The Purple and Gold

Today's topic is my favorite NBA team, and the second winningest franchise in league history behind the dreaded Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers are on the verge of winning their 15th NBA title, ten of which have been achieved in my lifetime. Not counting the one they won when I was two years old, nine of them I was a part of, as a die hard fan of the purple and gold, starting with Magic Johnson's rookie year in 1980, the first of five titles they would win in the 1980's, a decade that also saw my beloved Dodgers and Raiders win two titles apiece. The 90's were lean times for an LA sports fan such as myself, and while the Raiders did play in one Super Bowl in this decade, they have been, aside from the lowly Detroit Lions, probably the worst team in pro football over the past half decade. As for the Dodgers, they have been hit and miss, although they are showing promise this year of getting back to the Fall Classic for the first time in 21 years.

But the Lakers have been the most consistently successful franchise in league history, only Boston has more titles, and most of those were won in the 1960's when the level of competition was nowhere near what it is in the modern era, which was ushered in by Magic and Larry Bird nearly 30 years ago. LA won three consecutive titles in the beginning of this decade, led by coach Phil Jackson, Shaq O'Neal when he was the most dominant center in the game, and a young Kobe Bryant playing the supporting role. Unfortunately the male ego being what it is got in the way of these two keeping the run going, Shaq engineered a trade rather than switch roles with his younger partner, and the Lakers hit a rough patch.

Faint memories of Del Harris and a forgettable cast of supporting players to Kobe, then fast-forward to two years ago, when Phil returned to take the reins, Kobe learned to get his mates involved, the Memphis Grizzlies somehow thought it a good idea to trade Pau Gasol for a bunch of scrubs, and the Lakers were back in the finals, against their old nemesis Boston no less.

The Lakers-Celtics rivalry of the 80's is the best basketball rivalry in history, the days of Magic and Bird, short shorts, Kevin McHale clothesline hits, DJ's dagger in the heart jump shot to beat the good guys, Kareem's sky hook, Danny Ainge's constant whining, Michael Cooper's knee high socks, Big Game James soaring through the lane, and Magic's baby hook to beat the bad guys, these are all images that are forever burned into the hard drive of any fan fortunate enough to be around in the 1980's. They revived the rivalry last year with a new crop of players, and likely would be meeting each other again in this year's finals if not for the injury to Boston's Kevin Garnett, which diminished Boston and allowed a couple of not quite ready for prime time players battle for the Eastern Conference slot in the Finals.

Orlando beat Cleveland in that series, and could easily be up in this series had they been able to convert on a difficult but make able layup in game 2, and just one free throw in game 5. The Lakers have been the beneficiary of Orlando's inability to close out games, not to mention the aforementioned injury to KG, and as such a good but not great LA team is poised to take another title.

Not to sound ungrateful, 15 titles is 15 more than alot of NBA franchises, including the hometown Phoenix Suns who are beloved by most of my fellow Phoenicians, but this one will not rank up there with the more memorable ones. In fact, I argue that this Laker team is the most flawed NBA champion in the last 30 years, a span of time over which I have been an avid hoops fan. Inconsistent through the first two series, the Lakers got it together halfway through the Western Conference finals and finished off the Denver Nuggets, allowing them to get an early start on their off-season tattoo program, and are up 3-1 on the Magic with three chances to seal the deal.

They are very good at times, quite average at others, Kobe Bryant is easily the best player in the game, at least for a couple more years until he is surpassed by Lebron James, the two are the Magic and Bird of their era and once Lebron gets out of Cleveland and goes somewhere where he can be surrounded by championship level talent it is likely that the two will square off on the game's greatest stage in June. If Garnett comes back healthy it is quite possible that the LA-Boston rivalry will resume next year at this time, assuming that San Antonio or Houston don't also get healthy and knock the Lakers off. But for now, another championship for the Purple and Gold will bring joy to Laker fans, including this one. Flawed as they are they are still the best team going this season, and that beats having to utter the phrase familiar to sports fans everywhere, wait till next year. So here's to one more win and being able to wear the crown of NBA champions for the next year. And who knows, if the Dodgers keep it going this could be the best LA sports year since 1988, when both teams were crowned world champs.