Maybe beating Orlando was the easy part. The hard part might be bringing the band back together next year.

Because the Lakers are young, people talk as if all they have to do is find a way to keep Ariza and Lamar Odom around, and they've got a shot at more titles in the coming 3 or 4 years.

If only it were that easy.

On July 1, 2009, Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher, Luke Walton, etc., and a good number of Laker fans will be at the edge of their seats waiting for news on the return of key players.

Lamar Odom ($14.1 million), Trevor Ariza ($3.1 million) and Shannon Brown ($1 million) are free agents, and Kobe Bryant can terminate the last 2 years of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent. Likewise, the Lakers have options to keep Josh Powell ($959,000), DJ Mbenga ($959,000) and Sun Yue ($736,000).

And coming up soon are 3 more expiring contracts at the end of this coming season: Adam Morrison ($5.2 million), Derek Fisher ($5 million) and Jordan Farmar ($1.9 million).

A year after that, contracts expire for Pau Gasol ($34.2 million) and Sasha Vujacic ($10.5).

But wait, there's more! Phil Jackson can likewise opt out of his contract this summer, or return for a cool $12 million.

Being a student of basketball history, Kobe knows full well that Michael Jordan said he would not be back in Chicago unless Phil was back. Then when the Lakers and Phil parted ways in 2004, another dominate superstar followed suit: Shaquille O'Neal demanded a trade.

Will Kobe's return likewise be contingent on Phil's?

Has Phil had his fill of coaching now that he has a championship ring for each finger? Was passing Red to be the undisputed champion of champions enough for Phil? Does he have anything else to prove? Does he still have the hunger (and health) to endure another long season and post season?

Remember, at a crucial time in the race with Cleveland for home court advantage, Phil Jackson didn't make the trip from Los Angeles to Portland on the Lakers private team jet due to health difficulties. Phil is great, but like the rest of us, he isn't getting any younger either.

June 25, 2009 will be an interesting day as we all watch what the Lakers do with their 3 picks in the draft (29th, 42nd and 59th picks). Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio couldn't fall that far, could he? Probably not. But how the Lakers use those draft picks may signal where they feel they could need help in the near future.

It is interesting to me that Mitch Kupcheck had his eyes on Trevor Ariza since college. As Mitch watched Ariza bounce around, he thought he saw a bargain to be acquired and was right. It makes you wonder who else he has his eyes on.

"I think we could be in position to advance to the Finals for the next three, four years," General Manager Mitch Kupchak said as the Lakers celebrated Phil Jackson's 10th championship

Can the Lakers afford to do it though?

Last season the Lakers had the 2nd highest payroll in the NBA, and that doesn't even count the mad money they are playing their coach.

The Lakers forfeit about $3 million profit sharing due to being over the salary cap, and paid about $12 million in luxury tax this year... and now key players will need more money to stay around?

It's worse than this though. There's a recession and revenues are down around the League.

Television ratings for the 2009 NBA Finals were down 10 percent from the previous year.

The NBA is considering lowering the threshold for salary caps, which will sharply increase the Lakers' luxury tax as well.

These pay increases won't be easy for Dr. Buss to afford.

It doesn't help that recent contracts to Sasha Vujacic, Luke Walton and Andrew Bynum are tying up critical dollars and not getting much bang for the buck.

Take Andrew Bynum for example. Here is a partial list of NBA Players making LESS than Andrew Bynum next season:

*Tony Parker
Tyson Chaldler
*Chauncy Billups
Greg Oden
Kevin Durant
Derrick Rose
*Brandon Roy
*Tayshaun Prince
*David West
Shane Battier
*Jameer Nelson
*Baron Davis
*Antwan Jamison
*Josh Howard
Andre Iguodala
Leandro Barbosa
*Caron Butler

The * signifies a player who has been an all-star.

And even if the group stays together, it is no given that the Lakers will continue to bring home trophies. Let's not lose sight of the up and coming teams, particularly the Portland Trail Blazers, with whom the Lakers struggle mightily, and the Houston Rockets who gave the Lakers fits even without Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Likewise, there are many Eastern Conference teams who are up and coming.

The good news is that the economic factors which affect the Lakers also affect the other teams in the NBA. In fact, being a huge market, the Lakers are perhaps best positioned for attracting and retaining talent.

