We hoped for it as soon as the ink dried on a deal that sent the silky smooth, retro-Michael Cooper-and-showtime-era throwback Trevor Ariza to the Houston Rockets, and brought back the thuggish-ruggish-in-your-face-crazy-enough-to-take-on-the-world Ron Artest.
We hoped for it when we let the unhappy backup point guard free to “start” for another team or, when we sent the equally unhappy, streak shooting two-guard there to join him.
And we crossed our fingers when we replaced them with a tough-nosed collegiate champ in Steve Blake, and an even tougher small forward, who has a lot more in common with Artest than just being one of the two guys crazy enough to provoke Bryant during the Playoffs, in Matt Barnes.
We had hoped it would have been here sooner, but as the saying goes better late than never.
With each acquisition, the Laker front office slowly but surely altered the DNA of this team. In 2008 they were like the straw house in the Three Little Pigs, one huff and one puff is all it took for opponents to blow their house down.
The 2010 Lakers however more closely remember the last little piggie’s house. The one made of brick, the one that doesn’t budge no matter how hard it is hit, the one that when it is hit, dishes out some punishment of its own.
After Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals the Lakers knew they needed to get bigger, tougher. They knew that skill alone was not always enough. They knew, because Artest had hijacked the locker room after game 6 and had told them so. And though acquiring Artest wasn’t the only move made to harden this team, his arrival indicated a sea change by the Laker brass to add some beef up the most talented team in the league.
So in came Artest, and if his regular season exploits didn’t clearly reveal his true worth, than Game 1 of the 2010 NBA Finals surely did. Within the first minute and first possession of the game, Artest, while battling for position underneath, wrestled Paul Pierce to the ground.
Message sent. This time around, it was the Lakers who would be doing the pushing.
But the metamorphosis didn’t stop there.
Since losing to the Celtics in 2008, Phil Jackson made it his personal mission to push and prod Pau Gasol in order to toughen him up. If the Lakers were ever to reach their potential, Pau had to get mean…or, to channel his inner Black Swan as Bryant put it earlier this year.
Then there was the eventual return of Andrew Bynum. Playing on a bum knee, in the past two Finals appearances, Bynum is only now beginning to show the league what a force he can be when healthy. By controlling the paint, and focusing on rebounding and defense, Bynum has been a major player in the Lakers 17-1 tear since the All Star break.