Aren't the Lakers something?
Just to show I can jump on a bandwagon with anyone, I not only think they'll win the title, I think they may be the greatest team ever. Kobe Bryant is not only a lock for most valuable player, he's up for Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year, Time's Person of the Year and People's Sexiest Man Alive.
Not to mention owner Jerry Buss, whose deft handling of this troublesome situation has to have him in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Yes, it's a new day for the Lakers, who suddenly find a folk movement bubbling under them after spending recent seasons in relative eclipse.
Imagine how it must feel. . . .
Gratifying after all the hard times?
Moving as they feel the love pouring from the community?
A pain in the neck?
All the above?
"It's tough to get gas," noted Coach Phil Jackson, whose celebrity just reached the point at which he couldn't fill up his car without a line forming for autographs.
"I have gas, but it's tough to get it. It reaches every level of your life when you come back to L.A.
"But I think our players understand it. I think they know the opponents we've had for a lot of that streak; there weren't many major opponents in that run. We still have a lot to prove before we can get too happy with ourselves."
Happily for the Lakers, who played four winning teams in the 13-2 run that carried them to No. 1 in the West, they had a "major opponent" on hand Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks, who at least used to be major once.
The Mavericks gambled everything on 34-year-old Jason Kidd, whom Kobe Bryant had his heart set on playing with only nine months ago.
Things change fast, huh?
After running away with the West, the Mavericks are now No. 7, having gone 4-3 with Kidd, losing to all three winning teams they have played.
It was a lean and hungry bunch of visitors who showed up to meet the Lakers, who looked fat and happy. L.A. cast up one three-point miss after another, as they did in Friday's loss in Portland, where they were five for 27.
They were three for 13 on threes in the first three quarters Sunday, which was how the Mavericks found themselves in the game with Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard a combined six for 25 from the field at that point.
Happily for the Lakers and ABC, it turned into a shootout between Bryant and Nowitzki, and you know how those go.
