An Opportunity to Relive Best Hoops Show Period

When’s the last time FSN West aired a program that made you want to laugh and cry at the same time?

Laugh? Sure, Jack Haley’s wild stabs at scoop journalism can prompt a chuckle or two.

Cry? The “Best Damn Sports Show Period’s” sad attempts at humor ought to be enough to make any FSNW executive want to shed some tears.

Toggling both emotions -- and doing it intentionally -- is a tough thing to manage, at FSNW or anywhere else. Monday, however, the local network succeeds with its hourlong retrospective on the last 20 years of Laker basketball, “A Ticket To The Show,” to be shown at 10 p.m. immediately following the Lakers’ game against the Phoenix Suns.

Why the last 20 years? And why now?

Well, at its base, “A Ticket To The Show” is a promotional vehicle for FSNW, which is using the special to mark its 20th year of televising the Lakers. Don’t let that scare you off. The program downplays self-congratulation and emphasizes the phenomenon of how the Lakers became the city’s top sporting passion -- and, coming at this point in the Lakers’ most depressing season, it feels like a badly needed tonic for the town.

The show is part honor roll, part highlight reel and part list of the dearly departed -- such as Chick Hearn and Phil Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal. The segment on Hearn and his passing will put a lump in the throat of any Laker fan; on screen, Jeanie Buss and Rick Fox are seen fighting back tears.

The same sentiment accompanies the segment on how Jerry West assembled the Shaq-Kobe dynasty Lakers and why Jerry Buss hired Jackson to push the program over the top. As Buss explains in an interview, “We’d had Shaq and we’d had Kobe and we weren’t winning championships. And that was really getting on my nerves.”

So in came Jackson, and there went the Lakers, on to three NBA titles in three seasons, with montage footage of Shaq’s feeding Kobe for layups and Kobe’s delivering that lob to Shaq against Portland in the 2000 Western Conference finals now carrying a distinct bittersweet undercurrent.

Look again at what the Lakers once had, not all that long ago.

Can you believe how quickly and cavalierly they threw it all away?

Laker fans will watch this and curse FSNW’s timing. They will want to know why FSNW didn’t throw this thing together a year sooner and show it to Buss and Bryant in the spring of 2004, before they embarked on The Off-Season That Would Turn The Lakers Into The Clippers.

Many of the laughs are provided by O’Neal, who said he knew about the Lakers’ signing of Jackson before the announcement “because it was a deal that I orchestrated. I was the general manager of that team for a long time.”

O’Neal also assesses Mark Madsen’s hapless post-championship victory dance: “That was the worst dance I’ve ever seen by a man in the history of all dancing.”

Madsen, given the opportunity to mount his own defense, says he was simply “getting my groove on.”

Funny, that ugly out-of-rhythm dance looks like a thing of beauty now, certainly easier on the eyes than any move any other Laker has made this season.

Also available for viewing in the days ahead:

TODAY

* The Masters

(Channel 2, 12:30 p.m.)

Seeing as how CBS leaves its investigative reporters at home whenever it broadcasts the Masters, who is going to get to the bottom of all this rain that waterlogged the tournament’s first two rounds? Top two theories/guesses out there: 1) It’s Mother Nature voicing her displeasure over Augusta National’s membership policy. 2) The gods of golf evidently were deeply saddened by Billy Casper’s 106 in the first round.

Beyond that, look for CBS to wax nostalgic about the network’s 50th consecutive year of televising the Masters and the greatness of the Masters and the greenness of the winner’s jacket and the vivid tapestry of colors the azaleas and the magnolias and the pink dogwoods lend the storied course. In other words, brace yourself for a long weekend of flora and fawning.

* Kansas City Royals at Angels

(Channel 9, 7 p.m.)

Speaking of anniversaries, has it really been 20 years since the Royals won the World Series? Seems like so much longer. Back in 1985, Angels-Royals was a very intense rivalry in the American League West, with the teams combining to win six of eight divisional titles from 1979 to 1986. Then came the 1990s, and realignment, which saw the Royals head to the AL Central, and then go south.

* Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks

(FSNW2, 6:30 p.m.)

Those tuning in might find it difficult to believe that a) Shawn Green now plays right field for the Diamondbacks; b) Troy Glaus now plays third base for the Diamondbacks; c) the Diamondbacks won the World Series in 2001; d) the Dodgers won a playoff game in 2004.

* Chivas USA at San Jose Earthquakes

(ESPN2, 1 p.m.)

Chivas defeated the Galaxy in the opening-round local TV ratings battle last Saturday, pulling in a 1.9 rating with a 5 share, with the Galaxy managing but 0.2/0 on FSNW. This weekend, Chivas won’t have the advantage of playing on ABC. And if it doesn’t find a way to score, it won’t have the novelty advantage much longer either.

* Real Salt Lake at Galaxy

(FSNW, 7 p.m.)

Landon Donovan couldn’t cut it in Germany, but evidence suggests he’s already the Galaxy’s most valuable player. Donovan didn’t play in the team’s season opener in Columbus, and the Galaxy lost, 3-0.

SUNDAY

* Champ Car World Series

Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

(Channel 4, 1 p.m.)

Lots of buzz in the streets of Long Beach about this being the last year Champ Car will be associated with this event. Or maybe that’s just the noise the cars make as they swarm like killer bees around Long Beach Arena.