When I was growing in the 70’s, basketball was the only game in town. The MICAA, which later morphed into the PBA in ‘95, was an almost nightly activity, if my father okayed that I could go to Pat Israel’s house to watch it. The Israel’s had one of the two black & white TV in the neighborhood and that’s the place where everybody converged. Betting was “heavy” with rubber bands and marbles as currency. It was like the plaza of my youth.
Then there was the NBA, which was on Ch 7, and it was at that period that I got to know Jerry West, Gail Goodrich and Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt was one of the games greatest but what I remembered about him was his atrocious FT shooting. And it was at that time that I got hooked with the Lakers.
When West and company retired, I could have changed teams when the the Bucks, the Suns and the Supersonics became champions but it was hard to be a fan of the Sonics when one of its stars was a center named Jack Sikma. I love to hear stories from my neighbor, Timmy Inting, a Dave Debuscherre fan, about how Gail Goodrich would start a game and end the game with nary a wrinkle on his shorts!
Then in 1980, the Lakers drafted Earvin Johnson, the kid with an infectious smile and the Lakers where on top of the hoops world once again. Magic Johnson added six championship appearance and five rings, and together with archrival Larry Bird, rebooted basketball from a drug infested league to what it is today.
Championships and dynasties don’t go on forever but for the Lakers, it was just a matter of time.
In 1996, after getting Shaquille O’Neal from the Orlando, the Lakers traded their starting center, Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for 17-year-old kid named a kind of beef, Kobe Bryant. They duo didn’t win right away but when Phil Jackson took over from Del Harris at the start of the 1999 season, the third modern Laker dynasty commenced. From 2000 to 2010, the Lakers were a perennial contender winning five championships in 11 years. But as I’ve said, championships and dynasties don’t go on forever.
When Kobe announced that this will be his final season last week, I wasn’t surprised. The past three years, he wasn’t his usual self. Age, wear and tear, was catching up. The same story that happened to Jerry and Wilt, then Kareem and Magic (HIV), then Shaq, was happening to Kobe. The same thing will eventually happen to Lebron and Steph Curry. But the Lakers are not the Warriors nor the Cavs.
The Lakers success, if graphed, looks like a profile of a mountain stage of the Tour de France. There are are lows and there are certainly highs, and not a lot of teams in the NBA has those many high and lows. Some have just one high and then flatlined, while some others have no highs at all.
The Lakers is a laughingstock right now but they will be back. Dynasties repeat itself.