Also, the Lakers aren't the only team who has overpaid for their players. As unproductive as Bynum was for the money though, Rashard Lewis (2 of 10 for 6 points in game 3) was the 9th highest paid player in the NBA last season, and he stunk much worse.

Here is a partial list of NBA players making LESS than Rashard Lewis this season:

LeBron James
Yao Ming
Dwight Howard
Kevin Garnett
Carmelo Anthony
Dwayne Wade
Pau Gasol
Vince Carter
Chris Paul
Derron Williams
Steve Nash

And of course no * are necessary as most of these players are perennial all stars.

The Lakers may be able to retain and attract players simply because they are the Lakers, and winning is attractive to a lot of players, especially to the kinds of players the Lakers want.

Just today Trevor Ariza said, "I'd love to come back. Money is important, this is our job here, but I built a bond with my coaches and my teammates. We have a really good team and I think we'll be good for a long time."

One final note.

People keep talking about how many minutes Kobe Bryant has logged, inferring that he may not have several more grueling seasons left in him.

They could be right, however, Kobe Bryant has missed less games these last 4 years than has youngster LeBron James. In fact, LeBron has yet to go a season without missing games.

The basketball world watched in disbelief when the Chicago Bulls refused to keep Phil Jackson, and Michael Jordan retired as a result and the Bulls imploded.

We were even more stunned as the Los Angeles Lakers unraveled an even younger dynasty and went into rebuilding mode.

It just feels like if there is a way to prevent repeating these mistakes, the Lakers are all over that way and come October Lakers fans will be singing the Thin Lizzy song: The Boys Are Back In Town.

Have you guys been reading what has recently been reported by the Toronto Star?

The Toronto Star is reporting on Rafer Alston because Alston used to play for Sam Mitchell in Toronto ... where he earned himself a reputation as being very difficult to coach and prone to wild temper tantrums.

According to the Toronto Star, Alston once threw a fit for being pulled from a game while playing for Sam Mitchell in Toronto, and stormed off the court to the team bus... crying.

This is supposedly a grown man, a "professional" who has made at least $18,751,489 in 9 years playing a game most of us are happy to play for free.

Alston is now in the press for saying that his "friends" were "ready to fly in and wring (Van Gundy's) neck."

Not only is that incredibly stupid judgment to say such things to the press, but it could be considered by law enforcement to be a veiled threat on Van Gundy's life, particularly if Van Gundy were to fall victim to any kind of an attack. 

Why would a TEAM PLAYER air anything remotely like that out in public? 

This is just inconceivable to me; it's off my radar!

Alston also said that he would not show up to a meeting with coach Van Gundy if asked to.

"I'm not good at having a one-on-one meeting, because then I might blow up. He might tell me something that might not make any sense to me, and I may not like that," Alston said.

This guy is SERIOUSLY messed up.

Ah, poor Rafie might hear something that doesn't make sense to him... like teamwork maybe?

It is no wonder Stan Van Gundy is reluctant to put his team in the hands of such a mentally unstable person at such a critical time! I would be begging Magic ownership to trade Alston for someone more useful... like Smush Parker or Paris Hilton!

Time to bring Anthony Johnson into the rotation, Stan. Seriously.

QUESTION: what does the McDonald's fast food chain and NBA Officiating having in common?

ANSWER: They are both run by a clown named Ronald.

Retiring U.S. Army General, Ronald L. Johnson, was hired to be the NBA's "senior vice president of referee operations," a newly created position, In the aftermath of the Tim Donaghy scandal.

Four things about this raised my eyebrows.

(1) During tough economic times, when the NBA has just laid off 9 percent of its workforce (80 jobs), it created a new position.

(2) The move totally ignored the kinds of remedies the fans and media have been clamoring for, including NBA heavyweights such as Phil Jackson and Mark Cuban: an organization for officiating separate from the NBA, and transparency in the process.

(3) Whatever the good general's virtues might be, basketball was not one of them.

Upon being hired, General Johnson made the following statement, "As I leave the military and return to civilian life, I can't imagine a more interesting and challenging position. Although I don't have a basketball background, other than as a lifelong fan, I am confident that my experience as an Army commander and engineer has equipped me to bring leadership and innovation to the NBA's exceptional officiating program.''

