A Funny Thing Happened On The Way The Finals

Good morning and greetings, NBA fans.  Well, it's been 72 hours since the Dallas massacre at American Airlines Arena and the Laker nation is still stunned by their shocking and sudden disappearance from the NBA playoffs.     

Kobe Bryant and company came into the season as two-time defending champions.  Led by Coach Phil Jackson, they were going for their second threepeat, as the first was accomplished while Shaq and Kobe were still married.      

The Lakers played inconsistently during the regular season, but no one seemed too concerned, as what mattered was the postseason.  There were some losing streaks and ugly blowout losses, but everyone in Hollywood remained cool as they’d seen the Lakers flick on the switch before in April and transform themselves into a championship squad.  

So the playoffs began, and the Lakers struggled in the first round but managed to beat New Orleans, despite the poor play of all-star power forward Pau Gasol, who was just not himself to the bewilderment of the teammates, coaches and the Spanish Armada.      

In the second round, the LA faced off at home against the Dallas Mavericks, who proceeded to stun the Laker faithful by winning the first two games at the Staples Center.  They then headed to Dallas for game three, which the Mavs won, putting the Lakers in a 3-0 hole in a best-of-seven series that no team has even climbed out of.  Game four was on Sunday, and LA was blown off the floor, but not before they embarrassed themselves with their dirty play.  They say you win with class and you lose with class.   Instead, they just looked like a jackass.      

But then the news hit that the reason for Gasol’s poor play was that Kobe’s wife was responsible for his recent breakup with his girlfriend, after Vanessa Bryant told her that Pau was doing some double dipping.  That is so LA.  The doesn’t explain what happened to the rest of the Lakers, but it’s a good place to start when looking at their demise.      

So there will be a new NBA champion this season, as Kobe and company will just watch the Finals on TV like the rest of us.  Something happened to this team, which looked old and slow and nothing like a champion.  Jack Nicholson was asked by a reporter for his assessment of the Lakers’ woes.  Replied the most famous Laker fan in history, “you can’t handle the truth.”