Sports - Los Angeles Lakers #7: because this is our season, our time.

NessaBruin · 06-07-2008, 09:58 PM

The Los Angeles Lakers

From the George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers teams of the '40s and '50s to the "Showtime" era Magic Johnson teams of the late 1980s to
Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant's dynasty of the early 21st century, one thing has been consistent about the Lakers: winning. The franchise
has boasted a host of Hall of Famers and has compiled a string of championships which has scarcely been rivaled in the history of American sports.

Links

Los Angeles Lakers
Kobe Bryant 24
Lakersfans on LiveJournal

lakers0604 (sheila)
kingjames23 (cristina)
nessabruin (nessa)
miSStakentriSh (trisha)
lysee (rinaye)
BrucasForever<3

1) What is your favourite laker playoff moment and why?

Damn. Just one? Well, if I had to pick one, it would probably be the 0.4 shot by Derek Fisher against the Spurs in Game 5 in the 2003-2004 playoffs. I remember everything about that particular playoff game. I even remember what I was wearing, where I was and how ecstatic I became when the shot went through. It was better than Horry's three pointers and Kobe's insane performance against the Pistons and Suns because it was improbable. The Lakers were not meant to win that game but they showed heart and their will to win at all costs got them that W.

Let me set the scene. Tim Duncan just came through for the Spurs and hit a fadeway jumpshot over Shaquille O'Neal. When it finally went through the net, there was only 0.4 seconds left. And the Laker fan in me believed that was enough time to get a good shot up. The only questions were who was going to take it and how were they going to shoot it. All through that timeout, I was praying and walking around. Couldn't sit still at all. So, game time. Payton will imbound the ball. Kobe was probably going to get it. They had him covered well. Ball went to Fish, who threw up a prayer. AND BANG! It went in. They went crazy. I went crazy. Seriously. Best part about it was how shocked everyone looked. Not only the players on TV, but my friends who were rooting for the Spurs and thought that they had the game.
cristina.

There are so many great moments to chose from! The Lakers have such a great legacy and to chose only 1 moment it crazy. But if I had to choose 1 moment I would have to say Derek Fisher's 0.3 shot against San Antonio. This was a tough decision because I had it came down this one and Robert Horry's 3 vs. Sacramento. I think this is my favorite playoff moment because it is the one I replay in my head so often. I remember when this shot when it my jaw dropped and I screamed my head off. Turned out I lost my voice due to that shot! Knowing that the Lakers are down and there's only 0.3 seconds on the clock, everyone gave up hope. I must admit that I gave up hope as well, I thought, "Well there goes our season." But next thing you know Derek Fisher is hitting a shot that will last forever in our hearts. Since then I've never gave up hope on the Lakers. It really was a defining moment for me and the Lakers.
sheila.

As hard as it is to choose a favourite moment, there is always one that is going to be extra special. The moment I knew I fell in love with this team and franchise was back in 2000. It was game seven of the Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trailblazers. The Lakers were down by fifteen coming into the fourth quarter, and managed to win the game. It is just one of those moments that is going to be engraved in my memory forever. The sight of the crowd going crazy, the purple and gold colours coming together as one. Shaq pointing to the crowd. Just everything about that game, that moment, was perfect. And that is what epitomizes the Lakers for me.
trisha.

What has been your favourite part(s) of this season?

Andrew Bynum's break out season. Trevor Ariza's dunk on Grant Hill on Christmas Day. The Pau Gasol Trade. Pacific Division title. #1 seed on the Western Conference race. Kobe Bryant winning MVP. Take your pick.
cristina.

This 2007-2008 season has been nothing but amazing! I think my favorite part of the season is right now. Everything the Lakers have worked for this season leads up to this..the playoffs. This is where you separate the men from the boys. This is where the Lakers will really have to prove they are the team to beat..and I enjoy it a lot. This is what us Laker fans have been waiting for. 5 years we've waited and now it's here. The growth of our bench, Andrew Bynun, and the acquisition of Pau Gasol was made for this time. It was great to watch our bench make a name for themselves, and see Andrew become something more than a waste of height, and to see Kobe become the leader we all knew he was. This season has been magical, but it's not over until we bring home the trophy to LA, where it should be!
sheila.

