Lakers back from purgatory
For years it was our Christmas reassurance. The day that proved there really was a Santa Claus.
Whatever else was going wrong in Southern California, the road to the NBA championship always went through STAPLES Center.
And it always started on Christmas Day with the Lakers.
Rudolph and the eight tiny reindeer were the only team that worked more on Christmas Day than the Lakers, once the NBA started playing games that sacred day.
Then, it was the NBA’s answer to the Forbidden Fruit in Eden, or the 30 pieces of silver.
The Time Warner Cable backstabbing.
Adjusted for inflation over 2,000 years, $2 billion to end all Lakers road game over-the-air telecasts for the first time in the 52 years since the move from Minneapolis.
For too many Lakers fans, Christmas Day on ABC was the first time they saw their heroes play.
Was it really worth watching the TWC-cursed Lakers get smoked by Golden State, Houston, Miami and even the tenants in STAPLES Center, the Clippers?
Not even Magic Johnson could clean up this mess.
Three straight No. 2 overall draft picks, zero NBA Rookies of the Year.
Jerry West, the architect of the Dubs’ dynasty in Oakland and more recently the not-your-father’s NBA championship-contending Clippers, volunteered to come home and fix things.
And he was told thanks, but no thanks.
Those periodic rumbles we heard were Wilt, Chick and Doctor Buss reversepivoting in their graves at the collapse of Lakers Basketball.
After seven years of wandering in the (Low) desert, though, not any more.
The Lakers are mustsee TV today, the biggest and brightest of the five
Christmas presents the NBA has left under the tree.
It’s a dress rehearsal for The Hallway Series: Clippers-Lakers.
They only meet four times during the season. They would meet another seven times next May, in a series that would blow the roof off Southern California.
After the Dodgers, Rams, Chargers, UCLA and LAFC, don’t we deserve a good roof-blowing?
Rob Pelinka has gotten his share of static as general manager.
This Lakers team may force him to clear a place on the mantelpiece for the NBA Executive of the Year Award.
Pelinka landed the big fish out there last summer in Anthony Davis.
He cleverly pieced together a bench that covers all needs and, even more subtly, clicks all the boxes of group dynamics.
In Frank Vogel, he did not get sloppy ninth’s as a head coach; he got a masterful teacher of defense who has won the respect of every player on his roster.
Jason Kidd isn’t pushing Vogel over the trap door.
He’s being talked about as the next head coach of the New York Knickerbockers.
After seven years, all is forgiven.
All is forgotten.
The Lakers have come home for Christmas.
With the Clippers right on their rear bumpers, it’s better than ever.