Bryant, Lakers brace for next great rivalry

4892632-0-4

If you were around in 1970 and remember anything about it, you might recall Jerry West making a basket from 60 feet away that counted only two points for the Lakers, and Willis Reed dragging his injured leg onto the court for Game 7 of the NBA Finals for the Knicks. 

You also might remember Joni Mitchell singing about paving paradise and putting up a parking lot. 

You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone, and even though she was talking about Hawaii, that sort of reminds me of what’s going on in the NBA.

Kobe Bryant is starting his 15th season for the Lakers, five of which have culminated with rings on his fingers, including the most recent two. Granted, a big guy who sometimes masquerades as a genie had something to do with the first three. And that Phil Jackson guy, who remembers both Willis Reed (having played behind him) and Joni Mitchell (I’m assuming here, but most guys into Zen and whatnot are familiar with Joni Mitchell), is a pretty good coach.

But facts are facts, and the fact is that Kobe has five championship rings. And that LeBron James has none. 

And that Jackson will be retiring at the end of the season and that Kobe can’t play forever. (Or can he?) And that LeBron hasn’t shown the mettle to win a championship with a limited supporting cast.

In case you have been trapped in a Chilean copper-gold mine, King James VI (as in lost in VI to the Celtics) has joined forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. This is like the Riddler, Joker and Penguin joining forces in "Batman," with slightly less outrageous uniforms. 

ESPN essentially had to tell Central Florida and Marshall to find another day of the week on which to play football, because if LeBron is holding court in an exhibition game against the Clippers, or he’s goofing around during a shoot-around, or he’s clapping his hands together to make a big cloud of white smoke, this is must-see TV. Like "Will & Grace" and "Mad About You" and NBC’s old Thursday night lineup. Or HBO on Sunday.

As much as I’d like to see UNLV’s Joel Anthony get a ring for his finger by blocking the occasional shot, collecting the occasional rebound and hitting one of the Holy Trinity with an occasional outlet pass, this is where I point out that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, or whatever Aristotle said. Or that sometimes the whole doesn’t equal the sum of its parts, which is something Charles Barkley might have said, or Frank Caliendo might have said while imitating him.

I mean, take the Traveling Wilburys. George Harrison: Great. Bob Dylan: Great. Roy Orbison: Great. Tom Petty: Great. Jeff Lynne of ELO: Really, really, really good. Almost great. Put them all together, you get two pretty good songs and one pretty good album. That’s about it. 

Yeah, it didn’t help when Lefty Wilbury (Orbison) died. But LeBron could pull a hammy, and I just don’t see him dragging his leg onto the court for a Tuesday night game in Oklahoma City.

The Lakers and Heat will meet for the first time on Christmas Day and again on March 10, in a game that ESPN let TNT have, probably because it falls on Thursday, and that’s the night Jim Gray and Barry Bonds go bowling. 

Is this the start of sports’ next great rivalry? 

"We’ve had it with Miami, when Shaq was traded to Miami, and then it’s Cleveland and then it’s whoever the opponent is — Boston — who we’ve had in the playoffs," Jackson said Wednesday night before the Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings 98-95 in the annual picture-taking affair/NBA preseason game at the Thomas & Mack Center. 

"The Christmas game is always a big game. This year I’m sure the guys are keyed about it, because there’s a lot of anticipation because it is Miami."

And should the Lakers and Heat meet in the NBA Finals around the Fourth of July, it’s gonna be bigger than Bob Lanier’s old size-22 sneakers, bigger than putting all the trees in Joni Mitchell’s Hawaii in a tree museum.

Only they’re gonna charge people a lot more than 25 bucks just to see ’em.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352.