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Laker fans have known this for a long time ( , Jerry Buss even said, "God is a Lakers fan"), and it's something us fans of rival teams always intuited but never really accepted. Timvp was the first one on Spurstalk to throw his hands up in the air, proclaiming, "God loves Kobe Bryant," and by extension, the Lakers.
Consider this thread my Timvp moment. Ever since the Lakers hijacked the draft rights to Magic Johnson, (itself the result of a lucky chain of events) things just continue to fall into place for this team year after year after year. It doesn't matter what moves other teams make, who their rosters are, how good they're playing, etc. Lebron James and Dwight Howard could suddenly defect to the Celtics, Spurs, or Mavs, and you can guarantee that they'll get injured before the Finals.
Here the Mavs were arguably the best team in the league, playing very good defense and rolling. And with the addition of Chandler, many believed they were the Lakers biggest threat out West. So what happens? Caron Butler, their best perimeter defender goes down with a season ending injury.
Then there's the Celtics. The only team to defeat the Gasol-era Lakers in the past 3 years. Many believed with the addition of Shaq and Jermaine O'Neal, they were the Lakers primary threat to dethrone the reigning back-to-back champs. So what happens? Both injured. Then, in a move that leaves many Celtics fans scratching their heads, Ainge decides to trade away the team's best interior defender. You can attribute this to Ainge's stupidity or impetuousness or the FO's unwilling to pay, but it's simply the basketball gods looking out for their number one team again.
Moving on to the Spurs. I'm not a blind a homer, so I believed the Spurs had about a 20% to 30% chance to knock off the Lakers if they meet in the playoffs, provided the Spurs have HCA and everyone's healthy. Now with Duncan's injury, I don't see him being 100% for that series, which all but wipes out any chance the Spurs had, not to mention there's now a likely possibility that the Lakers could steal the number one overall seed.
Meanwhile in stick land, the Lakers are 100% healthy.
Now Lakers homers will definitely cite Bynum and Ariza's '08 injuries as an example of some of their own bad luck. Horse . If Bynum doesn't get injured in '08, I don't see Mitch trading for Gasol. They were first in the West (after playing the softest schedule in the league up to that point, with all of their losses coming to contending teams, so I don't wanna hear any Lakers homers saying, "We were good before the Gasol trade. He didn't take us over the top!!!11"), so I don't see the Lakers FO mashing the panic button at that point and making any significant moves.
Consider this my retirement post from Laker and Laker fan hating. It's futile to hate and wish defeat for something that has divine intervention on its side. It can't be beaten, no matter how much you protest. It's more prudent to accept certainty (Death, Taxes, and Laker Luck) than it is to expend the energy fighting it.
And I don't even believe in the divine.
