NBA
BASKETBALL: Fan Editorial Motion
Sickness By MARSHON
L. ROBINSON
June 11, 2001
(Editor's
Note: This was written after Game 1, but it's a timely read.)
The motion
sickness is hitting me again, but it just comes with the turf when you
support the Lakers. People are just constantly jumping on and off of our
ship, but this is the worst case in quite a while. In case you've been
under a rock, the Lakers win streak stopped last night in the midst of
one of the worst Laker performances I've seen in ages and I now look out
from our now almost empty ship and see all the people swimming away. Just
a typical year in the life of a Laker fan. When they're good, everyone
loves them. When they slip up, well, just look around the web and read
all of the stuff experts who predicted them to sweep are now saying about
the team. I knew the only way a sweep was possible was if the Lakers played
and hard and didn't beat themselves, and boy did they ever do that last
night. Only three guys were ready to go last night: Fox, Shaq and a very
impressive T. Lue. Other than them, the team really stunk it up. The Lakers'
rust was evident, and as they did something we haven't seen them do in
over two months, make mistakes down the clutch. Even after his great defensive
job and big hustle plays, Lue botched up a couple of times in the end.
And then there was Kobe, who woke up an 18 year old rookie on Wednesday
morning and never realized during the game that he's now 22. The Sixers
did a good job of stopping him and he did a good job of stopping himself.
Turnovers, and looking lost on the court, Kobe helped L.A. to an overtime
defeat in what was a great game (except for the outcome). So, that's it.
The Lakers suck again now, and the Kobe-haters can all break out the bottles
of Don P, celebrate, and get the Kobe vs. Shaq feud going again. Well,
fortunately this isn't really David vs. Goliath, its a best of seven series
and going down 0-1 is just that, going down 0-1. So maybe some of you guys
should at least stick around for games two and three before you abandon
ship. If the Lakers do lose, then I'll see you next year and I can't wait
to read who they should trade Kobe and Shaq for, but if they do pull it
out, the price of readmission to the ship will is double.