Staff writer Shane Lambert provides his opinion on where the 2010 Lakers rank in terms of great teams.
The Los Angeles Lakers have won their second consecutive NBA championship and they avenged their 2008 finals loss to the Boston Celtics. The parade will be on June 21st and of course there were riots last night in Los Angeles, a shameful part of North American sports culture.
The just completed NBA season was very entertaining as the NBA finals went to a rare game 7, however it did lack a team that could be described as "All Time Great".
Of the last 15 teams to win the NBA finals, all of the following can be considered to be better than this year's team:
2009 Los Angeles Lakers
2008 Boston Celtics
2007 San Antonio Spurs
2006 Miami Heat
2005 San Antonio Spurs
2004 Detroit Pistons
2003 San Antonio Spurs
2002 Los Angeles Lakers
2001 Los Angeles Lakers
2000 Los Angeles Lakers
1999 San Antonio Spurs
1998 Chicago Bulls
1997 Chicago Bulls
1996 Chicago Bulls
1995 Houston Rockets
All 15 of the last 15 champions were better than the 2010 Lakers who kind of slouched through the final month of the regular season and then beat the weak teams in the Western Conference that lacked killer instinct to advance to the finals where the Lakers were fortunate to have home court advantage.
There are easily 7 teams who NEVER won the championship from the past 15 years that could all be considered better than the 2010 Lakers. Here they are:
1996 Seattle Supersonics
1997 Utah Jazz
1998 Utah Jazz
1998 Indianapolis Pacers (did not make the Finals)
2000 Indianapolis Pacers
2000 Portland Trailblazers (did not make the Finals)
2002 Sacramento Kings (did not make the Finals - were better than 2002 Lakers)
There are probably more teams to list but the point is that the NBA didn't have a great team this year and the players at times seemed to lack motive and drive - at least to the degree that we have come to expect. There's definitely exceptions like with Steve Nash and Derek Fisher among others but there's still a lot of NBA fluff out there.
There's still incredible ability and athleticism in the NBA but there's not always the incredible determination. Certainly there is NOTHING Jordan-like in terms of will power and I'd be surprised if anyone disagreed although you might disagree with the following statement.
In my opinion there's nothing Reggie Miller-like or even Patrick Ewing-like in the whole NBA right now in terms of drive and those are two players that never even won the title.
Perhaps the players have lost some respect for the Association due to inconsistent officiating and instead of desiring the NBA championship - they regard playing basketball as a well paying job.
Whatever it is, something is missing from the NBA and the guys who lay on the floor complaining about no calls while the other team breaks 5 against 4 are a big part of it.
The ratings were still there this year as Game 5 of the finals was huge but a big part of that was that it was the Lakers vs the Celtics, franchises that have two of the biggest fan bases in the sports world - it wasn't because of NBA finals quality basketball.
The 2010 Los Angeles Lakers: not champions like Jordan's Bulls or even Shaq's Lakers but just the team left over this year now that it's all said and done.
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