Long View and Short View

Just a little over a year ago, Kobe was on the radio demanding a trade from the Lakers while also bashing the Laker organization and players on a fan’s video camera phone, the footage of which found its way to the internet. The Lakers made no significant roster moves other than bringing back Derek Fisher which looked to be merely window dressing so going into this season it looked to be a continuation of high drama off the court and mediocrity on it like the 3 previous ones since the Shaq/Kobe crack-up.

And even two months into the season, if we were to be told that the Lakers would be playing in the NBA Finals absent Andrew Bynum who had asserted himself as a front-line NBA center from the beginning of the season, we would’ve been forced to ask what calamity had befallen the cities of San Antonio, Salt Lake City and Phoenix… and New Orleans… and Oakland… and Denver…

Of course, it was the trade that brought Pau Gasol to the Lakers from the Grizzlies that changed the complexion of the entire season and also changed expectations. No longer was this a team that may hang on to a 7 or 8 seed but one that was expected to challenge for the Western Conference title and possibly the NBA championship.

That they did indeed make it to the Finals is cause for celebration and optimism for the future (trusting a full recovery by Bynum), but the manner in which they did “challenge” for the title is equally as troubling. Yes, having Bynum back will help the “physicality” of the Lakers and allow Gasol to move back to his natural power forward position but often times physicality and allowing yourself to get pushed around as the Lakers did all series and in disastrous fashion last night is not a mere physical thing but a matter of heart.

We suppose that we could chalk a lot of it up to inexperience and immaturity but the Laker young guns responded well in the Western Conference playoff rounds against two of the most punishing and grinding teams in the NBA in Utah and San Antonio. On the exponentially grander stage of the NBA Finals, though, it was obvious the Lakers weren’t ready and got beat not only by a better team but a team that understood the mental toughness that would be required to win the title.

As we said, we’re optimistic but also wary. There is an adage in sports, particularly applicable to the NBA and NFL that you have to lose before you can win. If the degree by which you lose or the manner in which you lose can be informative, the Lakers have themselves an entire off-season’s worth of excellent reading material. We’ll just call it the Lakers’ Beach Books series. And the book we hope they pay closest attention to would be: “The NBA Finals: Knowing What the Hell to Do When You Get There” by Magic Johnson, foreword by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Props Department: We got to hand it to ESPN analyst, Jon Barry, who shortly after acquiring Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett last summer predicted a championship for the Celtics. Further, after the Lakers struggled to win Game 5, Barry sensed the Lakers were in “big trouble” and predicted a “blow-out” loss for Game 6.