The new position was to take the responsibility of officiating oversight away from Stu Jackson in order to "formalize the separation of the NBA's officiating and basketball activities."

(4) Ronald Johnson actually referred to NBA refereeing as an "exceptional officiating program."

General Johnson, it has now been a year since you've been on the job. Specifically what evidence is there of "leadership" or "innovation?"

In fact, does anyone even know if Johnson is on the job still? I've looked for news articles stating that he has resigned, because the only two people you ever hear from with respect to officiating are Stu Jackson and David Stern.

There are three kinds of bad officiating in basketball: incompetent, belligerent and corrupt.

Likewise then, there are at least three different remedies, but David Stern acts like sending Donaghy to jail cures all three.

Now more than ever coaches, players, press and fans are all wondering: what IS a flagrant foul?

What is more, former NBA officials are publicly critical of General Johnson's troops as well.

In a New York Post article, former head of NBA Officiating, Mike Mathis, made some startlingly frank comments. So startling, they make you wonder what other officials would say if their jobs or FINES weren't on the line.

"Refereeing has gone downhill," said Mathis. "(We) accept unbelievable, mediocre and bad officiating, The commentator says, 'He must have seen something we didn't.' No, he didn't. It's either he's guessing, he's incompetent or there's some funny stuff going on."

There is definitely some funny stuff going on in the 2009 NBA Finals.

Could there be a more jump shooting team than the Orlando Magic?

For example, in game 1 of the 2009 NBA Finals, 71% of the Magic's shots were jump shots while 58% of the Lakers' shot attempts were jumpers.

Why do I bring that up?

Because in game 1, the jump shooting Orlando Magic had a 29 to 18 free throw advantage over the home team, the Los Angeles Lakers.

And that isn't a fluke.

Over the course of the 2009 NBA Finals, the Magic have benefited from a free throw advantage EVERY GAME, and over the course of the first 4 games of the Finals have a 133 to 84 advantage in free throw attempts.

It would be one thing if the Magic was an inside force, but they are a jump shooting team. It would be another thing if the Lakers were thugs and hackers, but they are a finesse basketball team that has often been criticized for being too soft.

This disparity is even more curious when you look at it in context. During the course of the long regular season (2008-2009), over 82 games the Magic shot a total of 1,611 free throws. The Lakers shot a total of 1,607 free throws!

Digest that!

Over 82 games, there was only a 4 free throw difference between the two teams, yet over the 4 games (so far) of the NBA Finals, there is already a 49 free throw disparity!

And you don't have to go to the statistical records to see this; ALL GAME LONG the most objective of fans witness jersey and shorts pulling, holding, arm pinning, hand checking, arm barring beyond the free throw line, shoving on rebounds, hacking on shots, etc. Both teams do this to a degree, for the most part, only one team is being called for it.

For the most part the NBA announcers try to stay out of the refereeing controversy, in part because both Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy would like to be head coaches in the NBA, but when a slow motion replay shows how blatant the infractions are, they are kind of forced into making comments about what all the world is witnessing: the refs suck.

The worst thing about how NBA Officiating is run, though, is how they are NOT innovating.

The only two things the NBA has done over this last year about officiating is expand the use of video replay, and fine people.

Why?

The NBA should WANT people leaving games and turning off their televisions at the end of games talking about the performance of the PLAYERS, not the officials.

The NBA should NOT want the spotlight refocused on officiating again and again as players and coaches criticize it, then the media covers it again when the fine comes.

On September 5, 2008 I posted 20 suggestions for improving the NBA that were very well received. Some of these ideas included:

o Having corner line judges (like soccer, tennis and volleyball have) to watch out of bounds and defensive and offensive 3 in the key, and players feet on the no charge circle under the basket so that the referees can focus on contact.

o Allowing coaches 2 plays a game where they can challenge a call on the floor and have it resolved with video replay.

o Adding a "video replay" ref who compiles clips of botched calls and no-calls and reviews them with the floor officials at half time so they can make adjustments.

