Well, as you can imagine, it was a dark day at the office. The legions of Laker fans, so smug a couple weeks ago, now walk around with a look of dazed horror.
It’s great fun.
Now the question becomes what to do with these teams. The Lakers will be stripped. Phil Jackson has already dropped very broad hints about retiring. Payton has been gone for a couple months now, and Malone will leave as well. Kobe can opt out, but rumors around here keep floating that Kobe will be resigned and Shaq will be dealt. I can’t really see that, though it’s well-known that Jerry Buss is a huge Kobe fan. All of this goes out the window, obviously, if something dramatic happens at his rape trial.
The Pistons are in pretty good shape. If they can resign Rasheed, they will return en masse next year. I think they will, the market for insane power forwards isn’t what it used to be, and I think he enjoys Detroit. Now I’ve been wondering if they had been this good had they picked Carmelo Anthony instead of Darko. I think a case can be made that they don’t win with Carmelo. Don’t get me wrong, Melo is a fine young player, and I think the Darko pick will come to be considered a mistake of Bowiean magnitude. I wonder though, if Carmelo is on the team, he would play. He would have too, he’s that good. That means less minutes for Tayshaun Prince and his Amazing Length. Less time for Tayshaun and Kobe could have gone nuts this series.
It’s pretty flimsy, I’ll admit.
Posted by Frinklin at June 16, 2004 07:48 PM