Don't Stop Believin'

Hey Lakers fans!

Don't stop believing. It's a Journey! 

Yeah. Ouch.

Brown had more turnovers than boards last night, but you know what? Booing the kid is not going to do a damn thing but make matters worse.

What kind of Lakers fan boos his/her own player after one bad night? Kwame’s playing on a sore knee and swollen ankle for god’s sake. He’s trying to fill a role that he is not designed to fill. God designed him differently. Just like Yao could never play point guard and Nate Robinson could never play center (okay, well maybe in a Japanese league).

I pointed out in my blog several days ago that Kwame is the Yang to Bynum’s Yin. The two are opposites. Polar. And by that I don’t mean one’s awesome and the other one sucks (for all the smart asses out there).

Kwame doesn’t have the soft touch. He doesn’t have the sticky hands. He doesn’t have the freakishly long reach or the knack for keeping the ball above his head. He doesn’t have the enormous hands or the ability to finish every lob, good or bad, with a thunderous dunk.

So deal with it. 

On the same token, Bynum doesn’t have the upper or lower body strength that Brown has. And AB is Alicia Silverstone clueless on how to play man-up defense. He doesn’t know how to stay grounded, how to stay centered, how to make shots difficult for the opposition.

Sure, Brown got lit up last night. But it was the Suns. Since when did the Suns, you know, the same team that’s knocked the Lakers out of the playoffs the past two seasons, the same team that has averaged 59 wins the past 3 seasons, the same team that has finished 1^st in the Pacific the last 3 seasons running, since when did those Suns become a team that should never be lost to? 

For goodness sake. Good grief and all that Kwame Brown.

Give him a bit of a break. A smidgen please.

This was his 10^th game back. His second game as a starter. Remember how money he was, when he was relatively healthy, playing against the Suns in the 2006 playoffs? Obviously you don’t. But please try and remember. Remember his game 3 performance where he scored 13, pulled down 11, dished out 5, swiped a steal, and blocked 3 shots? Remember how in that decisive game 6 the Lakers should have won, Brown made 8 of 9 shots? 

He was a vital piece to that Lakers run. And if injuries didn’t slow him all last year, he would have been able to build on that playoff performance as he was doing at the beginning of last season. Let’s not forget oh short-termed memory Lakers fans of today, the Lakers were rolling with about the same exact record as this year, the same time last year.

Then Kwame got hurt and Luke got hurt and everybody got hurt and the season went down the crapper.

Please. Let’s not have such short-term memories. Let’s not be calling for his head or for him to be traded or for us to sign Chris Webber…Are you kidding me? Are there really REAL Lakers fans out there who want Chris Webber?

So, let’s not haul out the pitchforks and torches and gather in front of Nokia Theatre just yet.

We’ve got 2 months. Give the kid some time. The championship isn’t won in one game in January.

It isn’t about one game or one performance. It’s a journey.

So don’t stop believing…

Seriously.