May Madness

The NCAA Tournament may be the favorite of millions, but THIS my friends is a Final Four. We have the defending champs coming off a game 7 win on the road. Perennial contenders from Detroit who have made the last 6 (SIX!) Eastern Conference finals and are starting to embody an Atlanta Brave like consistency. And then we have the league's two greatest all time franchises in the Lakers and the Celtics, playing the role of the new kids on the block. It's like the old guard meets the new guard. Except the new guard is actually the old-old guard who, for lack of a better term, is back bitches!

(I was trying to end that last paragraph with some sort of pendulum metaphor, but then I was like, screw it.)

This morning, so many are lamenting the exit of Chris Paul from these playoffs, the final straw after losing the likes of Steve Nash, Deron Williams, and to a lesser extent Josh Smith because these players represent the actual new guard. If not new by age, then new by style. An aggressive, athletic, and aesthetically appealing style. And just one year removed from the near possibility of a Phoenix Suns/Golden State Warriors Western Conference finals, it seems that these folks are jaded by the sight of who is still alive in these playoffs.

And you know what, the Lakers belong here with this particular final four. But when I say the Lakers, I'm referring to the ShaKobe Lakers. Because if you had told me six years ago that the Lakers would be in the Western Conference Finals with San Antonio in 2008, I would have shrugged my shoulders and nodded my head. But I would have been picturing the Lakers with an aging Shaq, Kobe dominating, some younger role players and the same boring, methodical approach that won them titles in 2000-2002.

They were definitely on that track. But of course, everything exploded after Detroit beat them in 2004. And then things got worse. And the Lakers were rebuilt. And this rebuilding took place during what will be remembered as the Steve Nash Era (2005-2008) in which uptempo offense and long, versatile players became all the rage around the league. So instead of entering the 2008 Western Conference Finals as a plodding, grind-it-out juggernaut like the rest of the final four, the Lakers are an extremely dynamic team full of athletic, long, and versatile players held together by Championship experience at the top and a proven system that allows for all of it.


The Lakers today are a team that seems to combine the substance of its final four counterparts with a style that even the layest of fans can appreciate. Because when the Triangle Offense is humming, and recently it has been, it is basketball at its finest. Passing, moving without the ball, screens, ball movement. Kobe's brilliance as a garnish. They are an example of how you obtain fast break excitement through half court execution.

Long story short. San Antonio is the thesis. The Suns were the antithesis. And as it happened, the Lakers are the synthesis.

And there is your pendulum metaphor.