I can easily add to that list as well with ideas such as:

o Use the SAME reffing crew an entire series so that calls can be more consistant and players can adjust instantly to how things are going to be called each series.

o Stop already with fining coaches and players for TACTFULLY discussing officiating publicly. All that does is put the story in front of us again when the fines come down. Besides, this draconian practice seems very out of place in a land where free speech is a constitutionally guaranteed right.

o Get consistent. If it is a foul or a travel in the first 10 seconds of the game, it is still a foul or a travel in the last 10 seconds of the game, even if some highly partisan fans don't want that called in the critical closing seconds. If LeBron can crab dribble, then everyone else should. If Turkoglu and Ginobli are allowed to take 4 steps after the dribble almost every time they drive in traffic, then let the non foreign players do it too.

Suggestions made by others that are VERY good include:

o Phil Jackson wants NBA officiating taken over by an organization other than the NBA. What a great idea. Let a 3rd party competitively BID to provide officiating services each year, and if they don't meet a standard, fire them and let another contractor try.

o Phil and others such as Mark Cuban have asked for more transparency in decisions. This alone would mop up much of the mess, and all but crush conspiracy theories that the league is rigged, or at least tilted towards the likes of LeBron James.

Consider the most recent officiating controversy. In game 4 of the NBA Finals, Orlando's Mickael Pietrus gave the Lakers' Pau Gasol a dirty, cheap shot in the closing seconds of overtime. It is hard to conceive of a worse flagrant foul...

o Gasol was not expecting it
o Gasol was in the air
o Gasol was struck from behind
o The contact was very hard
o The contact was clearly deliberate
o There was no chance a play was being made on the ball
o The play was over, the ball was in the hoop, Peitrus wasn't going to stop a basket from being made
o The game was pretty much over (7 point lead with 3.2 seconds remaining)
o Instead of apologizing and seeing if Gasol was okay, Peitrus trash talked Gasol (imagine trash talk in English with French and Spanish accents)
o What is the call when a player hits another player with a FIST? Gasol was hit with TWO!

In EVERYONE'S book, that is a flagrant two, but the officials on the floor, and Stu Jackson in the head office didn't want the Orlando Magic to play an elimination game without their hired thug, so Stu Jackson made up a bunch of laughable excuses and let it stand as a flagrant 1.

With apologies to Pau Gasol and the Lakers, I am glad the NBA did not call it a flagrant two, because you could not ask for a more cut and dry, unimpeachable "Exhibit A" as evidence that the NBA has an agenda for its officiating that extends beyond calling whatever happens on the floor.

Clearly, the NBA has no interest in reforming its officiating, because doing so would lose them the opportunity to control circumstances, whether they be making a superstar more marketable, or extending a playoff series. Do you have any idea how much money is involved in extending a playoff series even by one game?

Follow the money.

One final and VERY IMPORTANT note: all over the world there are GOOD PEOPLE caught in BAD SYSTEMS.

I TOTALLY believe, and believe you should believe it too, that there are a good number of NBA officials who honestly want to do a great job.

Hopefully someday fan uproar, joined by the NBA franchise owners and the NBA Players' association, will force changes to NBA officiating that will allow these good people to do their job for a better system.

Until then, none of us should be pretending that General Johnson's organization, which appears to be in reality David Stern and Stu Jackson's organization with a figurehead propped up at the front of it, is doing a good job.

The more we allow this kind of officiating to occur without calling it out, the longer we enable it to go on.

If I were General Ronald Johnson, I wouldn't just live with this kind of world wide embarrassment. I would either aggressively and transparently enact reforms, or if I couldn't because of the resistance of my bosses, I would resign and tell the world WHY.

Why wouldn't the NBA be more aggressive about improving its officiating?

The only answer that makes any sense is that NBA must have an agenda for its officiating that extends beyond the objective calling of whatever happens on the floor.

The blogging world once had a "Kobe Bryant Day" where everyone blogged on Kobe Bryant. The last day of June, the month the NBA Finals happens each year, is 'BLOG ABOUT NBA OFFICIATING DAY."

On June 30 the blogging world should buzz about how they feel about NBA officiating, good or bad, and perhaps the mainstream press will cover it and get the NBA's attention.

Maybe nothing will happen, but if we all continue to do nothing, you can guarantee nothing will happen.

People are being too hard on Stan Van Gundy and the Magic for the loss.

With 20 / 20 hindsight, it's easy to criticize the Magic, but EVERYONE knows Dwight Howard is a poor free throw shooter. In the Olympics, he was out and out embarrassing, so why are we harping on him for missing free throws at crunch time? Shouldn't we be talking about the smart risks the Lakers took putting him in that position?

