Advertisement

Ted Green: Lakers can’t be considered championship material

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

I’m sure, since I voted for him three times, that Al Gore won’t mind if I borrow his environmental calling card and use it for the Lakers.

Here is An Inconvenient Truth: The Lakers can no longer be considered championship material.

Yes, I know. They’re going to blow out the Rockets in Game 7 at Staples on Sunday. I think. You hope.

Advertisement

And yes, it’s true, that in 1988, the last of Magic Johnson‘s five Showtime champions, those Lakers, who were more talented than these current ones, lost every playoff game on the road but won the title anyway, thanks to a home-court edge that saw them win every game at home at the Forum. No one said the road in the NBA has ever been an easy place to play.

But whether it’s arrogance, overconfidence or softness; or maybe it’s D-Fish growing old before our eyes or Lamar being Lamar, or Pau having plenty of his own pushover moments when he goes on siesta, or maybe it’s an injured, distracted and apparently unmotivated Andrew Bynum having his mind on Rihanna, or one of the seven cars he owns. Or maybe the Rockets are just a bunch of tough-minded sonofaguns. It’s probably all of it. Whatever it is, I don’t think you can come to important playoff games as disinterested and mentally unprepared as the Lakers have been and still emerge as champion.

In a grind as grueling as the NBA postseason, effort, heart and determination aren’t something you casually flip on and off like a light switch.

The Lakers are a running faucet, hot and cold, hot and cold. If they haven’t heard, modern champions ration water.

Down by 29 in Houston in Game 4. Win by 40 at home in Game 5. Down 17-1 at the start of Game 6 back in Texas. In their Dickensian Tale of Two Cities, it’s the best of times and worst of times from one night to the next. They’re so up and down, Otis Elevator is missing a great sponsorship opportunity.

The way I see it, the Lakers must think they’re the greatest rope-a-dopers since Muhammad Ali in Zaire; they’ve got home court in the West and somehow they just know they’re better than Houston, coincidentally George Foreman‘s hometown. And I’m quite sure they feel that way about Denver too.

What, us worry? Suddenly the Lakers are Alfred E. Newman and they’re driving us Mad.

Or, consider this: In the alternative, maybe the Lakers are really still soft at their core. Sta-Puft Marshmallow men who are ultimately gonna get slimed.

Advertisement

The ugliest part about all this is, and hardest to fathom for fans who thought them title-worthy, is that they’re now coming across as gifted but arrogant, talented but smug. And smugness is not an endearing trait. Or a championship quality.

So paging Dr. Freud: Assuming they make it past Sunday, if their play and mood swings reek of bipolarity in the middle of May, is it reasonable to expect the patient to be back on an even keel come June?

-- Ted Green

Green formerly covered the Lakers for the L.A. Times. He is currently Senior Sports Producer for KTLA Prime News.

Top Photo: Kobe Bryant, left, coach Phil Jackson, center, and Lamar Odom look at the Houston Rockets bench during a time out in Game 6. Credit: LM Otero / Associated Press

Bottom Photo: Lamar Odom walks back to the bench after fouling out. Credit: Pat Sullivan / Associated Press

Advertisement