Late on the Lake Show, and a remembrance

Woooooo!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! LAAAAKKEEEEEEEEERRRRRSSSSSS!!!

Oh, wait. That's right: the Lakers won the NBA Finals a week ago. A week ago! And I'm just getting around to it now. Dammit.

I wish I could say that witnessing Laker victory from 7,500 miles away is just as sweet as experiencing it a bit closer to home, even from the East Coast of the US (as I did in 2000 and 2001). But it isn't. Not even close. I mean, which scenario would you choose:

(A) Watching the game in a crowded bar with dozens of rabid fans.

(B) Following the first half of the game at work via nba.com and Lakers Nation's Twitter feed (which was superb, fortunately) and then watching the second half in a quiet pub in Sydney at 11am on a Monday.

This isn't a trick question; it's an easy answer. But unfortunately, I don't have a choice in the matter. I had to take Option B. Although I guess I can't complain. Coming here, I knew I'd be making some sacrifices -- just as I knew I'd be getting a whole lot of benefits in return -- and I guess this is one of them.

I wasn't nearly as close or as emotionally invested in this Lakers team as I was in the 2000 or 2001 Lakers. Those teams... those were the championship teams that I loved the most.

Ironically, a year after those two titles, while I was on my first trip to Sydney, the Lakers won another one. And to make that championship even sweeter, they beat the hated Kings in a brutal seven-game Western Conference Finals on the way to their three-peat. Yet just like the 2009 Lakers, I didn't have nearly the same connection to that team.

Whatever. It's still awesome. I'll take it.

You know what I really miss, possibly more so than the thrill that would have come from being closer to this victory? Chick Hearn.

This is the Lakers' first championship since Chick died, just a few months after they swept the Nets in 2002. And seven years later, I can still remember coming off the plane from Australia that August, stepping onto US soil for the first time in half a year, and being greeted by my Dad, who almost immediately told me of Chick's passing.

I miss everything about Chick. His sing-song voice. His sayings. The excitement he brought to the game. His thinly-veiled loathing of Stu Lantz.* His connection to the Lakers, and to the city of LA.

*I have no proof of that, but I swear you could tell he didn't like Lantz, and I'll go to the grave believing it.

I can still close my eyes and picture Chick calling games, hear his voice. We'll never have another one like him, just like we'll never have another Vin Scully. So as the Lakers wrapped up Game 5 in Orlando last week, that was one of the first things that came to mind. Because as great as it was to see them notch up their 15th NBA title, it would have been so much more sweet to hear Chick calling it.

I'll let Chick close it out for us: