Baller 21

Open Letter to the Lakers

by Chris Harvey on 05/17/09

Dear Lakers,

I have been a fan ever since I fell in love with the game of basketball (mid 80’s) while growing up in Southern California. I have so many good memories.

I remember Kareem positioning himself on the block and tossing up the unstoppable “Sky Hook.” I remember Magic and “Showtime” running the fast break like no other, throwing up the crowd pleasing “Coop-a-loop,” or dishing no look passes to Worthy.

I wore out my 1987 MVP shirt of Magic to the end, even after some girl at camp bumped into my sleeve with a green paint brush. I remember Chick Hearn on the mic declaring that the “refrigerator is closed” after a game was locked up. I remember the classic battles against Bird and the Celtics.

Over the years, there has been many seasons of joy when a title banner was hung up in the rafters, and also seasons that fell short. I am fully aware that both scenarios, winning and losing, are the reality for a fan and in sports in general. Even the great teams in history lose games.

But my main point of concern, and the underlining reason for this letter, is in regards to how you play the game.

You are so frustrating to watch at times, especially this post season. The switch of focus, intensity, effort, and team work is so carelessly turned on and off it’s confusing. I hear the media analyze your game in terms of “lackadaisical”, “embarrassing,” and even “arrogance.” And they are right! Everyone that is watching you play in the current series seems to get it, but you.

You talk about learning your lessons from last year’s Finals, but it doesn’t seem to have registered yet. After losing badly this series, the response is “everything is fine,” and “we have home court advantage,” or pointing the finger of blame to someone else. That is not the right response.

That is not the response of a championship team or a team that a fan could be proud of. The right response is that we are being out hustled, out played, and are all to blame, from Phil Jackson and moving down the bench to Kobe Bryant.

A championship team plays defense, plays with their teammates, and gives everything they have on the floor, every game. When you don’t play the game the right way, you don’t deserve a ring, you don’t respect the game, and you don’t earn the respect of your fans and the basketball community.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you must win every game, or that you can’t have an off game. The point, again, is that how you play the game matters.

In my mind, winning Game 7 tomorrow doesn’t erase the repetitive madness that painfully show’s up in your game. If you are fortunate to win Game 7, you have another series to prove yourself as a team worthy of the Finals and a team worthy of respect.

It’s in your court.

C.Harv