LOS ANGELES -- To be perfectly prickly, nobody outside this city's limits, exempting Yankee fans, perhaps, likes the Lakers. How can we when the Lakers don't like themselves?
Oh, sure, now that they're positioned to gain another championship suddenly all is spotless and each pinup player all at once thinks their teammates and coaches are just precious.
Their warm and fuzzy charade doesn't fool me a bit. No matter what they have been lip-synching lately for public consumption, Shaq, Kobe, Little Noxious (Gary Payton), The Mailman and Big Chief Triangle (Phil Jackson) privately loathe the preponderance of Dysfunction Junction.