Lakers in a landslide

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

ESPN does this thing where they get together a bunch of basketball experts that vote on the NBA conference teams to see who will end up in the NBA title game.

Well, this was a tough vote. The Los Angeles Lakers won in a landslide. Geez that is hardly news. The champs added Ron Artest to the lineup and resigned Lamar Odom and those two are just bit players on that team. You have to recognize that the Lakers are Kobe Bryant’s team first last and always. Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum give them plenty of size and firepower to go around. On a pure team basis, maybe only the Boston Celtics come close in overall talent.

On paper, the multifaceted Artest is an upgrade, of course, even over a talented player like Trevor Ariza, whom Artest is replacing as the Lakers’ small forward and defensive stopper. But Ron-Ron has a well-earned, well-known rep as a disruptive, often maniacal force: Just four months ago, he was ejected twice in the playoffs versus the Lakers.

The offseason has been no quieter. Stories emerged about Artest visiting the Lakers’ shower in Boston unannounced to address Kobe while Artest was a member of the Sacramento Kings, and taking a team bus in his underwear while with the Houston Rockets, both incidents happening in the past 15 months. Then there was his head-spinning torrent of tweets and a bizarre rap tribute to Michael Jackson, for whose album “Thriller” Artest selected his latest uniform number and latest Twitter name, ThugRaider37, replacing his former moniker, 96TruwarierQB (Google it), which itself was a small reminder of what took place at his previous stop, Indiana, which was very eager to move him to his next destination on his one-of-a-kind NBA journey.

Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between the Lakers and Ron-Ron? Could Artest play the tough-guy role that Dennis Rodman perfected for three Bulls championship teams under Phil Jackson? Sure.

But all in all, it’s quite a roll of the dice by a team that was sure to be favored to win it all anyway.

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Will Ron Artest upset the Kobe Bryant apple cart?

Not to be counted out the San Antonio Spurs received the second most votes and any team with Tim Duncan can never be counted out. The Spurs picked up Richard Jefferson, but the rumored pickup of Rasheed Wallace never happened. Perhaps if the Wallace deal had taken place the Spurs would have received many more votes.

For now, unless Ron Artest explodes the Lakers, it appears the Lakers are the team to beat in the West.

Image: Zuma Press

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.