A Victory Marred by Violence

A whoop of joy erupted across Southern California Monday night as the Lakers secured the NBA championship, but the elation was quickly marred by violence.

Outside the Staples Center, crowds torched two police cars and another vehicle, set bonfires and burned T-shirts and posters moments after the Lakers’ 116-111 victory over the Indiana Pacers in Game 6 of the NBA finals.

When police on motorcycles tried to clear 11th Street in front of the center by forcing the crowd onto the sidewalk, fans threw bottles and other objects. An hour after victory, a line of police in riot-gear began advancing on the crowd, which had swelled to 6,000. A line of about 60 police officers, 30 on horseback, began pushing the crowd away from the center.

One group tore branches from trees and stuffed them in a car before setting it on fire. Others pounced on and kicked a limousine stuck in the throng. About 10 minutes later, hundreds turned on an unoccupied TV news van parked on 11th street, shattering windows and trying to turn it over.

As late as 10:30 p.m., those inside the Staples Center could hear the buzzing of police helicopters overhead.

Those who remained at Staples to celebrate inside were out of luck for awhile. Security was allowing nobody out, and from the upper concourse level, facing Parking Lot 2, where the bulk of the spectators will be for Wednesday’s victory celebration, the view was of a long line of police with nightsticks drawn, their backs to Staples and facing down the milling crowd in Lot 2.

An hour and a half after the game ended, the fires were out. One had consumed the police car on 11th Street--a group of teenage boys had first kicked out its windows--and the other had burned a Reuters news van. All that was left flickering were a few newspaper piles near some Times racks at the southwest corner of Lot 2. Four hours before, it had been a hot spot for people buying souvenir papers and Times T-Shirts.

But elsewhere throughout the city, people wallowed noisily but peacefully in their victory--the seventh NBA title for the Los Angeles team, but the first in 12 years. In fact, the last national title won by a Los Angeles team in any major sport was in 1988, when the Dodgers won the World Series and the Lakers won the NBA championship.

Widespread Euphoria

In an area usually more Balkanized than the Balkans, the same euphoria erupted throughout the Southland in house parties and bar throngs, from busboys and patrons, cabbies and fares.

Lest her loyalties be mistaken, Ursula Barrios, 20, of Irvine had written “Lakers” and “#1” in red ink on her cheeks. “I’ve been a fan since I was five,” she explained. “This will give us a feeling of pride and unity. We are all be together because we all wanted the Lakers to win.”

The game attracted some who aren’t usually fans who were gathered at Champps Americana Sports Bar at the Irvine Spectrum. Sonali Jhurani of Irvine said she came out even though she doesn’t ordinarily follow basketball. “I’m just cheering the Lakers on because they’re the home team,” said Jhurani, 20. “This is getting all the kids off the streets and into the sports bars to watch the game. Winning is an honor.”

Tim Thompson, 53, president of a company in Santa Ana, said he got caught up in the excitement. “I’m a Southern Californian,” he said, “and this is a matter of pride. Basketball is getting a little more lively--you’ve got to root for them.”

For those who have been Laker backers all along, the moment was especially sweet.

“We haven’t had a team that did anything in a very long time,” said Lesley Johnstone, owner of a company in Newport Beach. “Finally we have someone to root for--a team to show that L.A. isn’t just a flaky city with fans who couldn’t care less.”

The victory, she said, will help create unity across highly diverse Southern California.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re black, white or Hispanic,” Johnstone said. “Everyone feels the same. It doesn’t matter if you’re from Newport Beach or downtown Los Angeles, this brings us all together to celebrate the energy, excitement and vitality.”

In Los Angeles’ Westwood seconds after the game-ending buzzer announcing the Lakers’ championship victory over Indiana, bar doors flung open, people burst into the streets, car horns began honking and shouts of “Whoa, yeah!” and “Kobe Rules!” echoed off the storefronts. “Boy, this town is going to party tonight!” said Ivan Arnold, a 26-year-old dot-com-er among a pack of howling, dancing fans streaming out of the Westwood Brewing Company. “It’s electric--can’t you feel it?”

You could hear it. From a parking garage at LAX, cheers and honking echoed through the cavernous levels at the moment of the win.

