The Lakers are deep collection of individuals who are different, yet they seem to get along together off the court and enjoy each other’s company. Each loss results in pain felt and shared by all, as does every win. It kinda reminds me of a church, where everybody that goes to the church are different people, but they are all seemingly united by Jesus. Winning basketball games and championships seems to be the way that these vastly different individuals seem to get along. Considering that Jackson’s parents were pentalcoastal preachers, it’s not surprising to me that a team was built under his direction.

Fast forward a year. Pat Riley heard a year of talk about how his team was soft, good enough for show time but not tough enough to win. It was then. prior to the rematch that he told his team what his father had told him. “Just remember what I always taught you. Somewhere, someplace, sometime, you’re going to have to plant your feet, make a stand and kick some ass. And when that time comes, you do it.”

It was the spirit of Lee Riley that Lamar Odom channelled on February 5th 2008. “Sometimes you’ve just got to make a stand. Tonight, we made a stand.”

If history repeats itself it must do so on 24 year cycles. The finess team from Los Angeles goes into Boston and kicked sand into the bully’s face. As it was in 1985, so it shall be in 2009.

“Cathartic? I don’t know what cathartic means. I didn’t go to college” Kobe Bryant may not know what cathartic means but Lamar Odom embodied it.

We might have witnessed the tranformation of LO. For so long he has tantalised us with a unique combination of size, speed, and skills. Always disappointing instead with inconsistency and lack of focus and fortitude. Can a moment be so cathartic for an individual? Can transformation happen in an instant?

Stephen Jay Gould amended Darwin by showing that evolution happens in an instant (geologically speaking). Puncutated Equilibrium rather than a gradual crawl. Evolution is Revolution.

What are the traits keeping LO back from greatness. Not skills. Not size. Not athleticism. But focus, determination, concentration, will. Maybe he finally got it. Finally realised he has to let go to move forward. Phil started the process by having LO come off the bench for the first time in his life. Humility shatters the illusions of the ego that prevent growth. By letting go, maybe LO now can play in the moment. Present, focused, determined.

“Basketball is a humiliating sport, it can humble you right in the middle of the game,” Odom said. “But tonight I just left all that behind.”

Character is shaped not by success but reaction to failure. Evolution only occurs change in environmental stress favours a new variant of the species. Without stress no growth. Andrew Bynum’s injury, especially due to the deja vu nature, created cruel and violent stress. But also an opportunity for growth and evolution. How this team, on this trip, reprising the character of 1985 has responded to this stress been gratifying to us all. How LO, in this game matched the passion of KG, looked the bullies in the eye and, in the end, won the game, might be the true blessing arising from the misfortune in Memphis.

We sensed the change even during the game. Any other game, you would despair at seeing LO at the line with one free throw to tie and two the win. But for the first time since he became a Laker, somehow I knew he would sink both. And he did.

First cent = Morrison as a project. Morrison may be less talented compared to Vlad now, but Morrison’s ceiling is a little higher since you haven’t seen everything from him yet — a very intriguing project. After 7+ years we all should know what Vlad brings — treys, no defense, no rebounding. Morrison may be a better shooting version of Luke (I make that comparison more because of their athletic talents…or lake thereof.)

Second cent = trade asset in the off-season. In the current economic situation that the NBA is in and you’ll notice that Morrison’s contract, depending on which site you reference it’s either a team option or for 2009/2010 (which is as good as an expiring contract) or 2010/2011, is a more attractive asset to have this offseason — possibly in acquiring a third point to complement Fish and supplant Jordan as our spark plug off the bench while Jordan gets promoted to the starting lineup — would be the natural progression, no? Or we could just get both Brown’s and Morrison’s contract off our books and resign both Trevor and Lamar to deserving contract extensions.

Anyways, great trade for the Lakers…GINORMOUS props to Mitch for another masterful move!

I’ll be updating this as the day goes on.

I think that first and foremost this was a move made to clear up salary space to re-sign Ariza and possibly Odom after this season. But, that said, since we’re talking about psychological factors of late, I like the fact that both Morrison and Brown came from well-coached winning programs in college. Vlade has all the talent in the world, but in the end you just never know what you’ll get from him game to game. That’s been the story of his career, and it isn’t going to change. He’s especially not suited to come off the bench.

Has anyone watched Brown enough to know whether he’s capable of defending quick point guards? I suspect he and Morrison will ride the pine the rest of the season unless we have injuries, but you never know. I’m curious about Morrison in the triangle.