The Laker 'Disease'

With the amazing basketball history and a plethora of superstars like Magic Johnson and Kareem in the Showtime era, Kobe and Shaq as arguably the best duo of all time, the Lakers have always been at the pinnacle of basketball.  However this season the franchise seemed to have unraveled and become extremely complacent. The fans blame D’antoni, the analysts call it chemistry issues and the players continue to look inward at themselves. However it is something bigger than this, its part of a whole ‘Lakers disease’ a kind of culture that was built from having too much talent (or thinking they did) and then was amplified by the signing of Steve Nash and Antawn Jamison.

The signing of Nash was very monumental in Laker land. Finally a Point Guard that could match it with the best of them (offensively), which was considered by many to be the biggest positional weakness of the Lakers. Then Jamison, Meeks and of course Dwight, all become a part of the incredible franchise. The bookies loved the Lakers, haters were calling for David Stern to veto something, anything to slow down the Lakers! But the Lakers slowed down themselves. You see, complacency is a killer. It kills relationships, it kills sports teams and it kills anything it comes into contact with. It’s even worse when you don’t have the right to feel complacent. If Miami have a record of 50-10 and come up against the Wizards next and drop the game, that complacency can be justified. But being the start of the season, second favorites to win the championship and not having played a game together is not the time to be complacent.

Many Lakers faithful called for the head of Mike Brown at 1-4, many are still calling for D’antoni’s despite finishing 28-12 the fourth best finish in the league. But how can you play your best when everyone is injured? You can’t, which makes it even more surprising that no one has even mentioned Gary Vitti, the head athletic trainer of the Lakers for 29 years. Sure he has done a great job over his tenure but this year there were many soft tissue injuries that can be avoided with proper pre-habilitation exercises. Complacency thrives in situations that extend for a period of time, it seems as if the Laker fans love Vitti because he’s been there forever and are willing to overlook his poor track record this season. It’s amazing how quickly they will throw the newly appointed coaches under the bus but keep the old faithful around.

We’ve all heard the ‘We Want Phil’ chants all throughout this season, but do we really want Phil? Or do we want the history and the former success he brought us as we do with Vitti. Let’s remember the 2010-11 season how the Lakers were swept to the Mavs despite having home court advantage, and yes Phil was coach. How quickly these details are forgotten when you have brought 5 rings to the franchise.

New Laker Recruits for 2013-14

The majority of blame has to go to the players though. Nash was the ‘Karl Malone move’ all over again. When veterans come along such as Nash and Antawn who haven’t won a ring it raises the expectation that this team should win and when you expect to win off talent alone you get complacent ala 2011 vs Dallas. It seemed throughout the whole season every player except Kobe (and Earl Clark) felt as if they deserved a ring; as if it would be given to them for having done nothing except assemble a crew of all-stars. Even when the season was on the line the Lakers managed to lose key games to the Suns and Wizards! They still believed they were entitled to the ring even though they weren’t even in the eight.

Looking ahead to this season, the Lakers must make sure it’s not an ‘interim’ season, basically just waiting for the next free agency period. Doing so would worsen the problem and create even more complacency. They need to change the culture back to a winning one. Sign players who want to play for the Lakers, who want the history, the superstars, the ability to put 48 minutes on the floor of intense work. Losing Dwight is a starting point to regaining the culture, all though it is a tough loss, as he goes so will some of the complacency.

It’s going to be hard this season no doubt- key free agents have already gone such as Reddick, Korver, Collison, Delfino- all which could’ve helped the Lakers. Signing Nick Young and Jordan Farmar for some athleticism is an upgrade. Now the question is how do you convince a vet to sign with you for only one year Especially when the roster is probably worse than last season when they only achieved 7^th and a first round sweep? Kaman is OK but they will need more than that- Lamar and Vujacic won’t cut it either- this isn’t 2010 anymore. 

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