It wasn’t really that easy. There was doubt and apprehension all season long. There were close calls, and too many calls. There was history to challenge and men to beat. The Los Angeles Lakers conquered them all. They are the NBA champions. Again.
It turns out this 2002 NBA Finals was dynasty and destiny, though just for one franchise. It looks to be the beginning of a dynasty for the Lakers, and perhaps its destiny with Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson.
The Lakers are solid gold.
That’s because the Lakers lifted the NBA championship trophy for the third consecutive year Wednesday night when they defeated the New Jersey Nets 113-107 to sweep the NBA Finals four games to none.
“I told my teammates when we got to the playoffs I was going to pick my game up,” said O’Neal, who led the Lakers with 34 points and set a Finals record for a four-game series for most points (145) and most free throws made (45) and attempted (68). “I said when we got to the Finals, I wouldn’t let them down. I said give me the ball.”
The Lakers did and collected for the franchise its 14th NBA championship. Jackson became the winningest playoff coach in NBA history with 156 victories, one more than Pat Riley, and equals the nine coaching championships of Boston’s Red Auerbach. And it came 11 years to the day Jackson won his first championship with the Bulls–against the Lakers.
“It seems like more than that,” said Jackson. “I’m looking forward to the challenge of trying to get back here and win a 10th. I think that’s the distinction. I said at the start of the year I was dedicating this championship to [former Knicks coach] Red Holzman, my mentor. This is a big moment.”
Likewise, it was a big moment for the Lakers’ stars, O’Neal, who embraced his father and grandfather on the court after the game, and Bryant, who scored 25 points, 11 in the fourth quarter. Long questioned and branded a loser, the only debate regarding O’Neal now is whether he is the best center of all time as he won his third consecutive Finals MVP award (a phrase as published has been deleted from this text).
“I was sort of a great player that didn’t have any championships,” said O’Neal, who averaged 36.3 points a game against the Nets. “Since I met Phil, I have three. He gave us a plan. He promised if we stuck to the plan, everything would work out. [He] was something I needed in my life.”
Doubted as he skipped college and identified as the poster child for kids out of control, Bryant owns a third championship ring before his 24th birthday.
“Unbelievable feeling to have three now,” said Bryant. “The first, it’s a novelty and it feels good. The first will always be the best. The second one, the adversity we went through over the course of the year made that one special. We proved we belonged. This one, it’s kind of making us step up as one of the great teams.”
Nets star Jason Kidd had optimistically dubbed this series “dynasty versus destiny” just a week ago in hopes of inspiring his underdog team, which made a remarkable run from 26 victories last season to the NBA Finals.
But the Nets, fighting hard to the end in two determined efforts in Games 3 and 4, were no match for a Lakers team that understood Jackson’s preseason warning that this one would be the most difficult. The Lakers would be in everyone’s sights. They were the hunted, the big game for everyone.
And it was the Lakers who came up again with the big game.
With a first-quarter burst of 17 points from Kenyon Martin, who finished with 35 points and 11 rebounds, the Nets sprinted to a 34-27 first-quarter lead. But this Lakers team doesn’t flinch.
They took a one-point lead at halftime and then ratcheted it up to eight, mostly behind O’Neal’s relentless attack, late in the third quarter. The Nets fought back behind Lucious Harris, who scored 22, to take a three-point lead early in the fourth quarter.
But Bryant tied it with a three-pointer, George added another and the Lakers inexorably pulled away, giving Jackson a chance to put in veteran Mitch Richmond for a last sentimental jumper to finish the triple championship.
“This is what it’s all about,” said Richmond.
The ring, the trophy, history.
