Things just don't seem the same in the NBA's Western Conference Finals without the Los Angeles Lakers. This is to take no credit away from the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks; those two teams surely earned their spot and the Lakers did not. But when one looks at the 1999-2000 Laker team, it is hard to believe that the 2002-03 Laker squad achieved less than that youthful group.
The 2000 Laker team featured a 28-year old Shaquille O'Neal, who led the NBA in scoring and grabbed his one and only MVP award that season. Most experts felt this was the beginning of O'Neal's prime, as the Louisiana State alum made quite a rebound from the disappointing 1999 season in which he was voted only the No. 2 center in the league behind draft classmate Alonzo Mourning. The 2000 team also claimed 21-year old Kobe Bryant on its tax return. While Bryant is now known as the most clutch scorer in the NBA, the barely-legal Bryant in 2000 was still developing into a dominating force. Bryant averaged 22.5 points a game and was voted one of the top 10 players in NBA for the first time, and it was agreed that the Lower Merion High School graduate's best basketball days were ahead of him.
Those two young guns were led by already six-time NBA champion head coach Phil Jackson, who used his triangle offense to finally get the Lakers to the pinnacle for the first time since 1988. So with its two best players and coach at their peak performance, how did their great run end three years later in a lopsided loss to the San Antonio Spurs in game six of the Western Conference Quarterfinals?
One factor is that the 2000 season was not the beginning of O'Neal's prime, but the end. While many still consider O'Neal the best player in the NBA, because of an innumerable number of problems with his feet, O'Neal no longer can take over every game at any time.
In addition, because of health problems Jackson no longer can use the same deceptive energy he demonstrated when he led his teams to nine championships in 12 of his coaching seasons. But the health problems that have diminished Jackson's and O'Neal's talents have been some what balanced by the emergence of Bryan's dominance. Unlike many athletes in modern sports, Bryant has lived up to his gigantic hype by averaging 30 points per game this season, and improved that average by over two points in the playoffs. So with the Lakers big three - Bryant, O'Neal and Jackson-still dominant, though not to the same extent as in 2000, why are the Lakers no longer a dominant team?
The person most responsible is Lakers' General Manager Mitch Kupchak.
While no one expected Kupchak to be as good as his predecessor Jerry West, no one expected him to be this bad. Kupchak seems to have learned almost nothing from the greatest mentor he could have possibly had. During the three consecutive championships the Lakers won earlier this decade, West always surrounded Bryant and O'Neal with veteran role players such as Ron Harper, Glen Rice and Horace Grant. These players were not replaced when they decided to retire, and the Lakers' other role players like Rick Fox, Brian Shaw and Robert Horry have aged passed their usefulness.
While these current role player problems seem easily remedied in the free-agent market, the future of the big three seems far more perilous than even a year ago.
O'Neal's injuries could have him out of basketball within two years, and Jackson, who missed games because of kidney and heart problems, is yet to commit to coach next season.
It seems the Lakers, who were called the team of the decade a season ago, will have won their last championship before the interval was even half over.
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