Nba Championships

Imagine a Lakers' backcourt of Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant. Close your eyes for a few seconds and envision the Magic Man pounding the rock on the fast break, his eyes darting, options all over the place and on the wing is Bryant, out-running everyone to make sure he's in Johnson's line of sight for one of those beautiful passes. Yeah, it's just a dream, but as we celebrate the Lakers' 50th anniversary of producing magical moments in Los Angeles, of producing some of the best basketball players the NBA has ever seen, the best Lakers' guard duo would have to be Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant.

Here's another reason why Phil Jackson probably won't coach the New York Knicks. He's too busy having fun filming commercials. The latest ad, seen below, features Jackson touting the Asus Zenbook . In the wake of Apple's popularity, it isn't surprising Jackson would tout a PC: He's a nonconformist. And in the wake of March Madness, it is surprising he would promote the NCAA tournament. He's routinely called college basketball "a boys' game" and refuses to watch it. Perhaps money can change a person's thinking.

"I've got four more years left. I think we can get two out of four. At worst." Shaquille O'Neal, on how many more NBA championships the Miami Heat can win

Reporting from Dallas -- As Caron Butler stood watching a video tribute from his time when he played for the Dallas Mavericks, the Clippers forward's lips began to quiver. When Dallas Coach Rick Carlisle and owner Mark Cuban presented Butler with his 2011 NBA championship ring he won as a member of the Mavericks, he slowly walked to center court to accept it, his steps measured, his feeling showing. Butler patted his chest and waved to the crowd that gave him a standing ovation at American Airlines Center and then he did all he could to help the Clippers beat the Mavericks, his final potential game-winning three-pointer missing, sending L.A. to a 96-92 defeat.

* THE NUMBERS: Record-tying nine NBA championships as coach. * THE QUOTE: "It's a story of reconciliation, redemption, of reuniting -- a lot of things in this make for a wonderful opportunity for the team, the Lakers and myself."

Here's another reason why Phil Jackson probably won't coach the New York Knicks. He's too busy having fun filming commercials. The latest ad, seen below, features Jackson touting the Asus Zenbook . In the wake of Apple's popularity, it isn't surprising Jackson would tout a PC: He's a nonconformist. And in the wake of March Madness, it is surprising he would promote the NCAA tournament. He's routinely called college basketball "a boys' game" and refuses to watch it. Perhaps money can change a person's thinking.

The reward for the safe return of Cory Erving was doubled to $50,000, with the Philadelphia 76ers matching the $25,000 reward already offered by his father, NBA great Julius Erving. Cory Erving, 19, and with a history of drug problems, was last seen by his family May 28, running an errand to buy bread for a picnic. The Seminole County Sheriff's Office reported the reward increase. Officers said investigators have received more than 300 tips through a special hotline set up for the search.

One team in the NBA Finals will be guided by a Hall of Fame coach, an acclaimed master of the craft who two years ago was accorded a well-deserved place of honor in Springfield, Mass. The other will have to make do with Phil Jackson. In a circumstance made possible by the quirky rules of election to the Basketball Hall of Fame, Larry Brown is enshrined and Jackson is not. Jackson's teams have won nine NBA championships. Brown's haven't won any.

The Lakers have had some of the best centers the NBA has even seen. It started in Minneapolis with George Mikan and continued on in Los Angeles with Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O'Neal. Three of them are in the NBA Hall of Fame and the fourth, O'Neal, will be selected when his career is over. As we mark the Lakers being in Los Angeles for 50 seasons, the team's best all-time center has to go to Abdul-Jabbar. That's no offense to the others. It's just that Abdul-Jabbar stood out more during his tenure in Los Angeles.

I fail to understand the ongoing debate about Phil Jackson's coaching abilities when it's obvious that Red Auerbach is absolutely right in his criticism. Without the current Laker roster, Jackson would be nothing. But why stop with Jackson when history is replete with examples of men whose success was due to other people's efforts? Sir Laurence Olivier did fairly well at that soliloquy thing, but if he hadn't had a supporting cast to play the other roles he'd have been booed off the stage.

