Zen Dude Should Appreciate This

Here’s a Phil-osphical question. If Phil Jackson just stopped showing up on the Laker bench, would anybody notice?

Gary Schwind

Huntington Beach

*

As a former Chicagoan now in L.A. for some time, I can only chuckle at the drubbing Phil Jackson and his Lakers get.

How can anything negative be said about a man who brings you three championships in the only three years he has coached the team?

Phil not “really coaching?”

Maybe as an ex-player and 10-time NBA champion, he has an understanding of the excruciatingly long haul that the NBA season can be.

Shaq “should have had his surgery sooner?”

So, Shaq wanted time off after his third championship in a row. Doesn’t he deserve it? Michael Jordan retired after winning three titles.

Maybe Shaq knows how to pace himself and store energy for crunch time? Maybe he, not us, has some idea of how to go about winning the Finals and, oh, I don’t know, maybe the MVP trophy.

Jerry Buss is “cheap”? Isn’t this the guy who put the cash together to bring Shaq and then Phil to L.A.?

Phil Jackson should be thought of as a god in this town. All Laker fans should be following Jerry Buss’ lead by offering up their daughters to him in deference to his greatness.

It’s a long time between dynasties.

Ken Campbell

Glendale

*

As a Laker fan going on 22 years, it pains me to say the following: It’s no fun watching the Lakers anymore.

Obviously, the losing has a lot to do with it, but there’s more to it than that. It’s the way they’re losing. Completely devoid of urgency or enthusiasm. No competitive fire to speak of, nothing to leave out there on the floor.

I came through the pitiful Randy Pfund era still bleeding purple and gold, which means I’ll never stop watching. But if the team continues to play with this same carelessness, this same lack of passion, then I’ll probably start greeting wins with a sense of relief, not a feeling of joy.

Or maybe I’m already doing that.

Paul Zemanek

Santa Monica

*

Memo to the Lakers: Now is the time to start defending what is yours and displaying this “heart of a champion” you so freely claim to own exclusively.

As a lifelong Laker fan, I will continue to support the team through good times and bad. However, if this team continues down its current path, continues to cry, complain and make excuses like the schoolyard bully who finally got punched in the nose, then I’m afraid it will risk tarnishing the legitimacy of all it has accomplished during this current title run.

And I, for one, could not stand to listen to Rick Adelman utter the word “asterisk” in reference to past Laker championships.

C.S. Aulerich

Chino Hills

*

Never, in my 42 years of living and dying with this team, has a club embarrassed a city and themselves like these Lakers.

Thank God Chick has been spared this treatment.

All together now ... 1-2-3, Cancun!

Joel Amsterdam

Los Angeles