No one in Lakerland would've been able to believe where we are right now. Number one seed in the West, with the possibility of a championship in the future. And that is what I love most about this season, the pleasant surprise of the whole season coming together and being able to watch this group of players perform game in and game out - and do it in a way that has been sincerely missed by the league as a whole. They not only work hard, but entertain. The smiles on all the players' faces just shows how much they enjoy what they do. And it's an absolute privilege to watch them all.
trisha.

Lakers Videos

Believe
Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
Until The Day I Die
Making Memories

thanks to NessaBruin for the art!

Icons/Arts

more can be found here

miSStakentriSh · 06-07-2008, 10:01 PM

Thank you for the new thread, N.

NessaBruin · 06-07-2008, 10:03 PM

no problem. LO vid almost up. I have to rewatch it bc i hardly paid attention to Jordy or Fish after LO, though I know Fish said to move on past the loss

miSStakentriSh · 06-07-2008, 10:04 PM

oh, fishy.

you know who seems kind of down, too? not as down as LO, but still. luke walton. probably because he misses his dad, and everything. aw.

NessaBruin · 06-07-2008, 10:10 PM

yeah Luke too. He said for his dad whatever happens is win-win.

Needs some consolation from Jordy...

I wish we could like send care packages, I mean its pointless now bc the game is tomorrow unless there was a way of sending them well-wishes now

which would be like 1 AM there so still

PR of today LO, Jordy, Fish

miSStakentriSh · 06-07-2008, 10:16 PM

awwww! LIKE LITTLE TEDDY BEARS AND EVERYTHING. that would be so cute. do they even have fan mail box things? like jordy, luke, lamar? wait, wait. let me see.. nope can't find an address. you'd think on lamar's site, they'd have like an address to send stuff, yeah? but apparently not.

ah! more videos. thank you loads!

NessaBruin · 06-07-2008, 10:18 PM

yeah or atleast something like to them all as a whole

we need to meet them and give them stuff to feel at home on the road

miSStakentriSh · 06-07-2008, 10:19 PM

serioouuussly. let's camp out at sloopy's.

okay, this article made me teary-eyed.

Quote:

Title is no slam dunk, but Chick Hearn would have loved it
Lakers haven't won a championship since their longtime broadcaster died, and he hasn't been forgotten by his widow or the fans.
T.J. Simers

June 8, 2008

BOSTON -- The other day Kobe Bryant was saying he just "missed some bunnies" in the first game of the NBA Finals, or as Chick Hearn would've been telling us, "Marge could have made those shots."

It doesn't seem so long ago, but it will be six years this week, Chick doing his final Lakers broadcast after 42 years behind the microphone, a championship-clinching victory over the New Jersey Nets.

Two months later a fall in his backyard led to his death.

"If he was still here, he would have been so happy, I don't think he could have stood it," Marge says. "I think he would have finally had his heart attack."

What a hoot. Marge, about to turn 91, married for almost 64 years to Fran, as she still refers to her high school sweetheart, and as feisty and original as the voice who once worked 3,338 consecutive Laker games.

"We were soul mates," she says. "I don't know what that means, but it sounds like us."

The same might be said about Chick and Lakers fans, everyone knowing just what he meant when he would say, "He's in the popcorn machine," or who he was talking about when he would mention, "The Big Fella."

Nine championships, Chick behind the microphone for each one of them, but he dies before they pass out the rings for winning it all in 2002 -- a ring dedicated to him.

"That's the one I've kept, the one I wear," Marge says. "I gave all the others to family members.

"It has a microphone and the word, 'slam dunk,' which you know he originated. And you're not going to believe this, but you know who did that -- who put that on all the rings?"

As Chick might have said to sidekick Keith Erickson, "I'll bet you an ice cream" you don't get it.

"It was Phil Jackson's doing," Marge says. "Fran wouldn't have believed it, but that's what Jeanie [Buss] told me."

Chick never really got close to Jackson, and back in the day he would say how it frustrated him, but as Marge says, "Phil seems like a hard man to get to know for everyone and I don't know if anyone ever gets close to him."

How about Jeanie?

"He better be close to her," Marge says. "She's the best."

JACKSON'S FACE lights up when Chick's name is mentioned Saturday afternoon. He says it's true -- when asked to help design the 2002 championship ring, he thought of Chick. "He's human after all," as Chick might say.

