| Friday, June 23
By Frank Hughes
Special to ESPN.com |
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|  | | There were some rowdy celebrations after the Lakers won Monday night. |
LOS ANGELES -- Last week I wrote about the reasons I thought the Los Angeles Lakers would
not become a dynasty.
That city better hope I'm correct, or they might not have a city any longer.
What's with the riots? Can't we all just get along?
OK, so here's what I don't understand: LOS ANGELES WON! Why are you rioting?
I can understand if there are 10,000 people standing outside the Staples
Center, and the Lakers get jobbed by the refs and lose the game. A few people
might be angry -- particularly the ones who bet on the game -- something
might get thrown, and before you know it, it escalates.
I mean, could you imagine the carnage if 10,000 New Yorkers were standing
outside the Garden last year, and instead of Larry Johnson being the
beneficiary of a four-point play, it was Reggie Miller? That would be Al
Sharpton's dream, a reason to beat up all the New York City cops.
Speaking of that four-point play, I don't understand why Jess Kersey doesn't
run for senate against Hillary. He'd win in a landslide.
But back to L.A. What did those people have to be upset about? The only
reason they could possibly be angry was because they weren't permitted inside
the Staples Center to watch the game. But being on the other side of the
wall, watching it on a giant Teletron, seems equally impressive to me. From
where I was sitting in the damn arena, the people outside actually had a
better view of the game.
I swear, first I'm watching a basketball game, then I'm watching the Jerry
Springer show. With no segue.
Perhaps all those people milling around outside were leftovers from the Oscar
De La Hoya-Shane Moseley fight Saturday night, and they needed to unleash a
little aggression. Perhaps they were members of Oscar's entourage, and they
were upset about the outcome of the fight.
Otherwise, I can't figure it out.
I pick up the papers occasionally and read about the soccer hooligans over in
Europe, and that whole thing is a mystery to me as well. You want to support
your team, so you go out and beat up a bunch of people? It seems to me we're
not too far removed from the movie "Gladiator," doesn't it?
Thumbs up or thumbs down? You're a fan of Sheffield Wednesday? Well, then,
unquestionably thumbs down.
And these fools out in L.A.? What's the deal. They see a limo cruising down
the street, and immediately they take some bats to it, a few branches, and a
nice swift kick in the rear end.
Then they see a television truck. I can understand if it's the television
truck that David Letterman sent out to film that Biff Henderson guy. But
this was a Reuters television truck.
I guarantee you that 99.9 percent of the people who were trying to turn it
over didn't even know what Reuters is. (It's a news service, for the
uneducated or misinformed.)
The funny part is, they couldn't turn it over. What were there, about 50
people rocking that thing back and forth -- gives a whole new meaning to the
bumper sticker, "If this van's a rocking, don't come a knocking" -- and for
the life of them, they could not get it flipped. I can't believe nobody
stepped in to talk to them about fulcrum and leverage and all the stuff you
learn in eighth grade science.
I would have loved to see the van go over, just to see what they all would
have done. I'm sure it would have been like a child throwing a senseless
temper tantrum, and once they get what they are crying for, they don't know
what to do with it.
It also reminded me of one of those stories you hear about two guys hunting.
They go on opposite sides of a wooded area, a deer comes into the area and
they both start blasting away. And all they do is shoot each other.
I saw these morons rocking this van back and forth, and I thought it was
going to tip over right on top of 20 people and squish them all.
Then, of course, they turned their sights on police cars -- probably because
the police were doing such a poor job of directing traffic to the freeways.
That, of course, had to do with the fact that cars couldn't get to the
freeways because of all the people kicking them, but, hey, who am I to
quibble with a few zealous rioters.
I'll tell you when they should have started rioting. When they showed up to
the game and found out the parking was going to cost more than the actual
game ticket.
Could you imagine that? Something new and different. Riots BEFORE the game.
They could have sent out a player not doing anything to plead with the fans
to calm down. Somebody like, say, Rik Smits?
Of course, being Dutch, he would have called them hooligans.
Frank Hughes covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune. He is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
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