Thanks for the Laker Memories

Quat-row sink-o.

Richard Sakai

Culver City

*

I watched the final seconds tick off. I watched Kobe shed a tear. I listened to Phil’s last words of wisdom of the season. I heard Robert Horry answer the tough questions with the class of a champion. I watched Mark Madsen struggle to put the whole experience into words.

I watched the postgame show. I watched the wrap-up show and the highlights of the interviews I had watched before. I didn’t want it to end. I love these guys. It wasn’t our year, but no fans are prouder than us to say, “This is our team.�

John Thompson

Chino

*

They’ve been criticized to the point of exasperation for selfishness, laziness and lethargy, but now it’s time to thank the Lakers for three-plus years of thrills and glory. What a run. Two games I’ll never forget are the Game 7 comeback against the Trail Blazers and the dagger -- dagger! -- to the heart of the Sacramento Kings last year. These Lakers can hold their heads high: They carried their legacy with honor and showed us, repeatedly, the pride and greatness of champions.

Jim Mallon

San Luis Obispo

*

Listening to the various Laker players in interviews after their defeat, I expected to hear the usual crushing disappointment, shock, maybe even a bit of trauma.

What I heard in their voices instead was something wholly unexpected: relief.

This suddenly explained a lot to me. Sure, they were outmanned, outgunned, outmaneuvered and possibly even outcoached by San Antonio. But the X-factor playing against them this time was will. The Spurs had it in droves. The Lakers -- perhaps understandably given the self-satisfaction of three consecutive titles -- did not.

Ray Richmond

West Hollywood

*

True Laker fans know the players have nothing to apologize for. They looked worn out from the opening tip of the season, but that is only because they have given us so much for the last three years. The Spurs are to be commended, but the Lakers are too. On behalf of true Laker fans everywhere, thank you, thank you, thank you. We’ll be there to cheer you in October.

Oh, one more thing about this season. God, please, anyone but Sacramento.

Greg Poirier

Santa Monica

*

Thank you to the Laker players and management for a great run. You only have to show up at Staples Center for a Clipper-Cleveland game to be reminded about just how lucky we are. Enjoy your summer and let’s start another run next year.

Jerry McCarty

Valencia

*

Failures demand that blame be assigned. So blame this one on Shaq’s indifference, Phil Jackson’s questions of mortality and Kobe’s game wavering from Jordanesque to playground. Blame it on injuries to Rick Fox and Devean George. Blame Robert Horry for standing around, waiting for a deflected ball to heave in, instead of hitting a jump shot. Blame it on fatigue, for the obligation of the greatest is to remain as great as they can for as long as they can. Blame Laker management for failing to ante up to acquire some reserve help in the off-season. Blame it on the defection of Jerry West.

Lastly, blame the Spurs. They reduced the Laker cachet to soot and they aren’t too bad themselves.

Tom Scarpelli

Northridge

*

Blame for the Lakers’ pathetic flameout belongs to so many people: to Jerry Buss, for picking the exact wrong time to tighten what had long been the league’s loosest purse strings; to Mitch Kupchak, for standing pat like a blackjack player with two treys who just has a feeling the dealer is going to bust; to the role players, who without that championship glow look far worse than ordinary; to Robert Horry, who is called upon to make one shot every 365 days or so and did not deliver; to a grossly out-of-shape Shaquille O’Neal, who is no longer the Big Aristotle or the Big anything -- except Mouth; and to Phil Jackson, who by failing to instill in his players enough respect for the game to play it right every time proved by example that the “heart of the champion� is, in this case, defective.

Jordan Chodorow

Los Angeles

*

We needn’t be surprised by the end results of the 2002-03 Lakers. Where we would’ve been surprised was if they actually had won another title.

The blame for this team lies squarely on the shoulders of Mitch Kupchak and Jerry Buss. It was clear throughout the season and playoffs that two versus five wasn’t going to work this year. The Lakers need to spend some money and get better quickly or this will be a regular occurrence. With tickets prices inevitably rising next season, take that extra money and spend it on players, not guests for your suite.

