Letter to the Lakers and their fans

Warning: Long post

Letter to the Lakers and their fans

You Can’t Know What You Don’t Know

Lakers and their fans, I forgive you. After getting soundly beaten by The Rockets on Sunday you are “embarrassed, shocked, ashamed.” Well, I understand. You believe you “lost” to a team which is “inferior” or “a bunch of scrubs who wouldn’t even be playing in the NBA if they were on another team.”

You’ve been told by the national and your local media that The Rockets are meaningless. A “turrible” team with stars that are “weak, losers, can’t even get out of the first round.” During the season you rarely hear about the Rockets from your media. When they lose, you hear about the fantastic job the opponent did. When they win, you hear about the way the opponent “made too many mistakes, didn’t play hard” or the very popular, “had a bad night” or “lost a game they should have won.”

Conversely, you’ve been told over and over and over again that the Lakers are, “by far the best team in the NBA, unbeatable in seven games, with ‘the best player on the planet with Kobe Bryant.’” You were led to believe the The Rockets had “no chance, will get swept” or will never be able to hold up against the “awesome talent” of the Lakers.

The media believed what they were telling you. And you bought it. These are the delusions which come from being uninformed and unaware. I suspect the media people rarely watch Rockets games. Why bother? “Just show me the LeBron, Kobe, DeWayne, Howard, Carmello, CP3 and Lakers or Celtics highlights. That’s all that matters anyway. Right? Besides, The Rockets are a Texas team. And Texas teams don’t matter, right?

As a side note: the East based media has never forgiven The Rockets for defeating their beloved Knicks in 1994. Nor for having the audacity to sweep the Shaq led Magic in 1995. “ It was a fluke. They never would have won if Michael was still playing for the Bulls.”

As I said… uninformed, unaware, deluded.

Here’s why:

Those of us who have watched every minute of every Rockets game, usually more than once, know the truth. We’ve seen how great, how resilient, and yes, even how talented this TEAM really is. During the season we’ve seen absences due to injuries to Yao, Tracy, Shane, Ron, Rafer… and still The Rockets often win. You probably didn’t hear much about that… or didn’t care.

By the way, this is, at it’s core, the same Team that won 22 games in a row last season. At times without Yao or McGrady. But you and the media dismissed that, “they still couldn’t get out of the first round. The Rockets are irrelevant.”

We watched as Tracy McGrady struggled with what would eventually be a season ending injury. We watched Ron Artest and Shane Battier play, sometimes poorly, with serious injuries. We watched, in horror, reports about Carl Landry being shot in an attempted murder, car jacking. We watched as our starting point guard was replaced by a second year kid with minimal experience. And still the rockets often won.

The media told you about the “incredible” home record of the Utah Jazz.” FYI: The Rockets only lost eight home games all season. But the media only mentioned that as a brief side note. And you weren’t paying attention anyway.

Then, the media told you The Rockets would be “dismantled” by the “extremely talented Blazers.” And, “They can’t survive the loss of Tracy McGrady” or “even with McGrady, who’s never been out of the first round, they can’t match the talent of the Blazers” who had the Lakers number during the regular season.

Then, Mutombo goes down. Ending a fabulous career. Of course, you have no idea how hard this hit’s the Rockets. You never watch them and don’t know anything about them. You don’t realize that he was their heart and soul and a completely reliable and masterful warrior of a back-up to Yao. The media told you it was “sad, but irrelevant. The rockets never had a chance anyway.“ And you bought it.

And The Rockets won the series in six. As is usual, the media told you not how the Rockets “won” but rather how the Blazers “lost.” And you bought it.

You breathed a sigh of relief. The media told you, “the Lakers didn’t want to face the Blazers anyway. The Rockets will be a cakewalk. You’ll sweep those weak, untalented, undermanned rockets and skate to the Finals. Even if they happen to make a game of it, Kobe will take care of things in the fourth quarter. All is right with the world. All is as it should be.” And again, you bought it.

Then, The Rockets took game one. You asked, “How could this happen!?” The media told you, “the Lakers were rusty, Kobe was ill. Not to worry. The Lakers are way better than those hapless Rockets.” And you bought it.

Then, in game two the world was set right again. Lakers win. Never mind that they won with dirty play and brutality. Kobe sneers, “you can’t stop me.“ You think, “Gosh that’s funny!! And So True!“ The media told you, “That’s just the playoffs.” And you bought it.

In game three The Rockets play poorly and the Lakers win. The media said, “we told you so.” Never mind that Yao Ming broke his foot in the second quarter and continued to play… poorly at times. You believed, “Yao’s weak. He just doesn’t have the killer instinct.” and “anyway, the rockets never had a chance. We have Kobe.” The news comes out that Yao is finished for the season. And the media tells you, “it’s over.” And you bought it.

Then… on Sunday afternoon in front of a national Mother’s Day audience, those “untalented, weak, undermanned, posers” the rockets beat you down like “clubbing baby seals.” (quote from Clyde Drexler earlier in the season. I wouldn’t expect you to know that because you never watched The Rockets during the regular season. He wasn’t talking about this game, but the term applies.)

And now you’re, “shocked, embarrassed, angry, etc…”

Well, I understand. You were misinformed and uninformed. And you were told you were unbeatable and enTITLED… so to speak. You weren’t taught that education can’t come from a biased media source. Or that education breeds realistic expectations, while humility breeds determination.

I don’t know if The Rockets will win this series. The losses of McGrady, Mutombo and Yao Ming may be just too much to overcome. But you probably, at least, heard what Rudy Tomjanovich said about “heart.”

So, to the Lakers and their fans, I forgive you. You had no way of knowing what a truly great TEAM The Rockets are. What a truly great coaching staff and general manager they have. And most of all what a determined, hard working, skillful, intelligent bunch of top notch NBA players The Rockets are. On top of all that, they had a wise predecessor, Hakeem Olajuwan, who showed them that the way to win is to, “stay humble and stay hungry.” Something you were never taught… so I forgive you. You can’t know what you don’t know. Now, you do. Get ready… harsh reality on it’s way.

 

I cc'd to The LA times. Doubt they'll print it.

 

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