The Lakers are so used to winning and going far in the playoffs they had no idea how to react when things didn’t go their way. They have become so spoiled by their success they had to resort to cheap shots when they were losing to make up for their poor performance. A bitter Ron Artest clotheslined J.J. Barea to end Game 2 of the series and ended up suspended for Game 3. Andrew Bynum did the same thing to Barea at the end of Game 4 and will likely have to miss games to begin the ’11-’12 season. Check out the video of the play and tell me it wasn’t sickening to watch.
That was truly pathetic of Bynum, and it’s sad they had to pick on a guy like J.J. Barea. If you didn’t want Barea to do well, you should have stopped him when it mattered. The sad thing is Bynum’s cheap shot only came slightly after Lamar Odom shoved Dirk Nowitzki out of nowhere. Don’t think Bynum and Artest were alone … Odom even beat Bynum to it:
Give credit to Mike Tirico for being all over those calls. He was calling Bynum’s play bush league and calling the Lakers out for being dirty, saying there’s no place for that.
I understand the Lakers’ frustration over losing and sending their coach out in such poor fashion, but you have to maintain sportsmanship. You win with class and you lose with class, but apparently the Lakers never learned that lesson. That was about as poor of a show as you can possibly see. Not only did they give up in Game 4 but they also tried to get revenge with some dirty plays. It’s how you react when things aren’t going your way that reveals true character. I guess we know what the true character of the Lakers is, and it’s not pretty.
