The Return of SHOWTIME!!!

I've always been a LAKER fanatic.

During the 1980s,
Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers
and Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics
rejuvenated, reinvented, and relaunched
the NBA to what it remains to this day,
the most spectacular sports league on Earth!


I hated Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge,
& Robert Parish with a passion,

and idolized Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
James Worthy, & Kurt Rambis.

The Celtics and the Lakers
won 8 of the 10 NBA Championships
from 1980 to 1989.


To this day,
with all due respect to #23,
#32 Magic Johnson,
Master and Commander of L.A.'s Showtime,
has got my vote as the
Best Basketball Player of All Time.

However, with Magic's shocking retirement
and the ascent of Air Jordan
at the onset of the 1990s,
the Laker Dynasty likewise, was abruptly retired.

But it only took a decade
for a new Purple & Gold dynasty to begin,
the reign of ShaqKobe!

Soon after they teamed up,
Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant
won a Three-peat for the Lakers;

but cracks began to show,
as the two Alpha Males couldn't decide
on who really was the Lead Laker.

When the Unstoppable Force that was Kobe
clashed with the Immovable Object that was Shaq,
something had to give...

and Shaq moved to Miami to heat up the East,
while Kobe remained in La-La Land,

the former partners, now bitter rivals,
each trying to prove that they could
win a crown without the help of the other.

The NBA quickly capitalized on
this latest and greatest feud between
former blood brothers,

and Shaq drew first blood:
winning a championship with his new partner,
Dwayne Wade,
a superstar whose game is not unlike Kobe's.

While the feud has now simmered down
in the twilight of Shaq's dominance
and in light of Kobe's maturity as a player,

one thing remains for #8:
a pure white Laker Championship
achieved without #34.

It's been frustrating for Bryant;
despite having 9-time champion Phil Jackson as his coach,
his team has been rebuilt in fits and starts,
and without a strong presence
to take over Shaq's role in the middle,

the Lakers became a Krispy Kreme team,
a donut without a center,

often resulting with all the pressure
on just one Mr. Bryant, practically killing
himself to win it all for the Lakers.

But finally,
there's light at the end of the tunnel;

in the same way that Shaq found a new Kobe
in Dwayne Wade,

Kobe has now found a new Shaq in
Andrew Bynum!

The 20-year old NBA sophomore Center
is now averaging a double double:
12.5 pts. and 10 rbs. per game,

and during their Christmas Day game,
Bynum scored a career-high 28 pts. on top of 12 rbs.,
Shaq-like numbers that struck fear


into the hearts of the Phoenix Suns,
a team that has been dominating the West
along with the San Antonio Spurs,
two older teams that are now suddenly vulnerable,

facing a real challenge from a Laker team
now strong and centered with Bynum,
with excellent contributors in the persons
of veterans in key positions:
the pesky Trevor Ariza, the smarts of Derek Fisher,
the hustle of Luc Walton, and point-forward Lamar Odom.


But the glamour team of Hollywood
will still live and die with this man,

the most enigmatic and explosive player on the planet,
still young and at his peak at the age of 29,
ready to take on the challenges of winning it all again.


Let the SHOW begin!