I haven't plugged into my GoogleReader yet, and I've only watched/caught the post-game interviews and sound bites a few times so far. I've only just switched on the Mike&Mike. So I want to take this opportunity to toss in my two pennies before I'm inundated with other voices, other flux&flows. Don't get me wrong here, don't twist your pre-conceived. I'm a Lakers fan live and die. I don't even know what syntax that is, but it seems a part of me. Syntax, semantics, and fanboy joy aside, this post is a call out. This is me, telling the Lakers, this better not be it.
Let me link to Doctor LawyerInidanChief talking tired fire about Hip-Hop is Dead (not the album, the truth). One, because I want to read more stuff like this. Two, because I agree and feel it being said by Dr. LIC makes the tie-in he doesn't, that basketball is losing heat, losing steam, and getting refined beyond its theLove's benefit. But mostly because, three, Joey at Straight Bangin' pulled this piece out as an opening to close the decade. Hold up. It's only June. The Tens/Teens aren't even six months from us yet. Can Epochryphal eyes turn, already, to such a shedding of water? (dry your f*ckin' eyes, friends, we got catchin' up to do) Yes. The next NBA title will read 2010. Adjust your paradigms and checkbooks accordingly.
Look, I'm not about to bring back talks of a faux-Golden Age or starting and ending with purple and gold parades, because I want to look ahead, and I've already gone there. I'm not going to talk about the historical significance, cuz it's been ably done by others (Thanks, BC). But, let's look at the significance of the historical sig, 'kay? Mike&Mike speakin' sumpin' 'bout them all's footnotes, 'cept for some "immortals." Kobe's 4th, or 1st, whatever. Phil's Xth. Yeah, more than any other coach in the majors. That stands tall like Russell Crowe. But no one can live in theInfinite. Athletes less so than fans, in fact, and luckily they know that. (sound bite from Mamba: "Phil coaches in the moment.") Let us not forget. We are the ones that live in the now. And now means we've just said good-bye to the NBA 'Aughts.
You want historical significance? 15 vs. 17. That's the one I'm watching, and that's the one that moved from 15 vs. 16 last Finals. By 30 points. Maybe that was a trumped up trophy, but what's not? All I'm saying is, this victory wasn't about just winning a championship, it was about getting the monkey off. His back. Their backs. Our backs. It's time to move on. And this was the perfect purge to move us forward. It exorcised everything. The clinging, cloying claims (and claims against) Kobe and Phil's "immortality." The ShaqKobeNonsense. The loss last year to KG's moment. ChrisWallaceGate. Lamar's craziness. And pain. Fisher's move from the Jazz. The 2002 curse of robbing the Kings. I swear, this Finals, in post-partum, was littered with rhetoric that had built up, and hopefully has now been expelled. Maybe next year we can actually focus on basketball.
Kobe Bryant & the Lakers: Getting The Monkey Off Their Backs
