It’s been almost a week now. I have had time to calm down, contemplate, and put some coherent thoughts together. All five senses were thrown out of whack. For a week and half the world had turned upside down. Every basketball fan knows what I am talking about, the Phoenix-LA first round playoff series.
***
It was the end of the regular season and Kobe had done the unthinkable, threw up Jordan like stats, led his make-shift team to the playoffs, and even had a nice winning streak to end the season. I was still skeptical. Yes, the Lakers had just spanked the Suns in their last meeting of the regular season, but Steve Nash sat out the game. I could not get over the fact the Lakers had yet to beat the Suns when Steve Nash was in the lineup.
Game 1 started much like everyone expected, the Lakers not being able to keep up with the runnin’ and gunnin’ Suns. But still something was different about LA, they were playing like a team. It wasn’t all about Kobe. They continued to pound the ball inside and took advantage of the weak front line of the Suns. By the fourth quarter the Lakers had fought their way back into the game, but a couple of no-calls later (which of course went the Suns way) and Phoenix had squeaked by for a 1-0 lead.
The next two games the Lakers stuck to their game plan of making Kobe a play-maker, not a scorer, and using the big men to take the 2-1 lead. Did Phil Jackson know Phoenix had a weak link all season but refused to exploit it during the regular season in case they met in the playoffs?
Game 4 was a classic. Laker fans knew after Game 4 who the real MVP was, as evident to Nash’s two critical turnovers and Kobe’s two heroic shots. The series was all but over. If Chick was still announcing he would have put the series
in the fridge, the lights were out, the eggs were cooling, the butter was getting hard, and the Jell-O was jiggling. The Suns had just suffered a
Level 2 Stomach Punch game.
I underestimated one thing though: Steve Nash’s ability to pick himself up and move on. For the next three games he kept plugging away, running the pick and roll perfectly. He was the difference maker. True, other players like Barbosa, Diaw, and Tim Thomas stepped up, but Steve Nash stayed true to himself.
In the end the better team won. Sadly every Laker fan knew it.
***
I guess the best way to describe the Suns would be to compare them to my Uncle Larry. Like my uncle, the Suns have a fun attitude that surrounds them. Like my uncle, their unselfishness is contagious and great to watch. Like my uncle, the Suns can make you smile even if you have told yourself to play it tough. My uncle has also been known to have a short fuse. To no one’s surprise my uncle has thrown a cell phone across the room, you can see where it is easy to replace my uncle with Raja Bell and the cell phone with Kobe.
***
Did I just compare the Suns to my uncle? Maybe I haven’t recovered from the Lakers collapse after all.
I could barely hold my excitement. Of course I was going to wear Lakers gear to the game and to my surprise, about half of the crowd in Sacramento decided to join me in donning a Laker jersey.
The downside of being picked was we all had to wear a Kings shirt. I was constantly harassing the Kings employee who was in charge of the high five line and joking I was going to trip Tyreke Evans as he ran through our line. (All you non-Laker fans get a good long hard look at me wearing this shirt because the picture will self-destruct once you leave this blog.)
Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson's seat was by where we were standing so Ree got her picture snapped with him.
I tried my best to behave while on the court but I made sure to hide the Kings logo any time a picture was snapped.
Eventually the Purple and Gold bled through (along with that goofy look on my face) for a picture. And yes, that is my old school Eddie Jones rookie jersey. Take a walk down memory lane with these Eddie Jones dunks and this finger roll.
Finally, I couldn't leave the court without photo evidence that the shooter's toe was on the line. The game itself was great as the Lakers won 112-100 and Kobe notched is 17th career triple double.
