The Lakers earned their 15th title on Sunday night in Florida as Kobe Bryant scored 30 points and Pau Gasol added 14 and 15 rebounds in a 99-86 Game 5 win over the Orlando Magic.
For Gasol it is his first NBA ring, for Bryant, the series MVP, it was his fourth and first in seven years and first without Shaq.
For coach Phil Jackson, it was his 10th NBA title, thus breaking the all-time record he had shared with Celtic legend Red Auerbach who would light up a trademark cigar when he sensed victory.
“I’ll smoke the cigar tonight in memory of Red,” Jackson said. “He was a great guy.”
Jackson and Bryant have overcome their differences and are back at the top.
The zen master once called Bryant “a selfish player”, but now sees how the 30-year-old has grown into the team’s soul.
“He’s learned how to become a leader in a way in which people want to follow him,” Jackson said. “That’s really important for him to have learned that because he knew that he had to give to get back in return, and so he’s become a giver rather than just a guy that a demanding leader. That’s been great for him and great to watch.”
It has been a long time coming for the Lakers and their unquestioned leader. Bryant and his teammates had come up short twice in the finals before, in 2004 with O’Neal against Detroit, and again last season against the Celtics in the renewal of the league’s best rivalry. The Lakers were beaten in six games, losing the finale in Boston by 39 points, a humiliating loss that Bryant and his teammates had used as a driving force to get back at a title shot.
Title Shot
Though Los Angeles took the series 4-1, it was a lot closer than that. The Orlando Magic, after getting blown out in Game 1, forced two overtimes and just one or two plays from having the series advantage themselves.
The Magic had a great opportunity in Game 2 but rookie Courtney Lee missed an alley-oop layup in the final second of regulation. In Game 4, Dwight Howard missed two free throws with 11.1 seconds, and the Magic allowed Derek Fisher to nail a game-tying 3-pointer to force OT and then another to seal a Laker win and go up 3-1, a point where no NBA team has ever come back to win the title.
Orlando’s magical run, knocking off the defending champion Boston Celtics then the mighty Cleveland Cavaliers, just seemed to run out of tricks in Game 5.
Howard, the Magic’s mighty center, was hardly a factor in Game 5. He scored 11 points, took just nine shots and never got into rhythm. With the exception of a brief flurry in Game 4, Howard didn’t really get it going at all.
Rashard Lewis scored 18 points, but was only 3 of 12 on 3s for Orlando, which after living on the 3, finally died by it. The Magic went just 8 of 27 from long range and had been plagued by missed free throws and turnovers which led t a lot of easy Laker points.
“I thought our guys fought hard,” coach Stan Van Gundy said. “But they just had an answer for everything.”
Indeed it was a team effort that doomed Orlando. Van Gundy tried a lot of combinations including lots of minutes for his star guard Jameer Nelson who hadn’t played since February, but whether it was Lamar Odom’s hot shooting and rebounding over anyone Orlando threw at him or Trevor Ariza’s defense on Magic sharpshooter Hedo Turkoglu, the Lakers matched up well.
While LeBron James lays claim to the nominal title of the league’s best individual player, I’m sure he’d also trade in his regular season MVP hardware for the one Kobe now owns.
In perhaps the most defining season of his career, Bryant pushed the Lakers to a wire-to-wire campaign reign leading the Western Conference in the regular season, steered them through a rocky course throughout the conference playoffs and finally guided his teammates to winning it all in the NBA Finals.
Bryant’s performance in this Game 5 clincher best sums up his year – scoring 30 points (on 10-of-23 shooting) six rebounds, five assists and was simply the on-court zen master that took control at all the crucial junctures.
“Back-to-back” is vernacular that won’t be out of the question when discussing the Lakers for the 2009-2010 campaign, but for now “redemption” suits them just fine.
| Titles | Coach | Teams |
| 10 | Phil Jackson | Bulls (6), Lakers (4) |
| 9 | Red Auerbach | Celtics |
| 5 | Pat Riley | Lakers (4), Heat (1) |
| 5 | John Kundla | Lakers |
| 4 | Gregg Popovich | Spurs |
| 2 | Seven Tied |
What a run for Kobe. Monkey off his back. Phil’s stature is secure.
Cavs, Celtics..shows that it is a long road to get to the finals so one needs luck, depth and determination. The Lakers showed all of that throughout their times of trials.
Lakers will continue to be among the elite because of great ownership dedicated to being competitive.
Lakers rule!
My main man Kobe gets Shaq off his back.
What happened to rashard and hedo? they get burned out on 3′s or better D by Los Angeles? what worked for them against boston and cleveland did not against the lakers.
Now it is time for owner Jerry Buss to go to work and open those purse strings. Odom and Ariza are key re-signees.
Phil and company will be back in their core nucleus. The all realize not many players get in a situation where they can make a chmapionship run for several years. Rare air no doubt..
It is tough to return to the Finals, ask the Celtics but Los Angeles has the potential tools to do it again if they re-sign key players and avoid injury. Not easy
Sure seems like Kobe enjoyed winning this with Pau more than those with Shaq.