Geno Apicella

Burbank

*

Now we get to see if Mitch Kupchak is a real GM or if he just slept at a Holiday Inn Express.

Willis Barton

Los Angeles

*

The Spurs had the MVP, coach of the year, home-court advantage, dominant rebounders and a killer defense, plus, they won 10 more regular-season games than we did. What did we expect?

David Macaray

Rowland Heights

*

The first words you hear as a sophomore basketball player in high school are “block out.� When Game 6 was still on the line, Robert Horry and Shaq failed to block out, costing at least eight points. One of the main reasons the Lakers lost was because they didn’t play basic basketball.

Tony Medley

Marina del Rey

*

Memo to Shaquille O’Neal:

It counts in the playoffs. It counts late in the season. It counts early in the season. It counts in the preseason. And it counts in the off-season!

Lose some weight and come to training camp in shape next fall and prove to everyone you learned this lesson well. Laker fans, not to mention your teammates, are counting on you.

Jon M. Cortez

Long Beach

*

It’s unbelievable how the Laker fans started booing the three-time champions as the Spurs went on their fourth-quarter roll. Even more amazing was the exodus from Staples Center as the clock wound down, leaving scores of empty seats. True Laker fans stayed until the end of the game and gave the champs a much-deserved standing ovation. The ones who left early I’m sure were Angel fans last season as they started winning and will now root wholeheartedly for the Mighty Ducks.

Steve Bae

Glendale

*

Jim Gray has to be the most inane, insipid, uninteresting and tactless TV interviewer ever. His postgame ambush of Kobe Bryant on Thursday sank to a new low. Kobe showed a lot of class and restraint in his answers, at a time of great disappointment and frustration. I can only imagine that he was thinking something like, “Get that microphone away from me, you pencil-neck geek, or you will be wearing it like a hood ornament.�

Dick Van Kirk

Arcadia

*

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the deserving two-time MVP Tim Duncan and the Spurs winning with such style and class. Shaq, Kobe, the coaches, broadcasters and Laker fans should have to listen to their own derogatory and small-minded comments about other teams, players and fans. We are not hearing any of that trash from the Spurs. I, for one, will enjoy watching highlights of Danny Ferry dancing in June a lot more than the Mad Dog.

David Hatcher

Glendale

Were Kobe and Fish crying? There’s no crying in basketball. Did Magic or Larry cry on national TV after losing a series? Give the boys their Laker baby bottles and tell them to hit the sandboxes for the summer. I would never have believed I would see that. Next thing you’re going to tell me is that a team named after a movie is going to win the Stanley Cup.

Paul Yoffe

Porter Ranch

*

There are only two positive outcomes from the Laker loss:

1. No need to have to either listen to or look at Bill Walton for months.

2. No one can seriously argue when we say: Trade the Big Prima Donna for someone who cares!

Edward C. Martin

Santa Maria

*

Bill Plaschke’s writing makes me wonder if he’s being injected with estrogen semi-weekly or just once a week. What bothers me most is his habit of jumping on the first bandwagon that rolls by.

After the Lakers whacked the Kings in Game 1 last year, the theme of his column was something like “When’s the Parade?� Two games later he swore the Laker ship had sunk. On Wednesday, the morning after a near-miraculous comeback by the Lakers, he wrote that the magic was gone, that the stars seemed to be against the L.A. team.

If the Lakers had won, I’m certain he would have suggested we build a shrine to Kobe, Shaq and Phil.

Chris Tolles

San Marino

*

Maybe Coach Phil can spend the summer pondering this: If the Lakers never showed up for Game 6, is their season really over?

Mark Backstrom

Newport Beach

*

Medvedenko would have made that shot!

Michael Berbae

Dana Point

*

Now that the Lakers have been eliminated, will Karl Malone sign with the Mighty Ducks?

Howard Mationg

Gardena