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A Rose is a Rose is a Rose. Or at least, he used to be.
Having waited lo these many months, Bulls fans are dismayed to see the All-Star Game come and go with Derrick Rose and the cavalry yet to ride over the hill.
(Forget the fans. How about fantasy players who stashed Rose last fall for a Spring Surprise – like me – only to learn the surprise is on them? So, please forgive me if I become hysterical.)
LIKE WHERE IN THE !@#$%$#@! ARE YOU?
Of course, the Clippers didn’t shop Eric Bledsoe.
If you haven’t been paying attention, no one ever shops anybody. It’s just that other teams call and you have to listen in the interest of improving your club.
Kind of makes you wonder how talks get initiated if no GM ever says, “Yeah, we called them up, asked for Kevin Garnett, and offered them Eric.”
Not that the Celtics were shopping KG, either, but Danny Ainge had to listen in the interests of his club, too.
Just what the Lakers needed – a new era.
For the Lakers, the old era was paradise, from 1979 when Jerry Buss bought the team and as his first official act got to draft Magic Johnson.
The team that went 1-for-9 in the Finals in its first 20 seasons in town and lost all seven meetings with Boston made 16 more Finals and won 10 more titles in the next 30 years, replacing the Celtics as the NBA’s dominant franchise from that point.
There have been three true NBA dynasties, but only one that is attributable to an owner. Red Auerbach, a coach and general manager, gets all the credit for Boston’s dominance in the 1960s; Michael Jordan merits the same in Chicago for his pair of three-peats with the Bulls, and Jerry Buss, who died Monday at age 80, deserves major props for what he did with the Lakers.
And what a first half it was!
Even crushing the Thunder in Oklahoma City to finish it on a 7-0 run left the defending champion Miami Heat with the No. 3 record, although – unlike the days when every misstep prompted charges that LeBron James was a choking mercenary – there was no outcry at all.
Bron ended that with last year’s title before going to heights he hadn’t even been to – and no one else may have – scoring at least 30 points and shooting at least 60 percent six games in a row.
In the classy part, James let it end in garbage time against the Thunder, missing his last shot to dip under 60 percent at 14-of-24, while going for 39 points, 12 boards and seven assists.
