on stockton and malone...
old? yes
whiny? only malone
overrated? not a chance
as for why i dislike the lakers...
a) phil jackson is the most overrated professional coach of all time... i'd like to see him take a team without the best player in the league and turn them around before i crown him the king of all coaches, as some would like to do...
b) the shots kobe bryant takes are sickening to watch... i'm sorry, if you're taking 35 shots in a game, you best be hitting the 50 mark, ESPECIALLY when you have the most dominant center since wilt chamberlain on your team... all too often kobe takes 30+ shots, and ends up with more shots than points
c) talent wise, shaq is not very good... size wise, he's dominant. you can't stop him 1-on-1... period. but it showed in this series that without a legitamite outside threat, shaq can be neutralized... you still can't stop him, but the spurs were close enough... that said, i love shaq... he's a great guy
d) the lakers have a history of coasting in the playoffs, just to turn it on in the playoffs... i don't like that
e) anyone who saw the LA-Minnesota series knows full well that the ref's tend to be a tad biased towards the lakers... if there is a call that could go either way, it will go the lakers way. it's no secret that david stern wants his #2 market to advance as far into the playoffs as possiable... why do you think they made the first round 7 games? (anyone who doesn't buy that the nba would "rig" something to aide one of it's biggest markets needs to look no further than the Knicks winning the very first draft lottery, bringing patrick ewing to new york... ewing was as highly touted comming out of g-town as lebron is now)
f) rick fox
g) rick fox
h) i grew tired of listening to people talk about how the lakers are unstopable based on the fact that they've run through the nba finals with hardly a hitch... people tend to forget that if not for two game 7 fourth quarter choke jobs by the trailblazers and the kings, the lakers "dynasty" would have only been 1 title, rather than the 3