NBA Betting

History of the NBA Finals

3 titles, 2 stars, 1 dynasty -- 2002

NBA Final Keepsake cover

By Sean Deveney
The Sporting News

Derek Fisher paused a moment to imagine it, him in a plush office, wearing a three-piece suit and power tie, sitting behind a desk, blathering into the phone. In reality, Fisher was wearing his uniform and a Lakers championship cap, his head soaked in the stinging mixture of champagne and sweat that dribbled into his eyes, leaving him squinting and annoyed -- he hardly looked like a dapper executive. But, sure, he could mentally transplant himself into the front office of NBA Anyteam, filling the role of opposing general manager in this era of Lakers dominance.

Mr. Fisher, it's Mr. Moneybags, the team owner, holding on Line 2 -- what shall we tell him?

"Give up," Fisher says after a pause, smiling. "Wait 'til Shaq and Kobe retire. That's what I'd do. I think we are going to be here for a while. I think we all in this locker room feel that way. So I'd give up for now."

In light of that imagined approach, perhaps it's best Fisher is wearing a uniform, not a suit. Then again, maybe Fisher has a point. By sweeping the Nets to win their third consecutive championship, led again by Finals MVP Shaquille O'Neal and guard Kobe Bryant, the Lakers firmed up their status as a dynasty -- not yet equal to those dynasties of the Bulls, the Celtics, the Showtime Lakers, Joan Collins and the Ming family, but the beginnings of one nonetheless. There are, essentially, two teams currently poised to challenge the Lakers' run -- Sacramento and Dallas -- but for most clubs in the NBA, resistance to the Lakers is futile. Maybe giving up is not such a bad idea.

Trying to build a team while facing a dynasty in bloom is a daunting task -- one that the league's other 28 teams are facing. As one Eastern Conference executive says, "In the East, maybe you can make some progress in some spots and have some excitement for your fans, but you know it is not going anywhere in terms of The Finals. If you're in the West, and you are trying to build . . . shoot, might as well start working on a four-year plan because this Lakers deal might take a while."

In such a situation, you find yourself crossing your fingers for unlikely strokes of good fortune -- or unlikely strokes of bad fortune. "You never know," says Sonics general manager Rick Sund. "They get an injury here or there, and you get on one of those rolls in the playoffs, and maybe it changes everything. You never stop building for the future, but in the short term, that's what you hope for."

This Lakers team arguably was the weakest and most vulnerable of the three champions. There were O'Neal's health problems, with his toe, ankles and wrist bothering him throughout the season. The reserve corps was thin. Handcuffed last summer by the potential for a league luxury tax, LA's front office patched together a bench composed mainly of bargain-basement castoffs, players not accustomed to the Lakers' triangle offense or the rigors of a championship drive. The team lost experience when Horace Grant left for Orlando and Ron Harper retired, and replaced them with Mitch Richmond, Samaki Walker and Lindsey Hunter. As Richmond said in the afterglow of the Lakers' championship, "Hey, I didn't do much to get us here, but I'll take it."

Despite the drop-off in depth and experience, the result has not changed -- the Lakers are champions and lost just four postseason games in getting there. It's enough to make a front office executive shrug his shoulders and throw in the towel.

"I'd imagine it's frustrating," says Lakers guard Brian Shaw. "Our team, this year, we had to labor more. Maybe teams thought we would go down, so yeah, that might be frustrating. The last two teams, we were able to get on rolls and runs and everything went real smoothly. It was more clear-cut that we were going to win the championship. This year, nothing came easy for us. But still, here we are. I am sure other teams are wondering what they should do."

Actually, every team around the league knows exactly what it should do -- find another O'Neal, or as Nets coach Byron Scott quipped during The Finals, "If Mrs. O'Neal and Mr. O'Neal are around, if they can make one more for me, I'd really appreciate it." Breeding players is, of course, a far cry from what a team can do. Realistically, organizations might be best following Fisher's advice: have patience, wait it out until O'Neal, 30, begins to decline or retires, a notion he talked about this season. Get started on that four-year plan.

"Everybody knows what it takes to win, but it is just hard to get all of the pieces together," says Nets senior vice president Willis Reed. "The Lakers have the pieces. You can fill out most of the other positions, from power forward and small forward on down to the guards, but when you need that one, special player with unique skills to put against Shaq at the center spot, it is basically not around. So, we know what to do, but we just don't know what we can do about it."

