First, I know everybody was talking about Kobe and whether or not he's a team player and has changed.  I could have written my entire Lakers synopsis on Kobe but instead, to those who don't know the answer as to what motivates Kobe, I ask you this.  What would his immediate reaction have been had David Stern announced Ariza as the MVP?  Of course I agree Kobe deserved the MVP, but the hypothetical tells you all you need to know about 24.

Moving on, the Lakers won the championship and I think it fitting that only Lakers fans and the talking heads (who are forced to say nice things about every team that wins a championship) have anything good to say about this team.  That got me to thinking, is it that the Lakers weren't that good and lucked into a season without a great team or is it just that there are so many L.A. and Lakers-specific haters out there?  After further review, I think it's a combination of both.

The Lakers absolutely benefited from Kevin Garnett's going down.  The Celtics still almost beat the Eastern Conference champion, Orlando Magic, even without KG.  The Lakers lost to the Celtics last season because Pau was too soft inside and Bynum wasn't there.  I think Pau absolutely took a huge step this year, but Bynum still wasn't there.  I know, physically he was there, but still.  This year may have been different with a better Pau and an emergent Ariza, but I still didn't like the match-up with a healthy Celtics squad.  Home court advantage would have been a bonus this season.  I was asked with a couple weeks left if I was worried about home court throughout the playoffs and I replied that as long as we had home court over the Celtics, I'd be fine.  It turns out that the Celtics wasted a year's effort because of KG's going down and the Lakers were the beneficiaries. 

I do not, however, want to hear that the Cavs could have done anything to the Lakers.  The Cavs were exposed because they have nothing in the middle.  I love that they think an aging Shaq will help.  That's cute.  Shaq may help convince LeBron that he's not the Messiah.  Other than that, Cleveland is still missing multiple pieces as was evident against Orlando.  But for a lucky shot by LeBron they would have gone down 0-2 before headed to Orlando.  As it was, the Cavs were nowhere near up to par as far as championships go.  Danny Ferry is a horrible GM and they're stuck with Mike Brown for another season because you can't fire the reigning coach of the year.  The Nuggets are intriguing.  If they can turn J.R. Smith either into a good player by playing with Chauncey or trade him for someone who doesn't play with his finger permanently on the shoot button, the Nuggets could be very good. 

The real losers as far as bad luck goes?  Houston.  They match up perfectly with the Lakers.  As a Lakers fan I believe I said that they were the team that scared me.  They have Battier and Artest, both of whom can get away with single coverage on Kobe.  They have Yao who can play with Pau/Bynum inside.  More importantly, they punished the Lakers for having Fisher on the floor.  Aaron Brooks exposed him.  I think that if Yao can stay healthy that Houston could be a dark horse to win the title next year.  Don't get me wrong, I still like my Lakers headed into next season provided we do some off-season re-signing, but Houston would have to be the scariest team in the west after the Lake Show. 

As to the L.A. Laker haters, you guys are all hilarious.  I'm not even talking about the ones in other cities.  If you live in New York, Chicago, Boston, D.C., Denver, etc., then you have every right to hate L.A.  We don't like your city either.  I'm talking about the people who reside in Los Angeles who not only hate the Lakers, but clearly hate L.A.  I call this the Michael Moore syndrome.  Michael Moore lives in the U.S., earns U.S. dollars, sees U.S. doctors, etc. and spends all of his time bashing the U.S.  Um, buddy, if you hate this place so much then why don't you just leave?  I got that same feeling after the Lakers won the title.  All of my friends in L.A.'s facebook status (sorry, I haven't graduated to Twitter) were either euphoric (friends born and raised here) or absolutely bashing Los Angeles (friends who moved here), the Lakers, or the fans who were partying a little too hard outside Staples Center.  Of course lighting stuff on fire in the streets is wrong, but I thought it especially telling when so many people currently living in L.A. chose to take the time to make bashing L.A. their facebook statuses.  I counted at least a dozen and I don't have too many friends living here who weren't born here.  So my question remains, if this place is so bad, why are you here?  You graduated school a while ago, nothing's keeping you here.  Your family's not here.  I don't get it.  Is it the weather?  The better job?  The standard of living?  The nightlife?  Me?  If it's any of those or any other number of reasons as to why you live here, then why the need to bash the city and its inhabitants?  Don't those qualities make for a good city and contribute to why you're here?  This L.A. hatred isn't limited to sports.  People who come to L.A. from another city love to bash it.  I hope that wasted energy is getting all of these people some good stress release points but again, nobody's forcing you to stay here. 

For the rest of us, it was a nice end to a great season.  The Lakers are once again champions and Lakers fans can celebrate at a parade (paid for by donors by the way) in the city and team's honor.  I know this was a pretty disjointed column, but the moral of the story is:  I love L.A.