When the Los Angeles Lakers followed their Steve Nash heist with the addition of the best center in the NBA (not named Lopez or Bynum), we all felt sad. We hate the Lakers. We hate all their damn banners and rings. We hate their best player. We hate how entitled their fans have become given how many titles their team has won. Mostly though, we hate losing to the Lakers which has happened 131 times (vs 91 wins) in my lifetime.
Now here we site about a quarter of the way through the season and the Suns are sniffing the Western Conference cellar and yet are just a couple of Dwight Howard bricked free throws behind the "Lake Show". What a show indeed.
Steve Nash has played a total of 50 ineffective minutes in two games and is weeks away from returning from a broken leg type issue. Pau Gasol either forgot to wear big boy pants or has a handful of sore knees or both. He's a non-factor outside the trade rumor circuit. Steve Blake is out with his 732nd abdominal injury.
Even better, Antwan Jamison, the worst defender in the league (Michael Beasley excluded) is playing 25 minutes plus. This is a guy who was HORRIBLE last year in Cleveland and now he, along with NBA vagabonds Jordan Hill, Chris Duhon and Jody Meeks are playing big and meaningful minute. Also, Meta World Peace is still there and soon may not be the craziest person on his team if Delonte West is signed. Somewhere, perhaps in Croatia, Smush Parker is laughing his ass off.
It's a fun time to be a Laker Hater.
But there's some lessons here for Suns fans. It's not easy to win in the NBA. Learning a new system and incorporating new players can be difficult. Chemistry matters and you have to be patient.
Just kidding. There's no lessons in the Lakers struggles.
It's just pure joy which, unfortunately, won't last forever. In the mean time, if the Lakers stay in the lottery hunt, the Suns are in line to get two top-14 picks so in this case, rooting against the Lakers is actually a way to root for the Suns! I think that's called kismet.
Before we return to talking about just how horrific the Suns defense really is and if Beasley has played his last game for his third team, a quick word about Mike D'Antoni's public meltdown that's getting plenty of airtime today.
If you've not seen it yet, here it is.
When I first saw this Tuesday night, obviously I laughed and cheered. But then it became clear that Mike was responding to professional troll, T.J. Simers of the L.A. Times and I actually felt sympathy for the Mustache Man.
Simers, who likely traveled to Cleveland where he knew there would be fewer media members around to interfere with his clown act, baited Mike into that response. This is what Simers does. He did it recently to UCLA coach Jim Mora. I've been in the room several times when he pulled this crap, including this time with Kirk Gibson. I hardly think this was Mike's first encounter with this jerk.
The dude is an ass who wants only to insert himself in the story. He's a disgrace to professional media members and should never be given a press credential again. The fact that he's employed by the L.A. Times is just another reason to hate L.A.