quality of league). I am just finishing up Phil Jackson's book, The Last Season: A Team in Search of its Soul. Again, the 2003-2004 Lakers went through so much drama, headlined by Kobe and Shaq, and still got all the way to the NBA finals while not having home court advantage in the Western Conference semis and finals against the defending champion Spurs (though they loss several players from the previous year) and top-seed Timberwolves respectively. One of the unseen themes in these books is that the season is just long. Over the course of that span, as Forrest Gump says, S*** Happens.
Think about this for a second. NBA training camps open up in early October. The regular season goes all the way to April, six months. And if a team were to advance deep into the playoffs, we are talking about an additional two months. Now think about you at your job. Think about all the things that happen at your job and in your personal life and your colleagues' personal lives that affects your work environment. You get sick. Your colleagues get sick. You may have had a serious argument with your significant other that saps your energy at work. Your relative may have passed away. Your colleague may bring a bad attitude to work that impacts your performance. You may not like your boss. You may have technical difficulties with your working equipment. Your back may be sore for whatever reason. One of your children may get very sick. One of your colleagues may get perceived as being treated better than you. You may think you deserve a bigger role in the grand scheme of things. You may get into a car accident on the way to work. So on and so on.
We forget that athletes are human beings too with the same issues regular folk have. Those things that I mentioned in the previous paragraph happen to people all the time, and definitely happens within a six to eight month period. This happens with the Lakers and all other teams in the league. Maybe not all of these particular things, but things happen over the course of the year. There will be drama and conflict. It is inevitable, especially when you cram fifteen male egos together. No need to worry. At least there is no need to until the final results of the season are reached. It is merely February.
We've seen this too many times before. Every year, we go through the same story. The Lakers have those inexplicable loses (more on this later) and moments when Kobe becomes moody and agitated. We all know what to expect. Remember, it is a long season. Even in successful years, there will always be drama. Back in 2008, when the Celtics beat the Lakers for the title, ESPN's Bill Simmons was on a plane back to L.A. He just so happened to be sitting next to Ray Allen's father. They talked a little bit. Ray's father harped about how Doc Rivers sat Ray down at times and didn't run that many plays for him because he did not want his son to win the finals MVP. This is after his son and the Celtics smashed the Lakers in game six to win the title! He manages to throw in some drama about his son being sabotaged, which is insane.
We also have to remember several things. First, Los Angeles is the second biggest media market in the nation. Second, in a huge, diverse city, the Lakers actually galvanize the city. They are one of the only, if not thee only, entities that brings together all races, ages, nationalities, classes, and educational backgrounds in a very, believe it or not, segregated metropolitan area. Third, the Lakers are a historical, star-studded franchise. Next to the Yankess, you can argue the Lakers are the next best sports franchise in the U.S. Los Angeles loves winning, and will go off to do one of thousands of other satisfying things in L.A. if the Lakers become terrible. Our not so harsh winters allows us to still go out during the winter. Lastly, with all of this mixed together, the media is going to be all over the Lakers, looking for little nuggets of controversy to sell newspapers, or whatever medium they are using, to this huge market of fans. They prey on the passion and abundance of Laker fans in L.A. Given this, little things that go on every year and with most franchises, including successful ones, gets blown up to ridiculous proportions. Phil Jackson notes this in his book. With his Jordan-Pippen Bulls, the media was plentiful, but they were more in awe of the teams. In L.A., however, the media is plentiful and relentless too, but they are constantly poking players, coaches, and management for drama and nothing else. No need to worry. Just remember drama sells, and a huge media market that has a franchise as prodigous and prestigious as the Lakers will amplify things that are mostly frivolous.
It is hard for the Lakers to get motivated at this point. Think about the great-looking girl that can have any guy she wants. She will naturally get the top-notch guys, right? Well after she gets with several of these guys, she has been to the top. After that, is she really going to get that excited when she is approached by the subsequent guys, especially when most of those guys are not top-notch? Once in a while, she may step her game up for a few, but overall she will not get as excited as she was when she was first getting those top notch guys.
The Lakers are like the aforementioned girl. They are on their fourth straight NBA finals run. Since they have made three straight finals runs, they played basically an extra regular season at playoff intensity. They know what it takes, and the regular season is a marathon. They may appear arrogant, but then again, what do they have to prove? The three best teams right now, Spurs, Celtics, and Heat, all have much more to prove than the Lakers, who have won two finals in a row. The Spurs want to get their dynasty back while Tim Duncan still has some gas in the tank. The Celtics want redemption for losing a title they felt they lost rather than the Lakers winning, which is amplified by Perkins being injured for the last game. The Heat are looking to silence their critics, but I think they will start their title runs next year and beyond (when the Celtics aren't as much a threat in the East). The Laker's don't have any of that type of motivation, and Phil knows it. This is probably why he's making it known that this is his last year to provide some, perhaps artificial, motivation. After three straight finals appearances and knowing they are virtually guaranteed to make the playoffs (and they will be a top three seed since the Pacific Division is bad), it is very difficult to get up for a December game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Relax, they will be up for the stretch run and the playoffs.
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| Yeah, I had to throw those...I mean her in there... |
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I know it is hard for Laker fans to not overreact to every loss, especially when the loss is reprehensible, such as a 20-point loss at home to the Pacers. It's like when we tell ourselves that we are going to stop doing something, only to find that you are back in the drive-thru at McDonald's. We should know better. We should know that a Laker season, no matter how successful, will have artificial drama stirred up by the media that fans will adhere to because they are impatient and need to vent. It's a long, six to eight month season. We should at least wait until the final result of the season plays out before we lose our minds.
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