El Vaquero

Issue date: 6/24/09 Section: Column

Kobe Bryant won MVP and led the Lakers to the NBA Championship for 2009.

Look, before I write anything of substance in this space, I'm going to just come out and say it: I love the 1990s. I miss that decade. The slap bracelets, the light up L.A. Gear sneakers, the "T.G.I.F." lineup on ABC, POGs, playing "Goldeneye 007" on Nintendo 64 with your friends until the sun came up.

You name it, I remember it. It was those things and much more that made my childhood a fun one.

Of course, being a sports fan, and an NBA fan specifically, what also made the '90s memorable was the NBA on NBC. The theme music was unforgettable. My friends and I would hum it whenever we were playing basketball outside (did you know John Tesh composed it? Yes, he actually has done something of merit in his career). I remember the graphics, the broadcasters (most notably Dick Enberg, who hasn't done a basketball game since God knows when), and the logos and jerseys of the teams, and the way they looked while I watched them on TV.

The one thing that was missing from that time though, was a Lakers championship. Surprisingly, they didn't win one in the 1990s. They came close a couple of times, but didn't win it. I grew up watching videos of Magic Johnson and became well versed in the Lakers' history through books and old NBA footage, just waiting for my time as a fan to come so I could know what it felt like to see the Lakers win a championship, like so many other Angelenos before me.

But that day finally came in June 2000, when Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal led the franchise to its first NBA title since 1988.

From a kids' perspective, that's almost forever. When that final buzzer sounded, it wasn't just a relief to the players who had waited several years to experience that moment, it was a relief to me. So this is what it feels like! I never want to stop feeling like this! All those years of unfulfilled potential, the three airballs by Kobe in Utah, it was all gone. We were champions. And really, there wasn't much else to say. Emotions speak for themselves at that point.

Fast forward to 2009, and the Lakers had won two more titles, but none since 2002, and if it's possible to be starving for a championship when the last one was just seven years ago, well, this city was starving for one.

So was I. I felt embarrassed by their Finals performance in 2004, and frustrated that they were weaker than the Celtics last season, as I had to watch the Boston fans celebrate yet another championship won against their hated rivals.

Continued...

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