One of the Great Comebacks Removes the Biggest Obstacle

Was it only 2 1/2 weeks ago that the Lakers' season could have ended, after which they'd have had to go through their annual rite of revulsion? Shaquille O'Neal would still never have won anything. Kobe Bryant would still be the poster child for Headless Youth. There would have been extra humiliation thrown on them for winning 67 games and arousing expectations in Phil Jackson's first season, then becoming only the seventh NBA team to blow a 3-1 lead in a playoff series.

Can you remember as far back as June 4, when they were being carried out feet first by the visiting Portland Trail Blazers, who had them down by 15 points, a bigger lead than anyone in NBA history had ever blown in the fourth quarter of a Game 7?

Of course, the Lakers said later they took it in stride, or as Robert Horry, asked if he wasn't worried, noted, "Nah, I've been in situations like that before."

But players always say that. Let's just say it sure scared the life out of everyone else.

"Sure, there was a lot of anxiety," says assistant coach Bill Bertka. "You could see all the work and effort that had gone out and the sacrifice that the team had made was hanging on what was going to transpire."

Bertka is the lone holdover on Jackson's staff to the bad old days of the last five postseason flops, one more embarrassing than the one before:

1996--The Lakers, who have won 53 games, with Magic Johnson making a comeback as a player n the second half of the season, lose, 3-1, to underdog Houston, as Magic complains he doesn't know his role under Coach Del Harris. This mercifully ends a season in which Magic and Nick Van Exel bumped referees and Cedric Ceballos jumped the team and went boating.

1997--Their first playoffs with Shaquille O'Neal, 25, and Kobe Bryant, 18. They fall, 4-1, in the second round to Utah, with the Harris-Van Exel feud erupting, and Harris giving the deciding shots in Game 5 to Bryant, who goes out with four airballs.

1998--They make the Western finals, after steamrollering Seattle in the second round. This time, they don't win any games at all and fall to Utah, 4-0.

1999--With Harris fired and Dennis Rodman signed and released, they are swept in the second round by San Antonio, after an end-of-Game 2 farce, in which they neglect to take a foul or double-team Tim Duncan, who makes the winning shot.