"It was the appropriate thing to do," Jackson says. "He died before he ever got the ring, and it was so sad for everyone in L.A."

Chick was so popular, his funeral was broadcast live on TV, the freeway stopped to allow only those with invitations to exit, and easy to understand, as Marge says.

"You know what we would do when the team had a day off? We would bar hop and talk to all the bartenders. He liked people. He actually liked people.

"And he was always proud of the fact that the person who could not afford a ticket could listen to the game and still enjoy it. Those were his kind of fans, those were the ones he loved."

When the Lakers were on the road, Marge never missed a broadcast. For home games, "I used to sit three rows in front of him," she says. "But I've moved to the other side of the court behind the visiting team so it gets me away from where he was. I miss him, you know.

"My heart still sinks every once in a while. I hear the national anthem, look up, and shed a tear occasionally. It's a terrible feeling when you're alone and don't have anybody."

Hard to sit undisturbed, though, Lakers fans stopping by Marge's seat to tell her how her husband impacted their lives, Chick doing this and Chick doing that.

"And I just know how much he would have absolutely loved this team," she gushes, "and how happy he would have been doing games that mean so much again."

The Lakers, though, are one down to the Celtics and a long way from putting this series in the refrigerator.

"You know what his favorite saying was?" Marge says. "Whenever he could say something hasn't happened 'since Hector was a pup.' I have no idea who Hector was, and he probably didn't either.

"My favorite was the 'bunny hop in the pea patch.' He used it a lot because he knew I liked it."

If he was still here, he'd be sitting on the Nokia Theatre stage Friday night along with Vin Scully and JohnWooden.

"That would've been great, but that's life, isn't it?" says Marge, who while still living in Encino would join Wooden for dinner at the Valley Inn. "You know he doesn't eat like an old person -- he eats like man."

Marge has moved into a Fullerton retirement home, "and when I talk about Fran," she says with a laugh, "the girls all want to know who is this Fran I'm always talking about?

"But I'm not sitting around moaning and groaning. I'm in a putting contest -- imagine that. Fran wouldn't have stood for me doing nothing. We had a wonderful 64 years together until the shocker of all shocker, we come home from Las Vegas, he falls and dies in our backyard."

Chick did a Las Vegas broadcast for Magic's fantasy camp, his broadcasting sidekick telling Marge later that Chick had signed off by telling the fans, "goodbye."

To this day it confounds Marge. "He never did that, never said goodbye to the fans," she says.

As for the years that have passed, and the new broadcast team in place, Marge laughs when asked how they are doing.

"I can hear Fran now: 'Marge, shut your mouth.' But I think the kid that does the radio is tremendous and I think Chick would have thought so too."

And now, should the Lakers win yet another championship, it will be the first without Chick leading the parade.

"I talk to him all the time," Marge says. "When I was first alone there was nobody else to talk with, so we talked and I would imagine what he would say back.

"I know this, if there is any help up there available for the Lakers, Fran's going to find it."

Keep that in mind should it all come down to last-second heroics, the voice in the distance a familiar one, chirping, "he shot that from way out yonder."

**kingjames23** · 06-07-2008, 10:27 PM

Dude, I was so thinking of rocking your sig a couple of days ago! OMG! I LOVE IT.

And the shoes article from the last thread? MADE OF WIN. I can't believe the guys get two free pairs when they arrive. LUCKY.

Thanks for the new thread.

NessaBruin · 06-07-2008, 10:27 PM

aww I'm all teary-eyed!!!!! Chick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

miSStakentriSh · 06-07-2008, 10:39 PM

omgggg. LOOK AT THEM. SO CUTE.

i absolutely love rudy's quote, C. it's just... gah.

NessaBruin · 06-07-2008, 10:53 PM

see we should all be entitled to a piece of Kobe...it seems everyone shares him so why can't we

miSStakentriSh · 06-07-2008, 11:08 PM

i call his arms!

NessaBruin · 06-07-2008, 11:10 PM

i was thinking trade-offs but if you want to call body parts then I call his head

lakers0604 · 06-07-2008, 11:12 PM

Thanks N!

Love the title!

*yawns* I'm tired.

I'll talk to you ladies laterz!