What do you get when you add-up the respective jersey numbers of Pau Gasol (16), Andrew Bynum (17), and Adam Morrison (6)? That’s right — 39. Yes, the same number that the Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics by in the 2008 NBA Finals. It’s also the same number, that when separated into single digits and multiplied (3 x 9), and then reduced by the first digit of the initial number (27-3), equals 24. Yes, the same number of points that the Lakers led the Celtics by in Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals, only to give it all away and lose to them by 6 in the end.
Now, did any of those numbers make any sense to anyone at all? Nope. And they make even less sense to die-hard Laker fans all around the world.
Here we are, two years removed from that devastating debacle in Boston, and those numbers still confound and haunt the hell out of all of us here in Los Angeles — from the 39-point pounding in Game 6 to the 24-point lead the Lakers let slip away in Game 4 in Staples Center. While winning the Championship last year against the Orlando Magic was monumental in its own right (with Phil winning his 10th, Kobe winning without Shaq, and Adam Morrison and Sun Yue surpassing Lebron James in rings), it still didn’t provide us with the ultimate sense of freedom from the evil green cloud that continued to hang directly above our heads.