And as for Jameer Nelson not closing out more aggressively on Derek Fisher, the WORST thing Nelson could have done in THAT situation is foul Fisher at the 3 point line and give an 85% free throw shooter a free trip to the charity stripe.

In the bigger picture though,

(1) The Magic defense did keep Kobe Bryant from being the one to take that last shot,

(2) and forced Derek Fisher, who until that shot was 0 of 5 from beyond the arc, and has shot just 27% in the playoffs from downtown to save the Lakers.

All things considered, that was a fairly reasonable defense by Nelson, it's just too bad he isn't 6'5" (like Courtney Lee is) so that he could bother Fisher more on the close out.

Which brings me to the other criticism leveled at Van Gundy: why was Nelson playing those minutes at this time?

Who knows, but Nelson is an all star who Van Gundy has seen do the job much more than us, and Alston has a HUGE chip on his shoulder at that point and was much more inclined to shoot and make a point, than to pass like you want your point to do, especially since Rashard Lewis needed to get going.

Nelson could have worked out very well for the Magic at that time, he just didn't. It's easy to criticize Van Gundy after the fact, but Alston has stunk in this series too...

There are no guarantees that the very good Laker defense wouldn't have bothered Alston as well -- or any other point guard Van Gundy may have used.

It wasn't a bad decision to play Nelson, it was just a decision that didn't work out.

There is a difference.

With the Lakers up 3-1 in the 2009 NBA Finals, and 1 win away from history, it feels as if the Los Angeles Lakers have dominated the Orlando Magic and that a championship is inevitable, so let's pause for a moment to notice just how close success and failure can be to each other, and what makes a champion.

And while it would be cool if someone else read and enjoyed this, frankly I'm writing this mostly to remind myself how I need to approach the goals I have set for myself in life, and how important it is that I not fool myself into disregarding "little things" I do each day. After all, it could be that there is really no such thing as a "little thing."

During (and after) game 1, a collage of slow motion replays was shown to the television audience illustrating how Kobe Bryant was barely getting his shots off over the Orlando defense, avoiding blocks by fractions of an inch.

A fraction of an inch seems like such a little thing in a game where the court is 94 feet long and their goal 10 feet high, but it is surprising how often success and failure are so close.

Think about it.

(1) Had Courtney Lee made just 1 of 2 layup attempts in the final 12 seconds of regulation in game 2, and...

(2) Had Dwight Howard made just 1 of 2 free throw attempts in the final seconds of regulation in game 4...

The Lakers would be down 1-3 in the NBA Finals.

And instead of talking about Derek Fisher's heroics, Pau Gasol's underrated play, Trevor Ariza burning his former team, Stan Van Gundy's rotation decisions, and Dwight Howard's turnovers and free throws ...

We would be talking about how brilliant Stan Van Gundy is as a coach, how Phil Jackson may have lost it, how Kobe Bryant's legacy will be a sad one, and where Dwight Howard may end up historically speaking in the pecking order of the NBA's greatest big men.

Every stat would basically be the same, ever performance unchanged, but everything would be different had 2 high-percentage shots fallen... such little things, such huge consequences!

There are other "little" things we could discuss as well, calls, no-calls, substitutions, defensive efforts... small acts and decisions that ultimately ended up mattering so much.

For instance, at the end of regulation in game 2, what if when Courtney Lee was freed of his defender, Kobe Bryant, by a screen at the foul line Pau Gasol hadn't rotated so hard to challenge Lee's ally oop layin? And what if, at the end of regulation in game 4, when the best 3 point shooter in the NBA this year, Rashard Lewis, was freed of his defender by 2 screens and broke to the corner for an inbounds pass and a (short) corner 3, Pau Gasol didn't leave his man to close out to deny Lewis the inbounds pass, forcing Petrius to put up that awkward miss at the buzzer?

Such little things, such huge consequences!

Of course now would not be the time for the Lakers to forget these lessons and relax, seeing how readily Orlando can challenge the Lakers.

The great philosopher, Anonymous, once said, "If you take care of the little things, the big things pretty much take care of themselves."

You can see his point.

He also said, "The longer I live the more convinced I become that there is no such thing as a 'little thing.'"

This has me thinking about things much more important than basketball... like my own goals... and how talk to (and listen to) my wife and children... and how I use my time.