Game Flea-view: Lakers vs. Cavs
Posted by Flea on February 10, 2007, 9:30 p.m. ET

the los angeles lakers will be playing a basketball game against the
cleveland cavaliers this sunday

hmmmm........

firstly, not to be overly subjective, but, it is clear that the
lakers are the good guys and the cavs are the bad guys
now that we've cleared that up
lets see how these teams match up

general managers:

the lakers general manager is the visionary mitch kupchak who trained
under the greatest gm of all time the one and only jerry 'zeke from
cabin creek' west...
the man who drafted andrew bynum who could possibly go on to be
mentioned in the same breath as the greatest center of all time, his
mentor, kareem abdul-jabbar
the man who has already rebuilt a team which will be contending for
an nba championship over the next few years

the cavaliers gm is danny ferry
let me tell you a little story about danny ferry
when he was drafted by the clippers in the 80's he did not want to
play for clippers and refused to do it
he went and played a year in europe rather than be on the clippers
he then came back to the nba the following year and ended up on the
cavs
now.......my friend bob forrest is and has always been a massive
clippers fan
when the cavs came to los angeles to play a summer league game prior
to ferry's first season
bob and i attended the game and walked down and stood at the baseline
bob was furious at ferry for dissing the clippers so blatantly
so bob and i went down there and screamed at danny ferry "GO BACK TO
ITALY YOU NINCOMPOOP!"
and various other witticisms we managed to come up with
the next day in the l.a. times it was written how danny ferry was
bothered by 2 manic baseline hecklers
bob and i were so proud
granted, we were young and foolish
i'm sure danny got over it pretty quickly though
i mean, danny ferry is the cleveland cavaliers general manager and
looks content in photos

lakers have the edge

Coaches:

the lakers have phil jackson for their coach
phil jackson is the 2nd greatest basketball coach of all time
2nd only to john wooden
he has won 9 championships, he just needs one more to have the most
of anybody ever in the history of the universe
he has won around 900 games
9 is a great number because it is three 3's
good things come in threes, like the past the past and the
future....the father the son and the holy ghost..........mind, body,
and spirit...........................
he is an intellectual and an author and a deeply spiritual man who
touches his player's lives in many positive ways, not just basketball
he is funny too
the cavs have a fella named mike brown
he seems like a nice guy
he was an assistant coach before this job

lakers have the edge

ok......wait a second
i started writing that a couple of days ago
a typical one sided pro lakers rant
yeah kinda funny, kinda obnoxious, whatever....
. but now, it is a new day and the lakers just stank it up hard in
detroit last night
man.......the pistons dominated them
brian cook had a tanty
that was lame of him
the lakers looked terrible
dissension in the ranks
what a bummer
and now i dont feel like writing my usual overly optomistic laker
drivel
that's the end of that
it's time for a new flea, a realistic look at the situation at hand
lets get down to brass tacks............

centers.............
the lakers have andrew bynum being backed up by rony turiaf or maybe
brian cook
the cavs have zydrunas ilgauskas and anderson varejao
i am typing while sitting in theback of a car on my way to rehearse
for the grammies so i have no access to stats or spellings nor do i
really know the cavs line up very well
i will do my best and go by feel
andrew bynum is more skilled than either of those cav guys but also
much more inconsistent than either of them
they have a good chance of pushing him around and throwing him
totally off of his game
the match up could go either way
varejao is an intense hustle player
i personally dont like the guy, i think that him breaking that greek
guy's face in international play was uncalled for
and i dont like it
but he is a hard hustler and i don't know who on the lakers could
guard him, or box him out, deal with him, our best match up for him
is probably turiaf
turiaf is an explosion of energy i bet those 2 go at it intensely
ilgauskas is a good center who can do it all and though i am sure
that one day andrew bynum will be better than ilgauskas could ever be
unless andrew has one of his great nights, right now ilgauskas has
the edge
hopefully turiaf and andrew can really get in there and get a lot of
boards
but i give the edge inside to the cavs

forwards
the lakers start lamar odom and vladimir radmanovich
the cavs have lebron and i dont know who, maybe they start mophead
varejao at the power forward, i dont know
oh, wait they have donyell marshall
for sure lamar is better than varejao or donyell marshall
in every aspect of the game except possible for the pure animal
hustle of the brazilian face breaking mophead
lamar is one of the best all around players in the game
and i give him the edge over those guys.....he can bring the ball
upcourt for crying out loud
and shoot from anywhere and drive the lane and get 15 boards and 8
assists with regularity
and he is a cool guy and i love him
i forgot about drew gooden for pete's sake
the guy is really good
the guy is good and has tenth of a mohawk on theback of his head
i still give lamar the edge at the power forward
our small forward the consistent and glue of our offense luke walton
is out
and radmanovich has been very inconsistent so i give them the edge
there
i am not gonna bring up lebron yet because he is in a category all
his own and the comparison is really between the 2 superstars kobe
and lebron
whom i refuse to call king james because until he wins something he
is king of nada

ok.......the crux of the matter
kobe vs. lebron
they are both transcendent basketball players
they can both do everything at the highest level
i think kobe is better than lebron for only one reason
experience
kobe has won so many games
been the hero so many times
he knows what it is and what it takes to win
he has also been humbled by life and by basketball
and because of this experience kobe bryant is a better basketball
player than lebron james
the only problem for kobe could be that this has been a long trip in
which he has had to shoulder the load for the team
he has had to carry a lot of weight on some nights
and it might be hard for him
but the if he can tap into the divine energy that makes him great,
tiredness will be no problem
do not think i am ignoring the greatness of lebron here
he is shockingly good, a manchild, a basketball machine, a giant of
basketball skills....
but kobe is a little better

lakers have the edge

at the guards not counting kobe we have smush and sasha who play,
they have both been inconsistent, up and down.... .......aaron
mckie and shamond never ever play
they have eric snow and i dont know who....gibson?
lets call it a wash
the lakers are at the end of a long road trip in which they they
underperformed terribly on some nights
whether or not they can muster the energy and focus to beat the cavs
i don't know
the road can bring a team together or they can crack
b cooks tanty the other night was a bad sign
and i hope the lakers can use these recent difficulties and
frustration
to see that all that matters, and the only way they can win
is to love each other and stick together and believe in each other
and that if they can live inside the power of the unity of the group
that they can face anything and be victorious

i say go lakers
lets have a good game

i'm playing at the grammies, gonna miss it
but at grammy rehearsal today i will be in the lakers locker room
which is our dressing room for the grammy event
and i will be putting out the pro lakers love with all of my gusto

p.s.......just got out of grammy rehearsals
hung out in the laker locker room!
cool!