It’s OK, Lakers Own the Decade

Ten years ago they were a new and different team, sneaking up on the rest of the league, taking basketball by surprise with a new style of ball.

“Showtime,” they called it, and there were snickers around the league. Or was it honest skepticism?

“Cute concept,” the world said, “but show us what you can do. See us in six months.”

The Lakers were led by a dazzling rookie and a rejuvenated veteran superstar, and they featured a hungry-looking, hyperactive sixth man and a dapper and eager assistant coach.

Magic, Kareem, Cooper and Riley.

They had a rookie owner, too, who wiped the champagne out of his eyes 10 years ago in Philadelphia and said sincerely, “You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this.”

The team had sexy dancing girls, Hollywood fans, a beautiful gym, a lot of frills and gimmicks.

A passing fad.

The fad finally passed Tuesday night, a decade later. The rest of the league finally caught up with the Lakers.

The greatest run in pro athletics in this decade came to an end, not with a bang but with a twang, two hamstrings coming unstrung at the wrong time.

With their starting guards out, the Lakers took the Detroit Pistons into the final two minutes of the last three games of the series before losing each.

“Shrivel” was a word used by one Detroit newspaper headline writer to describe what the Lakers did in Game 1 of the series, when Johnson joined Scott on the all-one-legged team.

Bad hamstrings, yes.

Dishpan heart, no.

This is no team to send out with faint praise, but what team ever looked better being swept?

Some of the players Coach Pat Riley was sending into the games in this series hadn’t played before actual live people in months, or years, since Riley closes his practices.

Still, they went to the wire three straight games with the Bad Boys, who are pretty good.

Riley got shut out again this season in the Coach of the Year voting. No big deal. When they get around to choosing the All-Decade team, Riley will be the coach. Why even bother to vote?

Any doubters had to be swept away when Riley re-invented his team during the last week. Let’s see what Riley can do if they strip him of the game’s greatest player and the team’s only real outside shooter, on a team that was already as shallow as the female lead in a grade-B movie.

Instead of crumbling, the Lakers played like Tony Campbell and David Rivers had been in their backcourt all season.

Think it’s been easy for Riley? In Detroit the guy sneaks out to the hotel pool one afternoon to recharge his solar batteries. That evening he sees himself on the 6 o’clock news, his sunbath captured by a spy-cam. Jackie Onassis could’ve told Riley it would get like this.

After the sweep was completed Tuesday night, the Lakers weren’t very poetic. At a time like this, it’s hard to put a decade into words. Where’s Winston Churchill when you really need him?

But think about it--five world championships in 10 years. Three other trips to the finals, and to stretch a point here, if not for injuries like the Scott-Johnson double-twang, the Lakers could’ve been 8 for 10 this decade.

Forget the speculation and rely on the hard facts and it still comes out this way: The Lakers defined the 1980s in sports. Wire to wire, style and substance, speed and grace.

Ten years ago in the visitor’s locker room at the Spectrum, Magic cried and Kareem smiled and Cooper grinned.

It would have been dramatic for the Lakers to close out the decade as winners, wire to wire champagne, but reality intruded.

They showered and dressed quietly, and dryly, and left the Forum. Kareem will not be back as a player. Cooper, who knows? Driven for a decade by insecurity, Cooper will enjoy more of the same over the summer.

Scott is no sure thing to return. Moves must be made. Jerry West, the general manager whose moves kept the Lakers competitive for a decade even though the draft was continually stacked against them, will be wheeling and dealing.

Even Jerry Buss is no sure thing to return next year as Laker owner. He might decide to trade himself to a football team, or a baseball team.

Magic will be back, surely, but what kind of show will he have to lead?

Jerry West, who knows? This is a man who digs deeper into the game and suffers more for his team than any executive I’ve known. Will he retire, or see what kind of rebuilding he can do with second-round draft picks?

Magic will be back, surely, but what kind of show will he have to lead?

But that’s the future. Right now would be a good time to pause and look back on a decade of great basketball.

Jamaal Wilkes and Norm Nixon passing the torch to James Worthy and Scott. Jim Chones and Bob McAdoo passing the torch to Kurt Rambis and Mychal Thompson.

Too many names to mention, too many great moments to recall. They go by in a blur, like the classic Laker fast break, now known as a transition game, and in recent days, rarely seen.

Magic’s passing, Kareem’s skyhook, Worthy’s knifing drives, Cooper’s flying drawstrings. Riley thinking, West pacing, Buss watching.

You can’t put it all on film, you can’t really describe it. It was there and now it is gone. It seems like a short decade. Time flies when you’re enjoying yourself.