Los Angeles Lakers Will Not Win Championship Without Derek Fisher

Now that Derek Fisher is officially gone from the Los Angeles Lakers and off to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the chief contender to represent the West in the NBA Finals, it is safe to say his former team will not make it to the NBA championship game this year.

In fact, after the last two games in which the lousy Lakers lost to the Houston Rockets and the Utah Jazz, it will be interesting to see how low they will go in playoff seedings. That's right— low, not high.

You see, the Lakers have lost the heart of their order, their chief motivator and spokesman, perhaps one of the last true gentleman in the league and the guy who held it all together when all was seemingly falling apart.

Watching Kobe Bryant play along side Ramon Sessions, it seems plain to any casual fan that Bryant doesn't need and may not even want a true point guard on his team. Bryant is a classic gunning shooting guard; just give him the ball and stand aside.

That is why he and Fish were so good together for so long. The selfless Fisher played in the triangle offense under Phil Jackson and basically fed the ball to the low post, then floated around the perimeter waiting for a last-ditch outside shot.

On offense, he was Bryant's sidekick, although there is no denying his amazing history of clutch shots in crucial games.

More importantly, he was the true glue that made the team stick together.

Every good team needs a Derek Fisher, a team player who plays unselfishly and contributes to the well-being of his teammates both on and off the court. Fish was the Lakers' Kirk Gibson, Ernie Banks and Chauncey Billups, the good guy who never complained but led with quiet stalwart desire and drive.

Reliable may be an understated word to describe Fisher. And that may be what the Lakers will miss most from him. Even if he had sat on the bench, he would have contributed. His presence alone would be a huge plus for a team looking for consistency while the team tries to figure things out under a new coach.

Thus, the Lakers head into the stretch still searching. Is Sessions the swift, young point guard savior that Fisher wasn't? Will the team figure out that they have to throw the ball into the low post tandem of Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum in order to gain an edge? Can Bryant will the team to a winning record and a top spot in the playoffs on sheer grit?

Will the Lakers make it to the top of their division, to the division finals...to the NBA championship this year?

Not without Fisher.