Alexander: Beyond AARP jokes, what might Lakers face?
The world according to Jim:
• Presumably by now, we’ve gotten our fill of one-liners about the Lakers’ roster construction – how there will be an AARP membership packet in each locker, how team meals are now officially designated the Early Bird Special, etc. But maybe we’re taking the wrong tack.
Is the greater risk that the old guys might not have anything left by April and May, or might be too fragile to hold up for a full 82 games? Or will the absence of the traits most of us learned in kindergarten – learning to share and to play nice with each other – be what unravels the 2021-22 Lakers?
There are two historical comparisons, neither of which are encouraging. …
• It was the summer of 1968 when the Lakers traded for Wilt Chamberlain to play alongside Jerry West and Elgin Baylor and, by all appearances, assemble a super team. Said super team squabbled internally all season – mainly Wilt and Coach Bill van Breda Kolff, though Wilt and Elgin Baylor butted heads a few times as well – yet still got to a Game 7 at the Forum against Boston and Bill Russell, whom the Lakers had never beaten in an NBA Finals (which was the reason Wilt was in L.A. in the first place).
The conclusion was an appropriate denouement: Wilt hurt his right knee in the fourth quarter and came out of the game, eventually said he was ready to return but was left on the bench – “We were going good, so why change?” van Breda Kolff said afterward – and the Lakers lost to the Celtics, again. By the time the franchise won its first title in L.A., in 1972, Bill Sharman was the coach and Elgin Baylor was retired. …
• And no, we won’t belabor the sight of the balloons in the Forum rafters during Game 7, monuments to Laker owner Jack Kent Cooke’s arrogance. However, Leigh Montville’s “Tall Men, Short Shorts” (Doubleday, New York, 2021) is an entertaining breakdown of that series, even if largely from a Boston perspective. …
• The other Lakers’ super team that didn’t quite get there? It was 2003-04, when veterans Karl Malone and Gary Payton joined Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant – having signed for well below market value – in order to get one last shot at a championship ring. That was a season-long soap opera, compounded by Bryant’s frequent trips to Eagle, Colorado, for court appearances on a sexual assault charge. In the end, those Lakers reached the Finals but were blitzed by Detroit in five games, with Pistons coach Larry Brown memorably telling his team during a timeout in Game 1, “You can get any shot you want, because they aren’t guarding anybody.” (After those Finals Shaq was traded, Phil Jackson left and the Lakers missed the playoffs in ’05.)
• And so here we are with another chemistry experiment, the oft-brilliant but sometimes mercurial (and more than occasionally stubborn) Russell Westbrook added to the LeBron James/Anthony Davis mix, with Carmelo Anthony thrown in for good measure. Maybe Trevor Ariza will be the mediator. Maybe Westbrook will agree to occasionally defer ever-so-slightly, and this will indeed turn out to be a super collaboration.
Or maybe Coach Frank Vogel will thank heaven that he got his contract extension before the whole thing blows up. …
• Item: According to a firm called “TickPick,” Saturday’s Rams-Chargers exhibition game at SoFi Stadium has an average ticket price of $80.38 on the secondary market, because it will be the first game when fans are allowed – and despite the fact that no starter of any stature will play for either team.
Comment: Chargers coach Brandon Staley gave it away when he noted that practices are more game-like than exhibitions will be. Maybe he and his former boss, Sean McVay, should arm-wrestle at midfield to at least give the folks their money’s worth. …
• It could be worse. According to the same firm, the average price on the secondary market for the Raiders’ exhibition against the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday night in Las Vegas, the first with fans in Allegiant Stadium, is $267.88. Just imagine how much the SoCal members of Raider Nation will be willing to pay for a shorter commute, when the backups, rookies and free agents wearing silver and black play the Rams next Saturday in Inglewood.• One L.A. television news reader referred to Rams-Chargers as a “rivalry” this week. Uh, no. If they’re facing each other on that patch of Inglewood turf in February, then feel free to call it a rivalry. Until then, not close. …
• I will resist the temptation to call Thursday night’s MLB “Field of Dreams” game “corny” – yeah, I know, how often do I pass up a chance at a Dad joke – but I did come away impressed. The initial sense was that it would be contrived, artificial nostalgia, but it turned out to be a great show. …
• What the cameras missed: Kevin Costner greeted players from both teams as they walked out of the cornstalks and onto the field, but I’ve got to think one of Cal State Fullerton’s most famous alumni (marketing and finance major, class of ’78) also got some quality time with the three former Titans on the Yankees coaching staff: Phil Nevin, Mike Harkey and P.J. Pilittere.
@Jim_Alexander on Twitter