Reporting from Miami Dirk Nowitzki threw a fist in the air and flashed the smile he had been waiting 13 years to display. After shouldering much of the blame for years of Dallas disappointments, he will finally have his ring and vindication. Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks claimed their first championship with a 105-95 victory over the Miami Heat on Sunday in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. They did it by winning the last three games, including the clincher in Miami. "I couldn't believe it," Nowitzki said when he realized victory was assured.

About two weeks ago, Derek Fisher gathered together his teammates and told them to look around the room. He warned all the Lakers that if they don't reach their goal of winning a third consecutive NBA championship, next season the faces on the team could look quite different. Fisher pointed out that the possibility of the Lakers' management making changes was realistic because it happened to him during his first tour with the Lakers. "We discussed that buttons will be pushed," Fisher said after practice Thursday.

Even Joe Smith had to laugh, saying he had "lost count" of how many NBA teams he has played for over a 16-year career. That would be 12 since the Lakers acquired him from New Jersey on Wednesday in a multiteam trade that sent Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic to the Nets. Smith was an observer at the Lakers' optional practice Thursday after he took a physical in the morning. He also got a quick tutorial on the triangle offense as the team prepared to play the 76ers on Friday night.

At least 45 people have been arrested in the wake of unrest that followed the L.A. Lakers' NBA championship victory last week — double the number picked up last year when rioting followed the team's win. But that could be just the beginning. Los Angeles Police Department detectives are now carefully reviewing hundreds of images taken from police videos, business surveillance cameras, TV news footage, Twitter pictures, Facebook pages and other social media sites, looking for more evidence of criminal behavior.

Serenaded by the drone of hovering helicopters, Lakers fans thronged their championship team's parade on Monday and partied like it was 2009. A crowd estimated by police at 65,000 to 70,000 lined Figueroa Street, screaming for Kobe, hoisting cameras and small children and matching the Lakers' repeat victory from last year with a repeat of their own gold- and purple-adorned revelry. "Did you see him with the trophy? That's him! Kobe Bryant!" cried Kevin Tran, 35, after training his high-powered binoculars on the Lakers' NBA Finals MVP. Bryant abandoned his four-ring hand display of last year in favor of grasping the gold trophy and shaking it for fans as the parade vehicles departed from Staples Center on their two-mile trek to USC. By the time they got to 23rd Street, Lakers guard Shannon Brown was patting the trophy while Bryant held his youngest daughter and waved Miss America-style to the crowd.

Along with the Boston Celtics fans scattered around the city, there's another contingent quietly dreading the idea of a Lakers victory Thursday night: the Los Angeles Police Department. With a win, the Lakers clinch another NBA title. And that, police are all too aware, could set the stage for the looting and rioting by overzealous fans who have marred past celebrations. Police are less concerned about a Celtics victory. For whatever reason, they say, defeated fans at past sports events have shown far less interest in causing trouble.

The winner, and still . . . Actually, it's hard to say exactly what Phil Jackson is, at least between NBA championships -- as he was between 2002 and 2009, when he overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles. With the Lakers, I mean, not with The Times' T.J. Simers, although it seemed close at times this spring. Now that Jackson just made it 10 titles, passing Red Auerbach for the most in NBA history, he's clearly the best of all time . . . unless you want to lay it off on his players, as all of New England and many more people will always do. Happily, Jackson doesn't care what you or I or anyone else thinks, which is a break for him since so many think he's not just lucky, but a condescending jerk.

If the Los Angeles Lakers beat back the Boston Celtics and win the NBA Championship, the team has offered to pick up the tab of a city parade, a Lakers spokesman said Friday. The offer should spare the city from the controversy that erupted last year over the use of public funds to pay for a parade after the Lakers beat the Orlando Magic for the team's 15th NBA championship. Eventually, private donors stepped in to cover half the city's $1.8 million in costs for police protection and other services.

Times staff writer Chris Dufresne recaps the Lakers' nine finals losses (and two victories) against the Celtics: 1958-59: Land of lakes If we're going to claim five NBA titles from Minneapolis we also have to absorb this 4-0 sweep. It was Boston's second title for Red Auerbach and Bill Russell. The Lakers no longer had George Mikan but were led by Elgin Baylor, who averaged 25 points and 15 rebounds as a rookie. If only defending NBA champion St. Louis had won Game 7 of the Eastern finals.