Don't feel too badly about that, Mr. Reed -- you're not alone.

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak sat in the stands at Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey for Game 4 with his old coach from his days at Brentwood High School on Long Island. When the game was over, and the hugs and high-fives began yet again for the champion Lakers, Kupchak peeked at the clock: 11:55 p.m. While making their way to the floor, the coach piped up with a bit of news, as if Kupchak did not already know, "You got a lot of work to do this summer, don't you? What do you have, seven free agents?"

Kupchak checked the time again: 12:10 a.m. "Coach," he said. "It has been 15 minutes. Can I enjoy this?"

But the coach is right. Kupchak does have work to do this summer, and as many as seven Lakers could be free agents. The team probably will cut ties with two of them, Jelani McCoy and Richmond, and Hunter is unlikely to exercise his opt-out clause. Shaw is 36 but can be signed cheaply and still provides a valuable steadying hand for the team. The tougher calls will come on Walker, who probably will exercise his option, Devean George and restricted free agent Slava Medvedenko. There's also the draft and the free-agent market. With early estimates of next year's luxury-tax threshold at about $60 million, the Lakers will have more room to pursue free agents.

Still, the Lakers' starting five is under contract through 2004, and the two featured cogs, O'Neal and Bryant, are signed through 2005 (Bryant will be offered an extension this summer), so don't expect opposing general managers to send sympathy cards to Kupchak this summer. "Theirs is obviously an enviable position," says Suns general manger Bryan Colangelo.

Kupchak acknowledges as much. Though he has work to do this summer, knowing his job is merely to plaster pieces around the Bryant-O'Neal combo makes things a bit less stressful. "When you look at having those two guys, what an incredible benefit it is to the organization to be able to start from there," Kupchak says. "If we do our jobs, and if I do my job this summer -- to surround them with players who know how to play the game, who know their roles -- then we should be able to compete and get back here next year, and in future years."

For everybody else, then, building a team in this dynastic climate becomes an exercise in patience. Outside of the Kings and Mavericks, no team seriously can speak of dethroning the Lakers in the next handful of years, and this is the reason even successful teams such as the Timberwolves (the West's No. 5 seed in the playoffs) and the Trail Blazers (No. 6) likely will try to make major changes in the coming months. Getting to the postseason year after year is nice, but figuring out that a championship is beyond reach in the presence of a dynasty makes the whole thing like Tantalus reaching for water in the underworld.

Take the Suns, for example, who started dismantling their team last summer with the realization that, though they had made the playoffs 13 consecutive times and had won 50 games 10 times in that span, they were not going to crack the upper echelon of the West and certainly would not challenge the Lakers for a trip to The Finals. So, they blew up the roster, shipping out veterans and collecting a couple of draft picks and younger players in an effort to start over.

"As we saw it, we were somewhat locked into a position," Colangelo says. "We were winning 50 games and we had a pretty good team, but we were not seeing a lot of fan reaction, and we were not having much success in getting past the first round of the playoffs. And we were clearly not on the Lakers' level. So we made a concerted effort to change things. We knew there would be pains along the way, but we are hoping in a couple of years we come out with better opportunities."

Seattle is in the midst of a similar process. After years of being one of the top teams in the West, the Sonics shifted toward youth and were the youngest team in that conference's playoffs. Considering this Lakers run could go another three or four years, teams such as the Sonics and Suns are wise to build around players who should be blossoming around that time.

"I think we can safely call the Lakers a dynasty now," Sund says. "In a sense, we are biding our time, hoping that we can watch our young guys develop and hoping that, when they do, the teams ahead of us will be on the way down. You never stop trying to improve your team, but you have to be aware of where the rest of the league is, too."

At least, you have to be aware of where the Lakers are -- atop the league, again, and not showing an inclination to slide back down. As Reed says, "It's impossible to tell where it will end. Where this Lakers team goes in history, they will control that themselves."

Mr. Fisher agrees, which is why he advises the rest of the league to look to the future -- the present is gold and purple. "We'll be back here," Fisher says. "There is no reason for us not to expect to win again next year. Our competition has always been ourselves, as evidenced by these playoffs. If we challenge ourselves, we will win."