“Those new stars on the Lakers— Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant—have got me thinking about the 1980’s Lakers Showtime Era.
In the Showtime Era you had a big man, an incredible center—essential in the quest for an NBA championship team. Houston has Hakeem Olajuwon, Philadelphia had “Dr. J” or Julius Erving and the Lakers had Lew Alcindor, who took the Muslim name Kareem Abdul Jabar in the 80’s. Like Kareem, Shaq can control the boards. He can score easily around the paint and is an excellent shot blocker and defender.
Every good team needs a point-guard. The Celtics had Larry Bird, Chicago has Michael Jordan and the Lakers possessed Magic. Magic Johnson was never brought to the Lakers to score; they had enough shooters but not enough passers. After his broken wrist heals, Kobe Bryant will fit good in this situation. He’ll probably be a swing man with a lot of opportunities to feed the ball to his teammates at different angles on the court. Bryant can see the court and explode to the basket with or without the ball, just like Magic.
When I think of shooting guards, I think of the people who can pull off the long-range three-pointer: Norm Nixon and Nick Van Excel. Excel and Nixon have the same style of basketball. They both could penetrate to the hole and break down their opponents’ defense and score at will. They are crowd pleasers and can change the whole tempo of the game with a single play. I look forward to seeing Van Excel shadow boxing back down the court.
In order to get rebounds or get the ball down to your center, you often have to go through a third person—your forward. On the Lakers 80’s team the man they went to the most was “Big Game” James. James Worthy was one of the most exciting players to watch in his time. If you give him the ball he’d do something special with it—the big shot or the stop. Eddie Jones reminds me of Worthy in a lot of ways. Jones approaches the game with seriousness. When he calls for the ball he already knows what he is going to do with it—but no one else does. He is not afraid to shoot the buzzer-beater or unselfishly pass the ball for a better shot. When defending he will post-up, take you to the hole or shoot right in your face just the way “Big Game” used to do it.
Last but not least is your fifth starter. Your fifth starter could basically be anybody; a guard or a power forward. For the 80’s Lakers, Pat Riley went with Kurt Rambis. Most people don’t even remember Rambis. He was never a star player but he was the hardest working guy on the Lakers team. He did all the dirty work. He dove for balls, he made the hard fouls, he took charges from some of biggest men in the NBA and he defended his teammates when they got into fights. In Elden Campbell, the 90’s Lakers have an exact clone of Kurt Rambis. The only difference is that Campbell is black. If you ever look into Campbell’s eyes you might think he is sleepy or not into the game. Not true. He gives 110 percent and goes home. What I really like about Campbell is that he is not a scorer. He is a defender. Although he can score, he doesn’t focus on that part of his game.
With this lineup, we’re in for a great season. This year’s team will be a running team looking for all the fast breaks to cash in on, like the Showtime Era. It’s the most excitement we’ve had since Magic retired and came back, retired and came back and retired again. The only difference between this year’s Lakers team and the team of the 80’s is that the team of the 80’s won FIVE CHAMPIONSHIPS and these guys are going in with ZERO and that’s what will be the biggest test of this team. Like sports announcer Chick Hearns says, the butter’s getting hard, the jello’s jiggling, the refrigerator’s closing, the light is turning off and this article is over.”
