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Remember when Bob McAdoo left the Lakers? I do

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my-mug21Look, for the sake of the sanity of most of the Lakers fans who read this blog, I should hope the Ron Artest move was the right one for Mitch Kupchak to make.

Based on many of your responses, substituting Artest for Trevor Ariza was a bold stroke nearly as significant as the trades that brought Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol to the Lakers.

Not quite, but it seemed like it. You know what your comments said.

It’s just I believe the Lakers over-reached this time. And I have seen it before. Let me explain.

In 1985, the Lakers finally snapped their Boston jinx, winning the NBA title kareem-buss-mcadooin Game 6 on Boston Garden’s parquet, no less.

Unfortunately, supersub Bob McAdoo, a former NBA MVP, three-time scoring champion and eventual basketball Hall of Famer (2000), had a subpar Finals against the Celtics.

So Jerry West did not re-sign McAdoo (at right with Abdul-Jabbar and Jerry Buss), but brought in Maurice Lucas instead in a move to make the champions even more rugged.

On paper, it looked like another in a series of genius West moves. Lucas was a solid rebounder, a former champion in Portland, a tough, no-nonsense guy in games. Heck, Luke Walton was named for him. And Lucas was five months younger than McAdoo.

bob-mcadooExcept, the chemistry was never right, never the same. The Lakers, who had already added a pretty tough kid that year by drafting A.C. Green, were knocked out of the playoffs in the West Finals by the Houston Rockets. Coincidentally, those Lakers were  the last NBA team Kupchak played on before retiring to become West’s assistant.

The Lakers missed the offensive spark they got from McAdoo, who played that season for the Philadelphia 76ers. They still got their defensive lift from Michael Cooper, but it just wasn’t the same club as ’85. Certainly not better. 

The Lakers would have made seven consecutive Finals appearances — four in a row against Boston — if not for that miss, or rather maurice-lucas1that Ralph Sampson make.

Lucas went to Seattle for the next season, and the Lakers rebounded to win back-to-back titles. McAdoo, showing he was far from done, played in Italy from 1987-93 — until he was 42 — and led Treviso Milano to two European titles.

Over at ESPN, TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott really likes the acquisition of Artest, but he also presents the opinions of others.

In that article, David Thorpe had this to say about chemistry:

“I don’t think the Lakers are suddenly better, even assuming Lamar Odom is back. What is chemistry worth? Five points? Ten points? I argue it’s a difference maker. If you win by eight, maybe chemistry was worth nine. I’m not saying Ron will be a jerk, I don’t think he will be. But I do know that for this team to succeed he’ll have to play a role, and I don’t know how he’ll be at that.”

 

McAdoo and Lucas were two of the finest gentlemen I ever met during my NBA coverage tenure, and both are NBA assistant coaches, Lucas with Portland and McAdoo with Miami.

Lucas, 57, underwent surgery for bladder cancer in April.

That’s enough of a history lesson for one day. And the following is the last I am going to write about Ariza leaving (until the Lakers play the Rockets, and I measure his progress). That also means I am not going to respond to comments on this post, so if you have questions, sorry.

Two of the lamest excuses I have heard for not offering  Ariza more than the midlevel exemption were the contracts given to Luke Walton and Sasha Vujacic. I don’t know why Andrew Bynum’s contract wasn’t thrown in there too, but is the point you’re making is that it’s not safe to give a raise to anybody on the Lakers except the superstar?

Other NBA posts:

  • Ariza, Gone Baby Gone: The impact for the future
  • This is gonna be fun: Ron and Kobe as Lakers teammates
  • Early Ariza reports are not exactly promising
  • Kobe’s next contract: Inquiring minds want to know
  • Some 2009-10 advice for my longtime friend, Mitch Kupchak
  • Remember when Bob McAdoo left the Lakers? I do is a post from: Lakers blog


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