Seattle Should Fret About the Lakers

November 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Mike D'Antoni Phil Jackson

The Lakers went with Mike D’Antoni over a third tour with Phil Jackson.

This column originally appeared at SeattleWeekly.com

As blasphemous as this may sound in these formerly NBA parts, I must admit that I’m worried about the Los Angeles Lakers. I know, I know. Beat El-Lay, and all that. But, conceivably the NBA will be back in Seattle, and we all want to be part of a thriving venture, the better the odds that we have the SuperSonics for at least another 40 uninterrupted years. And for that to happen, it’s essential to wish at least a little positive karma upon the City of Angels.

No matter how much it fancies itself a globally relevant enterprise, the NBA long has been a league that has thrived when its bicoastal American anchors also have. On the Left Coast, L.A. by far is the most meaningful pushpin on the basketball map.

I started covering the NBA when it was pulling itself out of the ashes, previously branded a “drug league” or “too black,” and badly trailing the NFL and Major League Baseball in sports relevancy. It may have re-branded itself as more accessible and fan-friendly, but the NBA’s reanimation came mainly on coattails of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, two polar opposites in style, personality and geography. So the Lakers are my frame of NBA bling reference — Magic to Worthy, Riley in Armani, the Sky Hook, Coop-a-Loops, the Laker Girls, Showtime.
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Mad Men and the End of Linsanity

March 16, 2012 By 2 Comments

The signs all are there. The end of a news cycle. The end of a coaching tenure. The end of focused, team basketball in New York.

The end, that is, of Linsanity. And, for many reasons, the end of watchable professional basketball.

Jeremy Lin, Mike Woodson, Carmelo Anthony

Jeremy Lin, Mike Woodson and Carmelo Anthony.

If you’d hoped this NBA fairy tale was going to end with Jeremy Lin turning the corner on a high pick and roll, popping for a jumper in the lane or tossing up a short lob for Amare Stoudamire to win a championship, your dreams were crushed not when Mike D’Antoni resigned as Knicks coach on Wednesday, but when interim coach Mike Woodson confirmed he was going with the status quo. Not the new old status quo (Lin and team-wide distribution) but the brand-new, old status quo (return of Carmelo Anthony and the black-hole offense).

Ugh.
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Of King James, Dexter and a Culture of Comeuppance

June 13, 2011 By 1 Comment

What comes around, goes around.

Where and when I grew up, we’d say that so often, it became a way of life, a way of thinking and believing. A lot of NBA players come up in similar circumstances, so I can’t imagine that they didn’t also hear that bit of wisdom uttered a time or two.

LeBron: What Comes Around

Did they simply fail to listen? I mean, was LeBron James so intent on taking his talents to the NBA that he grew deaf while growing up in Akron, Ohio?

I don’t know the guy. He came after I stopped covering the NBA. After 17 years, it had become, for me, a league of antics. You know what I mean: Whenever there’s a crowd of adults, some kid runs up to the hot microphone and starts singing, or some boy throws a frog into a flock of girls. After starting out knowing Larry Bird, Earvin Johnson and Michael Jordan as genuine people, the league for me had devolved into a silly show with its players clamoring for more and more attention, as if all the dollars weren’t enough.
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