Catchin' That LA Fever

It started out with the Lakers.
Of course it did, could it have happened any other way? Coming off a decade of Michael Jordan dominance, I was a pre-adolescent starving for another basketball superstar to worship. How could I not root for Kobe and Shaq's dynasty? They were absolutely unstoppable and I loved every second of it. Despite the fact that New York fans aren't supposed to like LA teams. Despite the fact that Manu Ginobili, who hails from the very same country I spent a large part of my life in, was taking the NBA by storm. Forget the fact that my mother and her eleven other siblings grew up in the heart of Queens, New York- I loved my Lakers.
Now don't get me wrong, if New York and LA ever face off in anything, it's New York all the way, but on any other day, it was all about LA.

7 years. For all the frustrations Kobe might have felt in his post-Shaq era, I was just as frustrated and somewhat bewildered that a guy many considered the new Michael Jordan couldn't carry a Smush Parker-Kwame Brown-Vlad Radmanovic team to the NBA finals. He was Kobe for Godsake, he is still the only player that New York Knicks fans constantly chant MVP for in the Garden while he tears us to shreds. And despite his long-time deal with Nike, as far as I was concerned, Impossible Was Nothing for this guy, or at least it was supposed to be.
So as I stood mid-shift inside Papa John's and took peeks at the clock winding down for game 5, knowing the Lakers would get their 15th title, I went nuts.

I tried to control myself, but it was hard. I needed to gleam to my boss about how long I'd been waiting for this moment. I needed anyone in my general vicinity to understand that this was a big deal. It needed to be acknowledged that Kobe Bryant just won his fourth championship and that this time there was no 7 foot behemoth next to him holding the Finals MVP trophy. Kobe was holding both. Just Kobe.

The LA Fever's Other Symptom:

Just as the Lakers restored order to the basketball world and that little basketball void inside of me was finally re-filled, I took a look at this year's MLB standings and noticed the LA Dodgers are on top of the world.
Yup, those same Dodgers that once hailed from Brooklyn, New York. Those same Dodgers that, before Yankee legend Joe Torre arrived to coach the team, really hadn't been relevant since the 1980s. And now I find myself hopping on that bandwagon too. I am sold. I'm still a die-heart Yankees fan and would take no other over them, but I no longer hate guys like former Red Sock Manny Ramirez. I think he looks great in Dodger blue and I love seeing him play well.

And I'm thrilled for Joe Torre. While many people will grill me for this, there is no doubt in my mind that the Yankees needed a coaching change. It was not Torre's fault, but they absolutely needed a fresh start. They never really recovered from the series-that-will-not-be-named in 2004, and they needed a big shake-up to get things rolling again.
And Torre's move to LA (with yankee great Don Mattingly by his side as an assistant coach) was the best thing that could have happened to him. He makes the NL Championship round in his first season, and his team is best in the league this year without Manny Ramirez. It would only be fitting that the Yankees and Dodgers meet in this year's World Series.

But before I pack up my things and move to LA, before I indulge myself in beaches, surfing, Hollywood and outdoor roller hockey, I just need to say, as a die-heart fan of all New York Sports, LA isn't all that bad. And now that their clubs are back on top of the world, I'm happy I've been on board for this long.