Witness, if you will, Mr. Kobe Bryant, age thirty-two, five-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers. Afraid of the following: nothing. He has one interest in life: #winning. Not to be confused with Mr. Charlie Sheen, however, Mr. Bryant recently had his very own career “WTF” moment.
Bryant’s Lakers, the two-time defending champion, were just swept out of the second round of the NBA playoffs by the Dallas Mavericks. Yes, those Mavericks.
Straight out of the Twilight Zone.
The Lakers didn’t go down alone in the photo album of unexpected series outcomes in these playoffs, though. Shortly before that, the top seed in the Western Conference, the 61-win Spurs, lost to eighth-seeded Memphis in the first round. And also in the second round, the Celtics and their “Big Four” were dismissed rather painlessly in five games by the Miami Heat’s triumvirate of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh.
The month of May not even halfway through and the last three NBA champions are all out. Is this the end of the line for these former proud champions, giving way to new ones in the form of Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks?
No. First of all, the Mavericks will never win a championship. I, like Justin Bieber, never say never, but Dallas is my one exception to the rule. Second, on top of Bryant, the Lakers still have skilled big men Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, a championship foundation for the past two years.
As far as the Spurs and Celtics go, they’ve been counted out before, but they find a way to be there in the end. Boston shot itself in the foot midseason when it traded away center Kendrick Perkins, disrupting the team chemistry that had allowed it to win 75 percent of its games to that point. The Spurs were 57-13 before injuries to Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili threw them in a funk that saw them go 4-8 to finish the regular season, miraculously hanging on to the No. 1 seed out west, and be roughed out of the playoffs by Z-Bo and the physical Grizzlies.
So while still head-scratchers, both San Antonio and Boston had their reasons for their early demises this season. For the Lakers, though, it was unexplainable. Credit the Mavericks. Nowitzki was clutch, the bench stepped up in every game (especially in Game 4) and the Tyson-Chandler factor helped contain the Lakers two-big-men tandem, but there’s no way a Dallas team that blew a 23-point, second-half lead to Portland in Game 4 of its first-round series is a sweep better than L.A. Let’s just call it the Paranormal-Activity series and move on. Literally, not one person with any sense predicted that outcome.
The scapegoat for most was Gasol, who didn’t score more than 15 points in any game and shot 42 percent for the series. Rumors (denied by Gasol) of relationship problems between the forward and his fiancée – supposedly caused by Bryant’s wife Vanessa – arose in the middle of the series as a possible factor for Gasol’s subpar play. Whatever it was, it was a nightmare playoffs for the often-labeled-soft Gasol, and intolerant fans have immediately begun to look for a way to get rid of him while also getting Orlando center Dwight Howard and Hornets’ point guard Chris Paul to join the team.
I’ve been saying it: Laker fans are delusional. First of all, Howard and Paul? (Eye-roll) Give the rest of the NBA a break. Second, Gasol is an All-Star. He’s one of the most, if not the most, skilled big men in the game today. Three straight trips to the NBA Finals because of him, and he’s only 30. The Lakers need to mostly stay put. They’re way over the luxury tax, anyway. The only obvious change is the one at the point guard position where Derek Fisher has more than finished his cycle. Trade for a point guard, draft a point guard, just don’t start Shannon Brown.
Let the Mavericks (who by the way are older than the Lakers), Thunder, Bulls and Heat battle it out this year. The Thunder are up-and-coming as are the Bulls with MVP Derrick Rose. The Heat are merely on the first of what, according to James, will be many trips to the Finals, and the Mavericks are just there because of who knows?
It’s not the end of the Lakers yet. And perhaps Boston and San Antonio will again pull a Freddy-Krueger and resuscitate after thought dead for a seventh time. When you look at the Dallas series, though, this should be your summary: Kobe Bryant, age thirty-two. He was on his way to the Finals again. He didn’t make it. There was a detour … through the Twilight Zone.
Bryant’s Lakers, the two-time defending champion, were just swept out of the second round of the NBA playoffs by the Dallas Mavericks. Yes, those Mavericks.
Straight out of the Twilight Zone.
The Lakers didn’t go down alone in the photo album of unexpected series outcomes in these playoffs, though. Shortly before that, the top seed in the Western Conference, the 61-win Spurs, lost to eighth-seeded Memphis in the first round. And also in the second round, the Celtics and their “Big Four” were dismissed rather painlessly in five games by the Miami Heat’s triumvirate of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh.
The month of May not even halfway through and the last three NBA champions are all out. Is this the end of the line for these former proud champions, giving way to new ones in the form of Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks?
No. First of all, the Mavericks will never win a championship. I, like Justin Bieber, never say never, but Dallas is my one exception to the rule. Second, on top of Bryant, the Lakers still have skilled big men Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, a championship foundation for the past two years.
As far as the Spurs and Celtics go, they’ve been counted out before, but they find a way to be there in the end. Boston shot itself in the foot midseason when it traded away center Kendrick Perkins, disrupting the team chemistry that had allowed it to win 75 percent of its games to that point. The Spurs were 57-13 before injuries to Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili threw them in a funk that saw them go 4-8 to finish the regular season, miraculously hanging on to the No. 1 seed out west, and be roughed out of the playoffs by Z-Bo and the physical Grizzlies.
So while still head-scratchers, both San Antonio and Boston had their reasons for their early demises this season. For the Lakers, though, it was unexplainable. Credit the Mavericks. Nowitzki was clutch, the bench stepped up in every game (especially in Game 4) and the Tyson-Chandler factor helped contain the Lakers two-big-men tandem, but there’s no way a Dallas team that blew a 23-point, second-half lead to Portland in Game 4 of its first-round series is a sweep better than L.A. Let’s just call it the Paranormal-Activity series and move on. Literally, not one person with any sense predicted that outcome.
The scapegoat for most was Gasol, who didn’t score more than 15 points in any game and shot 42 percent for the series. Rumors (denied by Gasol) of relationship problems between the forward and his fiancée – supposedly caused by Bryant’s wife Vanessa – arose in the middle of the series as a possible factor for Gasol’s subpar play. Whatever it was, it was a nightmare playoffs for the often-labeled-soft Gasol, and intolerant fans have immediately begun to look for a way to get rid of him while also getting Orlando center Dwight Howard and Hornets’ point guard Chris Paul to join the team.
I’ve been saying it: Laker fans are delusional. First of all, Howard and Paul? (Eye-roll) Give the rest of the NBA a break. Second, Gasol is an All-Star. He’s one of the most, if not the most, skilled big men in the game today. Three straight trips to the NBA Finals because of him, and he’s only 30. The Lakers need to mostly stay put. They’re way over the luxury tax, anyway. The only obvious change is the one at the point guard position where Derek Fisher has more than finished his cycle. Trade for a point guard, draft a point guard, just don’t start Shannon Brown.
Let the Mavericks (who by the way are older than the Lakers), Thunder, Bulls and Heat battle it out this year. The Thunder are up-and-coming as are the Bulls with MVP Derrick Rose. The Heat are merely on the first of what, according to James, will be many trips to the Finals, and the Mavericks are just there because of who knows?
It’s not the end of the Lakers yet. And perhaps Boston and San Antonio will again pull a Freddy-Krueger and resuscitate after thought dead for a seventh time. When you look at the Dallas series, though, this should be your summary: Kobe Bryant, age thirty-two. He was on his way to the Finals again. He didn’t make it. There was a detour … through the Twilight Zone.