Lakers' Lamar Odom Is NBA Sixth Man Of The Year!

The Lakers have won virtually every award in the league. Here's one more they can put on their shelves.

Versatile Laker big man Lamar Odom won the Sixth Man Of The Year Award, beating former awardee Jason Terry as well as the 76er's Thaddeus Young and the Celtics' Glen Davis.

Odom averaged 14.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and three assists per game while shooting 53 percent from the field. Realistically, a case can be made for Odom starting on the Lakers, as well as on any other team on the league.

But Odom's wide skill set as well as his team-first attitude, (qualities other Sixth Man awardees also exhibit) has made him the ideal catalyst off the bench.

Odom was also a vital member of the last version of the US Men's Basketball Team and certainly an important piece in the Laker machine.

Congrats, Lamar!

More of this story, here.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THE NBA?

Are they not getting enough groupies on their road trips?

FINE GAME FIVE!

Now that is championship basketball.

Killer threes, slashing drives, miraculous foul-counteds (one from Fisher, one from Cassell), in-your-face shoutdowns, no-calls on obvious fouls, dives and floor burns, missed free throws from All Stars plus a strip and a Kobe dunk to seal the game.

Whew!

Lakers win Game 5, 103-98, and earn the right to go to Boston to try and keep their title hopes alive. Heroes for this game include Fisher, Farmar, Odom and Pau Gasol, who thoroughly outplayed Kevin Garnett in the last 3 minutes.

And now, on to Boston!

THEY CALL HIM..."THE MACHINE"!

And, in Game 3 of the NBA 2008 Championship round, they certainly needed his machine like precision.

Sasha Vujacic scored 20points on a variety of fundamentally sound and extremely open shots as Kobe "The Black Mamba: Bryant upped his game by another notch in scoring 36 points to lead LA to a 6 point victory.

Vujacic's offensive proficiency was very timely as Gasol and Odom were off-form and old reliable Derek Fisher was not as reliable as usual.

Fortunately for them, only Ray Allen from Boston's Big Three showed up, as Garnett missed his first 6 shots (including a breakaway dunk) and Pierce went 2-14.

On a curious side comment, Leon Powe drew some defensive pressure from Odom, Turiaf and Gasol. The Game 2 hero quickly reverted back to being a rookie.

Also, Kobe guarded Rajon Rondo, a testament to the Lakers' growing respect for the yougn point guard. Of course, 16 assists do have a tendency to get an opposing team's attention.

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT: LAKERS VS CELTICS

As a denizen of the 80's, this image is one of the most enduring memories from my childhood.

Cool Larry Bird against exuberant Magic Johnson.

Intense white and green versus flashy purple and gold.

Stoic Celtics versus trash talking Lakers.

And they are back.

This time, the Celtics are no longer stoic and are probably more intense than ever before, with the arrival of the Big Ticket, Kevin Garnett and babyfaced sharpshooter, Ray Allen. But they are still as good as any veteran Celtics team of yore with Paul "The Truth" Pierce leading the charge, as well as rising star Rajon Rondo and solid role players like James Posey and Kendrick Perkins.

The Lakers aren't as flashy as Magic's Showtime Lakers, as hardworking Pau Gasol and reliable Derek Fisher are more about solid fundamentals and high basketball IQ's than athleticism. But all you need for Showtime is Kobe Bryant around the rim and Lamar Odom running free and determined. Add to that underrated Luke Walton, solid Sasha Vujacic and better-than-ever Jordan Farmar and we have got ourselves a hell of a series.

My take? Celtics over Lakers in overtime in a Game 7 for the ages (Kobe ends up with 60+pts, Allen, Garnett and Pierce each with 25+)

But then again, I've always been a fan of the Basketball Jesus.

PLAYOFFS PROOF THAT ALL STARS RULE

Let's stop fooling ourselves.

The NBA playoffs is not about the team. It's about the superstars and All-Stars who play the game. And chances are, the more All Stars you have, the longer yo play in April.

Take a look at this list of past, present, should-have-been and will be All Stars...

Lakers - Kobe, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol
Jazz - Deron Williams, Memo Okur, Calros Boozer
Spurs - Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, TonyParker, Michael Finley
Hornets - Chris Paul, Peja Stojakovic, David West
Celtics - KG, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Sam Cassell
Cavs- LBJ, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Wally Szcerbiak, Ben Wallace
Pistons - Chanucey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Tayshaun Prince
Magic - Dwight Howard, Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis

Teams that were eliminated had their share of All Stars but in less dazzling form or less in quantity, teams like Atlanta (Josh Smith and Joe Johnson), Houston (McGrady), Denver (Carmelo, Iverson, Camby) even Dallas (Nowitzki, Howard amd Kidd).

And how about those who didn't have any All-Stars like Chicago, Memphis and Minnesota?

Which just goes to show that basketball is, slowly but surely, becoming a superstar's game.