Respect

(*Ali G finger snap!)

Today, I am grateful for a few things. I am glad the Lakers won the NBA Championship. They deserved it. Throughout the entire playoffs, they never got too frustrated, they always made time shots/stops and they had been building this team for this moment over the last 2 years. And it paid off. After some turmoil, some sulking (last year’s Finals) and some hate, the Lake show proved what we all were wanting to deny since last Fall – that they were good enough, smart enough and doggone it – well, really good enough – to win the title.

However, the one thing I am most grateful for today is, in so few words, hope. I hope that this title, this vindication of Kobe, this dominating performance throughout will finally turn the tide on the Laker chatter throughout the blogosphere and in the MSM. Sure, winning it all isn’t going to make Kobe haters less angry. Far from it. But, what it can do, and what I hope it actually does, is turn the Lakerrati away from always being on the defensive, always up in arms about Kobe and the rest and turns that passion into peace.

Don’t get me wrong. HP will still find ways to antagonize Laker fans and Kobe diehards. It’s part of our DNA. But now, in this moment of triumph, I would like to see these fans, after taking the very long and very justified moment in the sun, chill out. You have done it. You made history. Mamba minue Shaq. The past 7 years are but whisper in time. If you want to drop a few “I Told You Sos,” that’s fine too. We can handle it. We’re big boys and girls around here.

But please just turn the check. Embrace your power and look forward. You’ve got a very bright future and, besides, if you wanted to settle every grudge you had with those less enamored with any one of a million aspects of the Lakers, you’d have be a modern Methuselah.

So, congrats to Kobe, Fish, even Machine and Ammo. And especially, congrats to Phil Jackson – you, sir, are the greatest.

And just for fun, and because we love you all, please feel free to go back and peruse the great work we hosted for our first (and most likely only) annual Kobe Bryant Blog Day. I am sure someone predicted this…

(Photo courtesy of Washington Post)