WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1999

Lakers lack heart

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Los Angeles Lakers for such a pitiful season.

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Greg Hanson

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I would rather watch the Clippers, knowing that they are going to lose, than watch the Lakers lose every other game when they should be a dominant team.

If the Lakers had kept what they had last year, with the exception of Del Harris, they would have the best record in the league right now. The Chicago Bulls have been broken up and the Utah Jazz are good, but a year older.

The Lakers traded their team leader and their best clutch shooter when they got rid of Nick Van Exel.

Then they decided that in addition to getting rid of Van Exel's leadership, they would get rid of all of their defense and trade Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell.

Not only did they lose their defense in that trade but they eliminated the classic Lakers fast break.

Has anyone out there seen an alleyoop this season? No.

Jones used to run wild in the open court, slashing to the basket and skying to catch a lob pass from Van Exel that he would throw down for a thunderous dunk.

Just when I thought that everything had gone wrong, the Lakers signed Dennis Rodman. Finally they made a good move.

Rodman would grab the rebounds and play the defense that no one else on the team would.

He also brought much needed intensity to a stagnant team and revived the fast break with his 50-foot outlet passes.

Usually you would have to pick a number to see which Laker would inbound the ball after an opponent scored. Rodman wanted to throw the inbound pass.

But alas, the old Laker team came back when they waived Rodman. Who can blame him for not wanting to go back into the games? The Lakers were down by about 15 or 20 points each time he refused to go in. Why did Kurt Rambis want to put a starter back into the game in the fourth quarter when they were losing that badly anyway?

The Chicago Bulls allowed Rodman to be himself for three years and he helped them win three championships. The Lakers lacked the guts to keep him for an entire season.

Now we are left with a bunch of deadbeats who know how to score but have no defense or heart.

Great thinking - 100 to 110 points per game is great, but not when you allow the other teams to score 120.

With the scoring talent that they have, all the Lakers have to do is play a little defense and they can own every team in the league.

Right now it doesn't appear that they want to win that bad. None of the players seem to be angered when they lose by 20 points to the Jailblazers or when they lose to the Jazz or Seattle Supersonics on their home court on national television.

The '80s Lakers concentrated only on basketball. They wanted to win and they walked onto the court each game and blew their opponents away. They were rewarded with five championships in 10 years.

Until the Lakers get it together-if they get it together-put your money on the Utah Jazz.

Greg Hanson is a print journalism major.