Hot Rod Sees Flaws in This Year’s Model

Hot Rod Hundley played with the Minneapolis Lakers and on the first three Laker teams in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. He played with Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. So he knows an impressive Laker team when he sees one.

And he is not impressed with the Laker team he sees from behind the microphone in his role as a Utah Jazz announcer.

“They have more talent than anybody in the league,” Hundley said of the Lakers, who trail the Jazz, 2-0, in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals, “but they are too Hollywood to me. They are not in control. They are not very organized. They are like the Globetrotters, everybody doing their own thing. I don’t see too much togetherness there.

“Kobe Bryant is very talented, but everything with him is show biz. Every move he makes has got to be a show biz move. Shaq [Shaquille O’Neal] is show biz.”

What does Hundley see missing from this Laker team that he saw in the great Laker teams of the past?

“Leadership,” he said. “[John] Stockton is our leader, but they don’t have one.”

Hundley was quick to point out, however, that he’s not pointing a finger at the Laker coach.

“I think Del Harris is a good coach,” he said. “But I don’t think he has control of the team. I don’t know if anybody can control that team.

“You know, I was watching them warm up before the second game. You would think they had won the previous game by 35, not that they had lost by 35. You look at their faces as they warmed up. There was an entirely different look on the Jazz’s faces. The Jazz were intent. The Lakers looked like they figured, ‘We’ll just show up.’

“That kind of thing carries over into the game.”

While he might be expected to favor Utah, Hundley explained why he believes the Jazz has gained a decided edge in this series, which continues Friday at the Great Western Forum.

“They are smarter than most teams,” Hundley said. “They are very organized. They don’t give up, don’t lose their cool.

“When a lot of teams, like the Lakers, get down by 15, they start throwing up threes to try to catch up all at once. We peck away, two here and two there.”

Hundley also pointed out the obvious, that the presence of Stockton and forward Karl Malone makes a big difference for Utah.

“You have two of the greatest players of all time on the same team,” Hundley said. “That’s 40% of the starting lineup. They do whatever it takes to win, and that can carry over to the rest of the team.”

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Coach Jerry Sloan gave the Jazz Tuesday off. The team will practice today and Thursday before boarding a plane late Thursday afternoon for the trip to Los Angeles.