Prophets & Windows

“With this team,” pronounced Mitch Kupchak, “we feel we have a ten-year window to win a championship.”

No, the under-appreciated Los Angeles Lakers’ heir to the Logo was not quoted as saying that after he acquired Pau Gasol for virtually nothing midway this past season.

He actually said that 11 years ago in 1997 after the post-Showtime era Lakers fleeced the Orlando Magic for Shaquille O’Neal, pulled a Red Auerbach on the Charlotte Hornets for the rights to Kobe Bryant and drafted Derek Fisher with the 24^th pick of the first round.

The Notorious Big has since flown the coop and the last two remaining members of the Lakers’ three-peat champs (Kupchak was right; give the man a raise), Bryant and Fisher, are now the veterans on a young Lakers team that could be very good again for the next few years.

You can say this about the Lakers, they miss the playoffs for one year (1993-94) and it’s an unmitigated disaster for them. Spoiled is what they are. Ever since Magic Johnson joined the team in 1980, they’ve overtaken the Boston Celtics as the NBA’s preeminent franchise.

You can’t even say that the Lakers missed a beat after Magic retired for the 1992-93 season because they made the playoffs even with a bad record yet lost in a five-game series to the Phoenix Suns.

They played an exciting brand of basketball with Nick Van Exel, Cedric Ceballos, and Eddie Jones. And when Magic came back for an aborted season in 1995-96, they were still fun to watch even though Johnson had to play the four-spot.

Within that ten-year frame, they went to four finals and won three. And in first year of decade two, they’re back in the saddle again. With a young core of Andrew Bynum, Sasha Vujacic, Jordan Farmar, Ronny Turiaf, and Luke Walton backstopped by Bryant and Fisher, now the team veterans, along with Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, the Los Angeles Lakers are once more poised for greatness.

While any assumptions that the San Antonio Spurs’ run is over is greatly premature and ditto for the now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t Houston Rockets, as well as the underachieving Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks, the Lakers have the majority of their players entering their prime. The trade for Gasol clearly added another weapon to the arsenal and made the triangle offense even more frightening. Say this about Phil Jackson’s Lakers, they can either smother you with their defense or bury you under a pile of points.

Something that will be put to the test when the league’s highest scoring offense takes on the NBA’s toughest D.

The rivalry makes the series even more special, but if you ask the players, they couldn’t care less. It’s all about the ring. After all, that championship window is open only for so long.