In journalism, we love a good story. The upset, the drama — itcan so excentuate a story that it tells itself.
Having recently come into a vested interest in sportsjournalism, I can tell you — if anything — some of the beststories in the journalism world are sitting on the sports pagesright now.
The drama of one story, though, sticks out like a sore thumb. Ina very anti-dramatic fashion Tuesday night the Detriot Pistons beatout the Los Angeles Lakers for the National Basketball Associationtitle. It all happened so quickly — and will probably be forgottenas quickly, after all, the two only played one good game (In everyone of their four wins, Detriot completely dominated theLakers).
Kobe Bryant’s dramatic 3-pointer to send Game 2 into overtimeand secure an eventual Lakers win seemed to be a breath of life forthe series, but the return to Detriot for three games proved to betoo much for the house-divided Lakers.
From the beginning of the playoffs, one team was picked to winit all — it was a common opinion that they were a team of destiny.Almost every analyst and even casual NBA fans were convinced theNBA Championship was in the bag.
After splitting the first two games in Los Angeles, the seriesreturned to Detriot for three games, and the final game, game 5,was do or die for the Lakers.
But perhaps the saddest thing about that final “game” played inThe Palace of Auburn Hills, Mich., was the fact that 19-year NBAveteran Karl Malone was sitting on the sidelines in street clothes,once again coming close — but no cigar — to winning a NBAchampionship.
Damn, there goes my story.
Malone, a Louisiana Tech product, had been there before with hisformer team, the Utah Jazz. The Jazz lost in the 1997 and 1998 NBAFinals to Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls.
Surpisingly enough, the person who lost the 1996 NBA Finals toJordan is Malone’s teammate, Gary Payton, another pilgrim to theLakers squad in search of a championship.
Rarely will basketball fans come across a team with as muchtalent and potential as the 2003-04 Los Angeles Lakers. The players(and most likely even caoches) that make up the team appear to beheaded in different directions.
I couldn’t have written the story better myself.
Bryant, suffering through a rape trial in Colorado, rushing tothe basketball court minutes before game time because he was incourt proceedings. A limelight-sharing (or blocking) superstar likeShaq, and the two nomads, Malone and Payton, leaving their homesfor the greener pastures of Los Angeles and that dream which hadbeen denied to them by His Airness, winning an NBAChampionship.
It was a dream team with a great storyline.
Perhaps we’re seeing the end of the modern dream team, in thiscase the LA Lakers. Not since the Chicago Bulls — six NBAChampionships in the 1990s alone — had the league been sodominated by one team, two players and one coach.
With free agency and trades being the way they are in thestar-rich NBA, it’s doubtful we’ll see another team like the Lakersagain for a few years — the desire to win a championship now moveswith the desire to make money.
Greats like Malone and Payton — two shoe-ins for the Hall ofFame — couldn’t even win a championship after teaming up withargueably the best one-two punch of the modern basketball era.
Oh well, the story of the Lakers would have been more of a fairytale had they captured the title in seven games.
But the story tells that the Pistons, a team not dominated byany one superstar, stopped the fab four of basketball — Shaq,Kobe, The Mailman and The Glove.