After 39 games, the 26-13 Lakers had a better record than the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the LA press was calling the Shaq trade a success since Shaq was now breaking down and the Lakers had Odom and Brown for the next several years to show for the trade. Andrew Bynum was starting to play like a mini-Shaq, and all was well for the 26-13 Lakers.
Flash forward just 40 something games and LA's season is over, Kobe is pissed and accusing the Lakers of not trying to win now.
Yet if one looks at the Laker's roster, their players match up really well to the Cavaliers.
Probably what hurt the Laker club more than anything else was the 10 cent head of Brian Cook who actually deposited his warm-up sweats onto Phil Jackson's lap! Phil's crime was putting Cook into the game for the first time near the end of third quarter. Phil immediately took Cook out of the game and Cook was seen arguing with Shaw over the incident!
Prior to that 10 cent moment, Radmonovich broke his arm snowboarding in Utah! Meanwhile, prior to that, Kwame Brown infiltrated a private party at a club and actually dunked some guys birthday cake all over the dude, a guy he didn't even know! Then Kwame did what a 10 cent head would do, he fled the scene in his limo. 10 cent heads can hurt a team, even a team that was 26-13.
Pile on all the injuries on top of the 10 cent heads and you have a Laker team in disarray on the floor over many situations that actually happened off of the floor. Now Kobe has gone on record as wanting to join the 10 cent head club by accusing the formerly 26-13 Lakers of not trying to win.
If you go up and down the rosters of the Cavaliers and the Lakers, the two teams really do match up very closely, yet the Lakers are viewed as underachievers, and the Cavs are just two wins away from the championship series. 10 cent heads can do that.
