Los Angeles Lakers: Where Composure Happens

“Just remember, the sweet is never as sweet without the sour”
-Brian “Vanilla Sky”
 
It has been a rough couple of days.
 
Four losses over the last ten games.
 
It’s not been like this for a while.
 
Frankly, I feel spoiled.
 
In this season that has been anything but predictable (Exhibits A and B: Shaq is a Phoenix Sun and the Nuggets scored 168 points on Sunday), the Lakers are again faced with an injury based on stepping on a teammate’s foot.
 
Is it a curse? Are the Basketball gods toying with our collective fan emotions?
 
The hope beings to simmer, and then, with the roll of an ankle, the Laker Nation bow their collective heads and weep.
 
Is that how fans act?
 
When hard times fall, Laker bashing is suddenly de rigueur!?
 
As a city, are we to cannibalize our heroes after a couple of losses? Does a moderate ankle sprain, kneecap subluxation or broken foot truly spell imminent death and despair?
 
If you really break it down, these seemingly “heartbreaking” and “season crushing” injuries have, in truth and in fact, yielded nothing but positives for this Lakers squad.
 
When Andrew Bynum’s kneecap decided to go left while the rest of his leg decided to go right, you know who ended up scoring on that play?
 
Pau Gasol.
 
Pau Gasol in Memphis blue and yellow.
 
Beautiful and poetic irony, no?
 
Without that injury and subsequent slam dunk, we are still complaining about Kwame Brown and his waffle-iron hands.
 
Without Trevor’s broken foot, we do not know Sasha Vujacic as a three-point assassin. And if you think he would have eaten those minutes had Trevor Ariza been healthy, you are sorely mistaken, my brother.
 
This recent freak accident will teach our boys in purple and gold a new lesson: the wretched stench of defeat.
 
They will not soon forget watching the Rockets’ Dikembe Mutombo hold up his fingers to signify their 22nd win in a row.
 
They will not forget this road trip.
 
It is a lesson they must learn.
 
On a recent radio appearance Vice President of Business Operations/Owner’s Daughter/Coach Phil Jackson’s Girlfriend/Best Person Who Ever Lived, Jeanie Buss said that Phil was pressing the word “composure” as the theme of this daunting road trip.
 
This is a woman of substance and valor.
 
In recent weeks the squad has been dogged by lackadaisical defense and mounting technical fouls. They did not look like the team that rolled to a 13-2 record in the month of February.
 
And then Pau stepped on Vlad’s foot.
 
As of right now, I am a firm believer that Phil Jackson is clairvoyant. Maybe it’s those Energy Muse necklaces he loves so much.
 
It’s about keeping one’s composure.
 
Toughing out these doldrums and disconcerting losses is the order of the day.
In an 82 game season, there are going to be heartbreaks. And there are definitely going to be moments of disillusion.
 
Just as we do not expect to hear Kobe talk about how disenchanted he is with Derek Fisher’s cold shooting or to hear Vlad Radmanovic talk about how “Luke Walton is the worst player ever”, neither should their fan base.
 
Remember this fact: these guys are doing something that you could never do.
 
Give them a break. Cut them some slack. If Luke drops a few passes or if Ronny botches a dunk, save the crucifixions for the religious reactive and boost them up.
Don’t tear them down.
 
It is about composure.

Not only for the players, but for the fans as well.

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