As poet and philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it." No fan base should be more cognizant of this than that of the Lakers. After the acquisition of Pau Gasol, the automatic assumption on the part of so many Lakers fans that the title is on its way to Tinseltown is ignorant at best, and arrogant at worst. If anything, Lakers fans should know better than any fanbase that games aren't won on paper. Or need I bring up the names of 4 future hall of famers who played for a certain 03-04 Lakers squad?

If Lakers fans have blocked out the memory of that humiliation, then how about a more recent case? Does the 2008 New England Patriots ring loud enough? Was there a surer thing than that team? For months, the fans of other cities had to endure the incessant squaking of Bostonites, as they assumed that the destiny of the Lombardi trophy was to rest in Brady's Midas-like hands.

As a Lakers fan myself, I'm not saying we shouldn't be excited about this trade. We should be. The buzz in Los Angeles is something unfelt since the Lakers were building up towards their first championship run in 2000, when 45-year-old soccer moms, 18-year-old punk-rockers and 30-year-old trade-brokers were all flying Lakers flags on their car windows. Hell, even if we didn't get Gasol, trading Kwame for a drunken version of C3PO would have been cause for celebration. But I cringe when I read posts trashing the chances of other squads which range from the good (Golden State, Cavs, Houston, Denver) to the very good (Jazz, New Orleans, Mavericks) to the excellent (Spurs, Suns, Celts, Pistons). If you noticed, I named 8 Western Conference teams there. If you throw in Portland (who I still believe is overachieving somewhat) and the Lakers (and it's still unclear which category they'll fall into), something has got to give and NOTHING is a given.

I don't mean to be Debbie Downer here, but let's, as Lakers fans, show some humility and class and let the season play out. This should be one of the greatest finishes to a regular season in NBA history, and we should be grateful the Lakers are right in the mix. We're a city that prides itself on its championship banners, as we should be. But it's the excitement of the challenging matchups along the way that makes the season memorable and the victories sweet. Let's not demean the quality of our rival cities' teams, as it, in the end, only diminishes the quality of our own.