Can Lakers Repeat? Can Lakers Repeat?
PALM DESERT — So this is the basketball season. It doesn’t much feel like it. Even for the NBA champions, it’s still 100 degrees in the shade. That much hasn’t changed since the Lakers were here in training camp a year ago.
But there is definitely something new under the desert sun for the Lakers.
Byron Scott, wearing a pair of sunglasses even though he is still inside the gym, saunters past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who has chosen a UCLA football jersey as his post-practice attire.
Mike McGee orders Larry Spriggs to fix his lunch. Spriggs lofts a bag of dirty laundry that plops to the gym floor at McGee’s feet.
Sitting on the sideline, Magic Johnson watched the kidding going on around him and nodded.
“This is a loose team,†he said. “That’s the only way we know how to play.â€
The Lakers are having a good time getting ready for a season in which they will try to accomplish something that no other NBA team has done in 16 years, the length of Abdul-Jabbar’s career.
The Lakers will try to repeat as NBA champions. Can they?
“We’re the only team that can,†Abdul-Jabbar said.
He’s right about that. But at least the question the Lakers have to answer is different from last year’s at this time. Instead of, “Can you ever beat the Celtics?†Now it’s, “Can you repeat?â€
Last season, the Lakers were not a loose team, Johnson said. They played the entire year remembering how they had lost to the Celtics in a seven-game championship series, which they all agreed never should have happened.
But in this Laker camp, the heat is off.
“Things are a lot more relaxed,†Johnson said. “Everybody’s not on edge.
“Last year, we were on edge the whole season. We knew what happened to us in the playoffs. We knew it shouldn’t have happened, but it did.
“Then, it finally came and we won,†he said. “Now we can go and play hard and everybody won’t be looking over their shoulders. That’s what was happening last year.â€
There are already a few things happening this year, too. Two new players--one veteran and one rookie--are here to stay, and two other familiar faces are not. Maurice Lucas and rookie A.C. Green have replaced Bob McAdoo and Jamaal Wilkes in the front line.
The surprise player in camp has been Dexter Shouse, a 6-foot 2-inch point guard and the fourth-round draft pick. Veteran Ronnie Lester has the advantage of experience, however, as Johnson’s backup. Michael Cooper is returning to a more comfortable role as an off-guard after a season at the point.
Just about everything else is the same, although Coach Pat Riley has been forced to come up with a new evil distraction to warn his players about, now that the Celtics have been beaten.
Last season, Riley wanted to avoid talking about losing to Boston and advised his players to follow the same pattern. Riley told the Lakers on the first day of practice to watch what they said about whether they could repeat.
“I’m a firm believer in what you think and what you say is what you believe,†Riley said. “If you keep getting asked why teams don’t repeat, it’s the same thing as asking what it takes to lose.
“I’m not censoring them,†he said. “They can say what they want, but I’m not going to fill up my head with what it takes to lose. It’s a mind-set. I call it the peripheral opponent.â€
Riley’s theoretical opponent may be the one of the few that can beat the Lakers. It is probably an indication of how strong the Lakers are that they are more concerned about losing to mind-sets than to other teams.
With Lucas, an 11-year veteran with a reputation as a strong rebounder and defender, the Lakers improved a weak point, although they hurt themselves in bench scoring and outside shooting when McAdoo left.
Riley said that he’s concerned about how well the Lakers will shoot from the perimeter, but he expects Scott and McGee to do their share, with Johnson and Cooper mixed in.
Most Laker opponents guard Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy with two defenders when they have the ball, so it may be vital for the Lakers to score from the outside when the middle is clogged.
To Abdul-Jabbar, there are many factors that could prevent the Lakers from repeating, such as not making open shots when the inside men are double-teamed, but talking about it is not one of them.
“Talking didn’t keep teams from winning,†he said. “Talking is just speculation. We can win it again, but I’m not saying we will. We could have injuries, dissension and/or there could be sudden, dramatic improvement in the other teams.â€
Abdul-Jabbar said that all of the distractions are behind the Lakers now.
“We have nothing hanging over us,†he said. “We came back under a lot of pressure last year.â€
And even though the pressure is different this year, the Lakers do not feel like getting involved in any more than they possibly have to.
Can the Lakers repeat?
“You can’t answer a question in October when the answer won’t be known until June,†Scott said.
Laker Notes Tom Collins, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s agent, said that his client and Laker General Manager Jerry West will talk in the next day or two about a possible new contract for Abdul-Jabbar. “The Lakers have always had open arms,†Collins said. “Neither West nor (Laker owner) Jerry Buss are a problem. (Kareem) could sign something now, but it’s his option. Once he decides, the whole thing could be done in an hour.†Collins said that Abdul-Jabbar’s new agreement, if there is one, would be treated as a contract extension of his $2 million deal for this season, possibly with a raise only to keep up with inflation. “He could say, ‘I’ll just sign a two-year extension and at the end of each year I’ll decide whether to come back.â€
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