The title of this entry applies both to my delay in getting up an appropriate posting honoring the purple and gold, as well as the one year delay in the championship parade that should have been held last year. See, that is how Laker fans thought of this trophy, as the natural progression of what started (and should have ended) against the Celtics. This was Kobe's trophy all along, and now he finally got it. I have no doubt, too, that it is exactly that attitude that makes so many people hate Kobe and the Lakers (and the Horns, and the Yankees, etc.).
Another interesting element of this championship to me is how different it feels from the G.M.E. (Greatest Moment Ever). The Lakers championship was not accompanied by the sheer elation of the GME. No raucous celebration, no leaping and hugging. While part of it was just the nature of the clinching game, part of it too was the sheer expectation of victory. There was more a sense of completion than there was a sense of the joy of victory. It makes me think that, no matter what we said going into the GME, I think most of us still didn't expect to win, and so the suprise was as compelling as the victory itself.
And that makes me wonder if that is not how the pro players feel. A sense of completion more than a sense of triumph.
Discuss amongst yourselves. I am feeling a bit veklempt.
And by the way, if you didn't see, Kobe was wearing a t-shirt with a puppet hand on the front with four rings on the fingers. Hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering when this post would appear. :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your victory.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You are just lucky that Yao got hurt...
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, it doesn't make a championship any less worthy when it isn't accompanied by a raucous celebration. In fact, one might argue that those "expected" championships are the most gratifying. The Lakers had a goal - anything less than a championship would have been a complete failure. But they did it, so kudos to them.
As for the GME, well, I'm confident when I say that nothing will ever top that. If/when we win our next football national championship, I know it will be a great day and a moment I will never forget. But nothing will ever be like January 4, 2006 ever again. That night had it all. 34 game winning streak vs. 19 game winning streak. Two Heisman winners vs. the best college football player ever. The Rose Bowl. It will never be topped...and I am perfectly fine with that.
Thanks for the congrats...I couldn't let such an achievement go un-posted. Must save the moment for posterity.
ReplyDeleteAs for your point re: the GME...it really is hard to construct a moment that could top that - even if we wanted to. ONe thing that you didn' mention is the 35 year wait between national championships and the absolute demand for championships among Texas fans. I think those things are big factors in how monumental a championship feels. No matter what, the Lakers championship is not as big a deal because we won one just 7 years ago. The wait had not developed into mythic status. The biggest events seem to be the ones where there is a mammoth wait and long-suffering fans (think Red Sox). In that sense, the next MNC we win will be slightly "less" exhilirating because it will not come off of a 35 year layoff.
Perhaps the only moment that could top the GME, then, would be one that comes after a huge duration of time between championships. Something like the Cubs winning (if we were Cubs fans) or Texas basketball's first ever National Title (depending on the other circumstances).
On second thought....nah, nothing is topping the GME.