Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers, for re-enacting the last scene from "Old Yeller" last night, only in this case the dog was the San Antonio Spurs and there was a lot less crying. I know that Kobe Bryant is a polarizing figure, and he's done everything to deserve any bad feelings anyone might have about him. But that being said...I can't imagine how any fan without a rooting interest would rather have seen the Spurs play in the Finals versus the Lakers. The Lakers were clearly the better team, and certainly the more entertaining to watch.
And, Kobe's "we're used to playing in the Finals" comment after the game, they are a new face in the Finals. Which they accomplished by specifically NOT BEING THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS. We've seen Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, etc., for long enough to know what to expect from them: solid, "fundamentally sound" basketball that leaves you about as impressed an excited as a WNBA game. The Lakers are always a wild card: Kobe might score two points in the first half and then 30 in the second. Lamar Odom might dominate, or disappear. Phil Jackson might have a shit-eating grin on his face while saying something snide and sarcastic to Michelle Tafoya at halftime (OK, that's pretty much a guarantee).
Here's my confession about basketball: I don't have an NBA team. I used to be a huge fan of the Showtime Lakers when I was growing up. I mean, seriously, if you were a kid in California in the 1980s, there was no team that was cooler or that you would have wanted to be on more - in any sport - than the Lakers. The 49ers might have been just as if not more successful, but they were about as "exciting" as their leader. While Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and company were all about hard work and that bullshit your parents tried to teach you, the Lakers were glitz and glamour and more than anything else, about style. The 49ers would get you to the top, but the Lakers would get you laid, so to speak.
But I gave up on the Lakers a few years ago. Mainly it was the Kobe/Shaq/Phil drama - there had always been some drama with the Lakers (hello Magic "Coach Killer" Johnson), but never had it seemed so venal and petty. And the fans...oh Lord, the fans. Maybe growing up several hundred miles away insulated me from the mass of Laker fans. Maybe we didn't have talk radio 24/7 lime we do now. Or maybe Chick Hearn being around to cut off an idiot caller on Post Game Laker Talk was enough to keep people in line, but the endless rounds of "Kobe is the best" followed by "Kobe needs to go" followed by "Shaq should have stayed" and on and on...it just drove me past the breaking point.
(Actually, the breaking point is the thousands of Lakers flags that mysteriously appear on car windows during the playoffs when the Lakers were doing well byt suddenly disappeared as soon as they were knocked out.)
So, will I be rooting for the Lakers? Yeah, I guess. I sure as hell can't root for Boston or Detroit, that's for sure. But will I be that broken up if they get swept? Not really.
