3 LA's

The past few weeks, the sports world had been filled with stories and updates on a professional team and two athletes going with these initials. Controversy and maybe conspiracy surround two of our subjects. Several articles had been written but riding on the freshness of the issues, I’ll give you my take on the three LA’s.

LA 1 – Okay, it’s the Los Angeles Lakers. We all know how this team became obscenely fortified when they completed the Dwight Howard trade a month after the Steve Nash sign-and-trade deal. No other team, for the moment, on paper, can compete with a starting unit made up of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Nash, Howard, and Metta World Peace. The Fatal Five.

Laker GM Mitch Kupchak did the unthinkable in acquiring two big-name and certified franchise-altering talents, at the same time significantly improving the bench with practically less sacrifice on existing personnel on the roster.

The vetoed Chris Paul trade which would have sent Gasol to the Houston Rockets will give the Lakers a potent Kobe-CP3-Andrew Bynum combo but I will go with a Kobe-Gasol-Nash-Howard quartet any time of the day.

Kupchak’s managerial savvy were also questioned when he traded Shaquille O’Neal to Miami for Lamar Odom and two other players. Eyebrows were also raised when he gave up Trevor Ariza for Artest, formerly known as Ron. Yes, these transactions upset Laker Nation but dividends were paid out in a couple of years and he topped it with the deal for Pau.

LA, if egos will be contained, will be having multiple championships. When Kobe and Nash finally drives into the sunset of their playing careers, the Lakers will have Howard and his new minions to lead the franchise to another chapter of purple and gold glory.

LA 2 – Every bike nut worth his butt on the saddle should know LA in the cycling world. In a recent cancer awareness symposium somewhere in Canada, our subject introduced himself something like this, “My name is Lance Armstrong. I am a cancer survivor. I’m a father of five and yes, I won the Tour de France seven times.”

For not contesting the doping accusations, citing personal reasons, the man who dominated cycling’s ultimate race from 1999 to 2005 surrendered his seven TdF titles.

To dope or not to dope, that is the question. And whether or not cycling’s biggest name is guilty or not, Lance has perpetuated himself in the history of this sport as the greatest ever. 

He could be subjected to more humiliation had he challenged the accusations. Evidences and witnesses with their statements will be paraded and that will add more trouble since the USADA and all the other organizations using combinations of the alphabet are bent on flushing LA down the drain.

It won’t be good for his cancer research foundation if LA battles the charges in court. Personally, he has done right as there are more cancer patients and survivors in the world than cycling fans. His advocacy on cancer has done much to the awareness of the disease, thereby enticing corporate sponsors to renew their commitments. Nike, Oakley and the makers of Coors beer have thrown their support behind the beleaguered Armstrong. 

The stripped TdF titles will be inherited by equally controversial runners up, all retried because of confirmed substance abuse during their racing careers — Alex Zulle (1999), Jan Ullrich (2000, 01, 03), Joseba Beloki (2002), Andreas Kloden (2004) and Ivan Basso (2005). 

LA 3 - If you had followed the recently concluded Jones Cup basketball tournament, surprise, surprise, we won it for only the 4th time. Standing taller than his 5’8’’ frame, Lewis Alfred Tenorio stole the thunder from the bigger guys with his clutch shooting and daredevil drives. 

This was his first call of duty for the national team, the Gilas 2.0, admittedly, the weakest and the least star-studded Philippine Team. What the team lacked in star power and strength, they made up with their determination, consistency, unselfish play and hard work. LA, for his efforts, became the MVP of the tournament.

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