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Too Good to be True
By Robert Doyen June 12, 2004
 The Lakers always seem to be slightly ahead of the curve in the NBA. Never did things come so miraculously easy to them, though, as when Gary Payton and Karl Malone came trophy hunting in Los Angeles for mere fractions of their former salaries. But, as often happens when something appears too good to be true, their apparent luck has backfired on them.
On paper the Lakers looked unstoppable before the season started. The lineup of Bryant, Shaq, Malone, and Payton makes a great fantasy lineup in basketball video games. But where the paper showed amazing statistical averages and lofty accolades, it also showed 1,238 total games played for Payton and 1,680 games played for Malone. This statistic includes playoff games, regular season games, and the all star game. By comparison, Shaquille O’Neal, even with all of his long playoff runs, has yet to break 1,000 games played. That’s a lot of trips up and down the court. A lot of elbows and falls on the floor. A lot of miles on the sputtering knees and arches of two aging superstars.
Five years ago this team would have been on another level apart from the rest of the league. This year, after all the hooplah and lofty predictions, the Lakers have still proven to be nothing more than Shaq and Kobe surrounded by role players. The role players this year just happen to be famous.
Karl Malone’s knee is blown, and he stubbornly refused for far too long to wear a knee brace. He claimed that you never saw a samurai warrior wearing a knee brace, so why should he? Karl, in case you hadn’t noticed, the samurai warrior is a dead breed, and if they did exist today, you can bet they’d take full advantage of our centuries of medical advancements. And Payton is maligned with sore arches in his feet and a mouth held permanently and angrily open.
Two miracle shots are all that has kept the Lakers alive in the playoffs. Without Derrek Fisher’s 0.4 seconds worth of “Oh my God”, which resulted in a lifetime’s worth of “Holy Cow”, the Lakers may have met the same fate as last year against the Spurs when they were left crying over the death of their dynasty. Without Kobe Bryant’s three pointer at the end of game two, the Pistons may have swept the Lakers and their supposedly pre-ordained championship hopes into the circular file.
But those kind of shots have carried the Lakers this far. The same luck that landed them two hall of fame players in one off-season followed the basketball all the way from Kobe’s fingers into the hoop with a confident swish. As it stands, the Lakers are about three more lucky shots away from their fourth championship in five years.
The Pistons have something to say about this.
Speaking of lucky aquistions, has anyone ever heard of Rasheed Wallace? He instantly transformed the Pistons into a team every bit as bulky and scary as the best in the Western Conference. The fiery power forward from the Portland Jailblazers has found a home in Detroit. His presence conjures images of the feisty Dennis Rodman, whose bad boy image also had a way of overshadowing his basketball skills.
Teamed along with the tenacious Ben Wallace, the perimeter defense of Prince, and the speedy backcourt of Billups and Hamilton, the Pistons look poised to take the NBA’s crown back to the East for the first time since the Jordan era.
Can the Lakers come back to win the 2004 NBA Championship? It doesn’t look likely considering the way Detroit is controlling the flow of this series. But don’t count out the Lakers yet. Lady Luck loves the Lakers and she’ll do everything she can to nudge her favorite team forward.
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