By Matt "Money" Smith
FOX Sports West and PRIME TICKET
MONEY ARCHIVE
While watching the Lakers-Heat game on Christmas day, I surmised there was a collection, perhaps somewhere between 3 - 5% of those in attendance at STAPLES Center, who had just discovered they were heading to the game that morning.
The ultimate gift for the Lakers "super fan" waiting for them under the tree, in their stocking, or that ever surprising, "oh, here's one more gift that we seem to have overlooked."
Sadly, like so many presents I remember from my childhood, they were burned.
Thing is, for those who dropped the (reportedly) $500 (average) for a ticket to get into the building, you would think they had learned their lesson by now. I never forgot how crappy Erector Sets became once they shifted their materials to plastic and used some pesky rivet gun instead of the metal/nuts/bolts combination. Mom went with Mega Bloks instead of Legos once.
With a pathetic 4-7 record on Christmas Day while making his bones as head coach, Phil Jackson has proved your hefty investment in attending the "big game" on the biggest of days is far from money well spent.
Just think of all the delicious technology you could have purchased in lieu of a couple seats at a performance that led Kobe Bryant to say, "I think these games mean more to our opponents than they do to us."
For what some paid, an iPad or even MacBook could be in your hands right now. If you like video games, you could have styled yourself out with the XBOX 360, PS3, or Wii console and a decent sized television to play them on. Instead you got another LeBron James domination of the Lakers on Christmas day, and a Lakers team that essentially played up to the expectations that Jackson had set earlier in the week.
After Bryant and the entire team were completely dominated by a Heat squad that has now won 14 of 15 games, he got himself a head coaching gig for Christmas, and shared with the assembled media what he would be getting his teammates.
"I'll kick some [tail] in practice," Bryant said. "I'm going to beat it into their heads until it gets through."
We know the type of effort and result Bryant enjoys and expects, so take some solace in knowing as much as the performance might have upset you on Christmas, he experienced those feelings 10-fold. Bryant wasn't hiding his displeasure with his teammates one bit while running up and down the court. Jawing with Lamar Odom, shooting one nasty glare after another Pau Gasol's way following each miscue, Bryant treated the bench as though they were the unwanted in-laws that weren't invited to Christmas brunch and showed up unannounced. If Jackson was trying to make the point that these games don't matter and are nothing more than a gimmick, Bryant clearly wasn't listening.
The Lakers as a team got some pretty awful gifts for Christmas.
Bryant, who's well aware of his position in the pecking order of NBA superstars, can't be happy knowing James has nearly doubled up Bryant in their head-to-head meetings, running his record to 9-5. Gasol got his subscription to Jackson's doghouse renewed; "he's just kind of lollygagging" was the post-game comment from coach. The Lakers are now 4-7 on Christmas day under the watch of Jackson and some would point out Michael Jordan's Bulls were 7-0. With the victory, the Heat are likely going to dominate the conversation in the national media as having figured "it" out and must be the team to beat come playoff time. The Lakers, meanwhile, are cheating themselves and the fans, thanks to a lack of max effort during the regular season, resting on their laurels and two consecutive championships.
Because it is a season of hope, while you can't get a refund for the Lakers' effort that took some Christmas cheer from the 25th, with enough KB24 butt kicking, you'll forget about the bust of a gift in less than six months when you get your early summer present around mid-June.
Matt "Money" Smith can be heard Monday-Friday on The Petros and Money Show on FOX Sports Radio's KLAC-AM 570 from 3 pm to 7 pm (PT).
