Winning the championship is a phrase often thrown around by the Lakers Team, but the members know deep down how hollow it sounds.
The Lakers Team suffers from a pathological narcissism and conceit.
After trading away Pau Gasol and Anthony without any backup plan, it was reasonable for the outsiders to suspect that they were going to start playing the nostalgia card by using Kobe to sell tickets, while strategically tanking to rebuild.
To which, Magic Johnson said during the media day of the preseason camp: "Are you kidding? We are the Lakers Team, tanking is definitely not in our plans!"
When the media wanted to know how the Lakers planned to build around an 38-year-old Kobe for a championship run, Magic confidently said: "Kobe is our cornerstone, but his most important task now is turning Zach and DeAngelo from boys into men!"
However, Kobe had endlessly exclusive shooting rights, but Zach and Russell's progress had significantly slowed down.
