Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Payback

During the months of October and November, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss -- winner of 10 NBA titles over three different eras -- became the most pro-player (or, least anti-player) force on the owners' side. Going around commissioner David Stern and his punk handmaiden Adam Silver, and around the more extreme owners led by Airhead Jordan, Buss put together the coalition which approved the lockout-ending deal, allowing us to have a 2011-12 season.

Over the past week:

1. The Lakers finalized a three-team deal for all-star PG Chris Paul. A deal which gave back to Paul's current team (the NBA-owned New Orleans Hornets) the reigning Sixth-Man-of-the-Year Lamar Odom, 18 ppg/10 rpg big man Luis Scola, 24 ppg guard Kevin Martin, and premier bench guy Goran Dragic. In a move unprecedented in NBA history, Stern & Silver stepped in to nix it.

2. Over the weekend, the Lakers attempted to rework the deal, ADDING future draft picks and a boatload of $$$$. Stern again said no.

3. Also over the weekend, Orlando mega-star Dwight Howard -- the player assumed by all to be the anchor of the next Lakers' championship era -- suddenly announced he prefered to play for gangster capitalist (and future fascist President of Russia) Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of the New Jersey Nets.

4. And over the weekend, the Lakers were forced to trade the now very sullen and unhappy Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks (NBA champs and LA's leading Western Conference competitor) for some snapshots of Dealey Plaza and Mark Cuban's dirty shorts.

5. This morning, the Orlando Magic announced they were taking Dwight Howard off the trade market.

6. And tonight, Chris Paul was sent to the Los Angeles CLIPPERS, the Lakers' inner-city rival and co-residents of the Staples Center, for less value than was offered to the Hornets by the Lakers.

Now watch the nerd-pack in the sports media turn on a dime and tell us what an honorable genius David Stern actually is. From the White House to the clubhouse, in USA 2011 there is no escaping the unspeakable:
"It is the void that contradicts everything that is spoken even before the words are said; the void that gets into the language of public and official declarations at the very moment when they are pronounced, and makes them ring dead with the hollowness of the abyss." -- Thomas Merton