Laker Season Was Building to Anticlimax

And so they staggered not-so-gently into that good night, side by smelly side, one feeble hand clutching another, the Lakers and the Forum.

The former king and queen leaving like two bums through an alley.

The Great Western Forum ended its 31-year run as the Lakers’ home Sunday with cracked seats, chipped floors, dirty walls and bathroom lines that stretched the length of a full-court pass.

The Lakers ended their 1999 run with cracked hopes, chipped reputations, dirty looks, and remorse that stretched the length of a Kobe Bryant game of one-on-one.

When the buzzer sounded on a 118-107 victory by San Antonio over the Lakers, completing the Spurs’ four-game sweep in the Western Conference semifinals while closing the curtain on the Forum, fans were faced with a difficult decision.

Who should they pity more?

The team or the building?

We’re all tired of looking at both of them.

They are former greats who have fallen into disrepair.

“Fabulous” still applies to the Forum like “Showtime” still applies to this version of the Lakers.

Nobody was exactly sad to see either one go.

But at least the Forum has an excuse. It is an NBA lame duck. Next season, the Lakers will play in the downtown Staples Center.

The Laker organization is just lame.

After three seasons of enduring an overpriced and hyped youth movement, the fans have finally figured that out.

The loudest chant by the 17,505 faithful on Sunday?

“Ed-die, Ed-die, Ed-die.”

Yep, Jerry West. Your people were cheering for a player you traded.

“I think we should schedule an exhibition game here next year against the Globetrotters or Washington Generals,” West said, “so we can leave the building with a win.”

The loudest boos Sunday?

For Bryant, from the moment he was introduced and throughout his nine-misses-in-16 shots and three-turnover game.

“Kobe is only 20 years old, I didn’t appreciate the crowd booing him,” the Spurs’ Mario Elie said. “That wasn’t class.”

No offense, Mario, but you try spending money for the last three seasons to watch championship basketball, only to be told later that, no, you are watching growing pains, but you should be darn happy about it.

Kobe Bryant will be a great player here, and will probably lead the Lakers to a championship, and we’ll all be wearing his shoes.

But if I hear one more time that he’s “only 20”--when he’s played three full NBA seasons, more than many people play in a lifetime--then I’m going to choke on my lemon-lime soda.

Just as fans are so willing to cheer him when he leads this team to victory as he did twice in the playoffs against the Houston Rockets, they should also be able to jeer when he struggles as he did in the last three losses against San Antonio.

That’s just something else he needs to learn, right?

“To talk about this team being young, that’s a cop-out,” Glen Rice said. “We’re all professionals, aren’t we?”

Even that matter was being debated late Sunday afternoon, as the Lakers trudged through the carnage of three consecutive bad series losses to end the season.

Utah twice, and now San Antonio.

One win, 12 losses.

This year, even the Minnesota Timberwolves were able to take a game from the Spurs in the playoffs.

“We never envisioned losing four games in a row,” Derek Fisher said. “I didn’t think we were even capable of losing four times in a row to one team.”

The blame for this series loss does not rest with only Bryant, of course. Not even close.

If you mention Kobe, you have to mention his rival Shaquille O’Neal.

If Shaq wants to be the leader around here, he needs to figure out a better way to do it, and fast.

And if he can’t be that leader--maybe it’s just not in his kind nature--then he needs to stop worrying when somebody like Kobe tries to do it again.

You could blame Rice, but he never got any shots.

You could blame Derek Fisher and J.R. Reid and Robert Horry and Rick Fox, but that’s blaming your tardiness on our traffic. It is what it is. They are who they are.

You could blame Kurt Rambis but, well, dead horses and all.

Let’s move up, shall we?

Like the Forum they will no longer rule, Jerry West and Jerry Buss have been living on the fumes of their reputations.

Before plunking down one penny to see their team in the Staples Center next season, a few questions should be asked.

Will West acknowledge that this team needs a veteran coach, an established point guard, a power forward, and some of the tough role players that have beaten the Lakers the last three seasons?

He traded Nick Van Exel and acquired no immediate replacement.

He traded Elden Campbell and Eddie Jones and came up with poor replacements.

He gave big money to Horry and Travis Knight, who could both easily be replaced.

Will West learn from his mistakes?

And will Buss stay out of West’s way?

No more Dennis Rodmans? No more squelching trades for Mitch Richmond?

No more keeping coaches--like Del Harris--who should have been replaced the previous summer?

Before this San Antonio series, we all knew this town needed a new basketball arena.

We had no idea how badly we needed a new basketball organization to play there.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.