Jubilation and Vandalism

Outside the Staples Center, people climbed light poles and tore down street signs and stop signs and waved them in jubilation.

“We waited 12 years for this. It was one of the best games in the NBA! I love this game!” said Daniel Huerta, 20, of San Fernando.

Around him a surging crowd estimated by police at 3,000, held an impromptu party after seeing the game on a giant outdoor screen outside the arena. They came with babies, lawn chairs, bullhorns and beer. Victory sent them into screams of happiness. Fireworks exploded and helicopters swarmed over head.

Dale Gardener, 37, from South-Central, turned to look at a screen with Shaq’s huge mug on it. “Big man finally got a ring!” Gardener said.

It’s been that way all week.

For the duration of the NBA Finals, the Staples Center has marquee blinked in the smoggy haze like a lighthouse beacon in a foggy port: GO LAKERS! Above the traffic of the Santa Monica and Harbor freeways, it proclaimed the sentiment surging through every neighborhood, as the Los Angeles Lakers powered through the NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers.

“There’s a kind of irony that a winning team still does give a sense of community, when people know the owners would just as soon take the team elswehere if they could make more money,” said USC sociologist Michael Messner. “There’s still some sense of ‘us’ there.”

When the Lakers played in Indianapolis Friday, the Staples Center showed the games on a colossal TV screen, turning itself into a giant rec room with pay beer. The 20,000 free tickets were gobbled up in eight minutes.

Something to Cheer About

Whether you measure your city by morals or infrastructure, there hasn’t been much in Los Angeles to cheer lately. With an ugly police scandal still unfolding and downtown streets ripped up to install brick walkways and fiber optic cables, Los Angeles has been a grim place.

Suddenly, the Lakers have injected an old-fashioned shot of civic pride into the city and provided a cross-cultural, multiethnic, economically varied point of reference, drama in fact, for all to share. Lakers chat drifts through banks and restaurants, the Westside and the Eastside. In a Huntington Park carry-out, a conversation in Spanish is peppered with universally understood words “Kobe” and “Shaq.”

It’s a city starved for a team it can wrap itself around. The football team is gone. The Dodgers were sold to out-of-towners. The Lakers championship win--something they haven’t done since 1988 --may inspire people to do more than paint their faces in the team’s colors. They may paint their houses purple and gold.

The Lakers’ championship bid has even had a calming effect. At the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, where warring factions of Latinos and blacks have sparred numerous times over the past several months, the Lakers run has eased tensions. Inmates who start trouble may lose their TV privileges.

“They seem to put aside their differences when there is a Lakers game,” said Sheriff’s Department Cmdr. Steve Day. “When they have a mutual interest, things are fine. We haven’t had any problems when the games are on.”

Coming Home to Win

Fans were undaunted by the Lakers’ 33-point loss in Indianapolis in Game 5. Some even guiltily wished for that loss so the Lakers could come home to win.

“I want them to bring it back to Staples Center so they can blow it out on the home court,” said Henry Cortez, 20, of El Sereno, had said Friday night after watching the Lakers lose.

He got his wish. Alas, Leon Lewis, the manager of the Townhouse in Inglewood did not. He wanted the Lakers to lose Monday night. “I want them to win eventually,” he said just hours before the championship winning game. “But it’s good for business if they lose tonight. Then I get everyone again on Wednesday night.”

And sweet as this sense of city unity is, it’s fleeting, most observers say. Darnell Hunt, a USC sociologist who studies race and the media, said, “These events distract us and do allow us to return to things we have in common--momentarily. But they don’t solve the underlying problems.”

No doubt thousands of fans will put off thinking about that until after the parade.

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Staff writers David Haldane, Mitchell Landsberg, Jeffrey Gettlemen and Bill Dwyre contributed to this report. More Laker coverage

CHAMPIONS: Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant carried the Lakers to a 116-111 win over the Indiana Pacers. S1

THE FUTURE: The Laker team that will defend this title probably will look different. Mark Heisler’s column. S4

PARTY WEDNESDAY: For those in the mood to celebrate, the downtown parade will wind up at Staples Center. S8

SPECIAL EDITION: On Wednesday, a look at the Lakers’ regular season and their up-and-down playoff run.