LOS ANGELES - There will be a team in their future that can guard the Lakers, maybe, but not for a week or two.
Every time the Utah Jazz lumbered its way into some sort of threatening position Wednesday night, some Laker got enough daylight to ram home another shot. It usually takes just a sliver. The window opened for Derek Fisher late in the fourth quarter, when he got a quick pass from Sasha Vujacic, stepped into a three-pointer and, of course, made it, giving the Lakers a 10-point lead that, just a minute earlier, was five.
The final was 120-110 and the Lakers rose to 6-0 in the postseason and 2-0 in the Western semifinals. It has the feel of a five-game series, and another break to watch San Antonio and New Orleans shed more blood.
This also was one of the few nights in recorded history when Phil Jackson was sincerely happy to see David Stern. The NBA commissioner is always welcome during playoff time because, more likely than not, he's in town to present the Most Valuable Player trophy.
And so he was, standing next to Kobe Bryant at midcourt with his patented everything-is-beautiful grin.
Bryant's teammates joined him when he picked up the trophy, with high-fives for everyone, as the two-day Kobepalooza came to its promised end.
And, everywhere you went, you were invited to review this incredible journey, from mocking parking-lot videos to Mount Rushmore in about 10 months.
Jackson, among others, was convinced he would never see this day. For one thing, there was hardly any assurance that the Lakers would be good for anyone else to be deemed "Valuable" to anything. For another, Bryant had become perhaps the most polarizing figure in a Lakers history filled with complex characters. Now the unrepentant soloist had made himself over into the team's touchstone, with a colossal assist from Mitch Kupchak, the general manager he'd campaigned against.
You want drama? This team should play at least one game a year at South Coast Repertory.
But, having coached previous MVPs Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal, Jackson contemplated the precarious life of an NBA Brand Name.
"I blame it on you guys, really," Jackson told the reporters, not entirely jokingly. "The great players wind up having to develop a hard shell."
Bryant, of course, was considered the Machiavelli behind the O'Neal trade in 2004, and then there was the Colorado affair, and the passive-aggressive display at the end of Game 7 against Phoenix in 2006, and his summerlong tantrum this time.
"I really think people had washed their hands of Kobe," Jackson said, "after the breakup of our team (in `04). They now looked at him with disdain and it was going to take a long time to recover from that."
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