PROTECT THE PAINT

Protect the Paint brings you some images of yesterdays Championship Celebration from the Los Angeles Colesium.

Fans lined the streets for a 2 plus mile span,  adoring their heroic Lakers, celebrating the winning of the franchise’s 15th title.

The Lakers home court from the Staples Center was installed in the Los Angeles Coliseum grounds, adding a classy touch bringing their home court to the event.

Sun Yue made some history of his own this season being the first Chinese born player to ever win an NBA title. Although he did not play a single second of the playoffs  you know that it still has to burn up Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian inside just a little bit.

Los Angeles Team Executive Magic Johnson made his standard Lakers appearance. If he was up there, why wasn’t Kareem Abdul Jabbar??? Kareem has been monumentally instrumental in refining Andrew Bynum’s all around game. Bynum expressed a look on his face of a young man ready to fulfill his destiny in the middle for the Lakers for years to come.

Phil Jackson was wearing his ugly yellow “X” hat,  marking Jackson surpassing legend Arnold Jacob “Red” Auerbach’s 9 titles as an NBA head coach with the Boston Celtics with 10 of his own. Jackson  displayed a bittersweet expression leading one to feel as if this celebration was echoing on Charles Barkley’s comments on how Jackson would not return next season.

Can the Los Angeles Lakers win if Phil Jackson retires? It is hard to say. However, wasn’t everyone recently claiming Kobe Bryant could not win without Shaquille O’Neal? We all know how that turned out now, don’t we?

The thing that struck me with the most curiosity while watching though was another idea far away from the celebration at hand.

Looking at that massive coliseum I started to think about October 12th, 2008, when I attended the  Phoenix Suns vs. the Denver Nuggets at The Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Thinking about it, 95,000 plus fans for an outdoor game in beautiful Los Angeles weather would make for an amazing outdoor day game event. It would present an opportunity for folks with lesser income to actually attend a Lakers game.

Just a thought, but after viewing the Lakers Championship  celebration, it seems very tangible, profitable and appealing to me.

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