Bulpett: Lakers Champs; C's Mediocre

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

This article shows how important it is to have a quality front office...


Lakers' success digs at C's fans: LA hoists another trophy while Green
still mediocre
by Steve Bulpett 
Thursday, June 22, 2000


The result of the NBA Finals had to be a disappointment to Celtic fans -
on more than one count.

The fact Shamrock legend Larry Bird took the loss as Indiana Pacers
coach had to be troubling enough, but the Los Angeles Lakers
championship was no less than another bitter pill.

The Lakers were able to reconstruct themselves twice since the glory
days of the 1980s, while the Celtics have been the basketball equivalent
of the Big Dig. The project has been plagued by poor management and cost
overruns.

And though it is a virtual certainty cars will one day maneuver through
an underground Central Artery, there is no such guarantee the Celtics
will rise to the status of contender.

The Celts can curse the fates that stole Len Bias and Reggie Lewis from
their hands, but the Lakers have had their share of troubles (Magic
Johnson contracting HIV) and have managed to bounce back regularly. They
were good after the Celtics faded in the '80s, they changed on the fly
and got back to another Finals in 1991 and they returned to major
prominence this season.

Meanwhile, the Celtics drifted down the mountain and have remained in
the Lottery Lodge. The secret to the Lakers' success is painfully
obvious. Vice president Jerry West and general manager Mitch Kupchak
have done the proper job evaluating talent.

``We've had some good drafts,'' said Kupchak, whose club eliminated
Indiana in six games to claim its seventh title in Los Angeles and 12th
as a franchise (Minneapolis has the others).

``I think there's a tendency for some people to say, `Oh, they got
Shaquille (O'Neal) as a free agent and they bought a team.' Which of
course is true to an extent. We had the lure of Los Angeles and the
connection to what he wanted to do. That's a big part of the acquisition
and what the team is today. But, you know, we had to have certain pieces
in place in order to do that.''

While the Celtics were selecting Jon Barry, Acie Earl and Michael Smith,
the Lakers were even finding players in the second round (Nick Van
Exel). Some players they kept, others they used for trade collateral.

``The bottom line is, if you have players that nobody else wants, then
you can't get anybody else,'' Kupchak said. ``You can't make room and
you can't make trades.

``We had great drafts when we got Elden Campbell and Vlade Divac and
Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel. So we had a team that was 50-plus wins a
year before we even got Shaquille and Kobe (Bryant). And with those
pieces we were able to make the trade for Kobe.

``I'll never forget the thing with Kobe. Jerry worked him out and he
gave me a call at home. He said, `Mitch, come over here. I want you to
take a look at this kid.' Then I walked in the gym and I could see
within two minutes what Jerry saw. He was just an unbelievably talented
kid. It was really a no-brainer to get him.

``The risk in the whole thing was trading Vlade, creating space and not
knowing whether or not we were going to get Shaquille. Maybe in
Shaquille's mind he always knew he was going to come here, but we never
did. We thought we were taking an incredible risk, although I'm sure we
could have gotten some player to fill in. We were talking to Dale Davis
in case we couldn't get Shaquille. Whether he would have come or not, I
don't know.

``Looking back, the first stroke of luck was Vlade Divac (at the end of
the 1989 first round, well after the Celts passed on Tim Hardaway to
choose Smith), because then we had a big guy that kind of carried us
over. Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) retired and Vlade came in and we still got
to the Finals. Then we had one real bad year where we didn't make the
playoffs and we got Eddie Jones.''

Kupchak doesn't discount the lure of LA, but the ability to identify
quality players and move quickly also was a key.

``I think Los Angeles is viewed as a desirable place to play,'' he said.
``And historically, the Knicks, Lakers and Celtics and more recently
Chicago, people like to play for teams in cities like that. I think
that's an advantage that we'll always have.

``But we didn't sit down five years before and say `This is our master
plan.' No one knew whether Shaquille was going to exercise the out in
his contract,'' Kupchak said. ``We didn't plan out five years waiting
for that. You can't do that in this business. But a year, year and a
half out we're looking at our situation and realizing that, hey, we're
going to have some flexibility down the road in this thing. We knew we'd
at least have an opportunity to get Shaquille or another top free agent.
So there was a degree of pre-planning.''

Meanwhile, the Celtic plans change almost by the year.