Taking the Fun Out of Winning

This letter is to all who wrote to The Times addressing the unruly citizens around Staples Center after Monday’s title game. You’re preaching to the choir. Those people were not the ones who pick up the paper and read the letters. In fact, it’s a good bet that most of them probably can’t read.

BRIAN MANN

Cypress

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After watching the shameful displays of civil disobedience in downtown Los Angeles that occurred during the postgame celebration and after the victory parade honoring the Lakers, I was struck by three thoughts:

1. I now have a greater appreciation for the job the Los Angeles Police Department has to do.

2. The city of Los Angeles is not ready for, and does not deserve, another professional sports team.

3. L.A. Times sportswriters (and other local media) should refrain from derogatory remarks about other cities. Who are we to judge?

FLOYD A. PHILLIPS

Valley Center, Calif.

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A lot has been said regarding the inaccessibility to Laker games at Staples Center for the “average man on the street.” All things considered, I don’t believe any corporate sponsors or season-ticket holders were involved in burning police cars after the championship game.

JEFF NUZZI

Santa Monica

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It’s great to see the City of Los Angeles support the Lakers with a victory parade. It is unfortunate for people like myself who have a real job that the parade was on a normal business workday. It’s great to see all the people I support with my tax dollars on welfare are having such a great time.

ROBERT McNALLY

San Pedro

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So Bill Plaschke thinks it’s “refreshing” that the out-of-town media shrugged off the melee outside the Staples Center. For some people, apparently, such wanton destruction is no big deal unless it affects them personally.

What I find refreshing is the many fans of the Lakers who realize that the ruin of even one person’s livelihood or the trashing of even a small part of the city does taint the victory, as it should. How can anyone but a self-centered fool think otherwise?

CHANTAL SCHLICTER

Upland

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I don’t mean to ruin the euphoria, but in reference to the Lakers’ NBA championship, I have three issues:

1. Can we now drop the 1988 thing? For 12 years it has been L.A.’s only claim to fame for pro teams, but by the end of 1989 it got old.

2. The term “dynasty” has been tossed around by this current Laker team, but one title does not a dynasty make.

3. Given the L.A. Times’ habit of exaggerating things, I was amused by the back-page picture of Shaquille O’Neal with the statement, “Winning. It’s So L.A.” After 12 years, it should have read, “Winning. It’s About Time, L.A.”

OK, I’m done. Let’s all go to Disneyland.

F. DAYTON

Hesperia

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Los Angeles is my city, the place where I was born, where I live and the place I may die. What these thugs did after our Lakers’ championship is a personal insult to me, my family and my home. I feel cheated. I lived and died with the Lakers all year . . . heck, all my life, and now I can never truly remember this moment without the taint of these lowlifes with no respect for themselves, much less for me, dancing around a burning vehicle like half-crazed savages.

I’m sorry that this may be the lasting image of what the rest of the nation sees of L.A., and I don’t mean to downplay what these criminals did, but just as we Angelenos are not all skateboard-toting, bleached-blond surfers, those thugs are not representative of us, and “we” can only hope the rest of the nation can understand that in spite of what they saw.

MARIO SOTO

Valencia

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I have finally figured out the Zen master’s secret of the triangle offense. It requires that the Zen master coach a team with the league’s consensus MVP (Michael Jordan-Shaquille O’Neal); a second All-NBA superstar (Scottie Pippen-Kobe Bryant) and the home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

The Lakers’ last Svengali, Pat Riley, has learned those lessons well. Guru Pat had won a grand total of zero titles without Magic, Kareem and home-court advantage the last time I checked. Please, Phil, learn from the mistakes of your esteemed predecessor! Keep Shaq, Kobe and the home court and your triangle offense will remain successful.

MARK ROTH

Los Angeles

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Heck, Diane Pucin can win a title coaching the Lakers. Phil, try a real challenge by coaching the other team that plays at the Staples Center.

RAMON ZUNIGA

Sherman Oaks

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Thank you, Charles Oakley, for not signing with the Lakers so that you could play in Toronto for a fatter paycheck. Hopefully, you had A.C. Green’s cell phone number so he could let you know how sweet it was from atop the balcony at Staples!

RENE AVILA

Los Angeles

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Hopefully this time next year, some sportswriter will summarize:

“After a Laker injury-free season, with Shaq making a personal record-high 70% free throws, Kobe breaking Magic’s season assists record, Glen Rice scoring 27 points a game, and new power forward (fill in the blank) finally making this good team a great team, the Lakers repeated as NBA champions, sweeping the finals . . . and not a car was scratched after the championship game.”

VIC WAKI

Rancho Santa Margarita

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So your city’s multimillionaire mercenaries, led by their Hessian-like coach, have kicked all pretenders aside and goose-stepped their way to an NBA title. Congratulations, Los Angeles! You bought it. You deserve it. Nice post-championship celebration too. You guys sure know how to have a good time.

JACK SHINAR

Sacramento

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With only two games left in the NBA finals, I wonder whose turn it is to win the sixth game on Monday? I had to count on my fingers, but I think I finally figured it out. Shades of Hulk Hogan and Jesse Ventura. This is the kind of stuff that draws the crowds to medicine shows and carnivals.

ROBERT H. WILLIAMS

Monterey Park

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I am a die-hard, fanatical Laker fan. My 9-year-old grandson and I have collected and pasted up Laker clippings from The Times sports section all season long. Because of the Lakers, I woke up on Tuesday morning feeling like a champion.

But your photo on June 21 took Shaq way beyond basketball. In these first hours of glory, everybody is watching Shaq. And Shaq, whose opinion really counts among sports enthusiasts and among many young, male parents, chose to spend his first night as L.A.’s hero at a women’s basketball game, eating pizza with his 4-year-old daughter, exhibiting, as usual, his wonderful knack for good-natured fun.

I hope Shaq shows us a lot more images like this, and that the organizations that are trying to promote women’s sports, leadership and family responsibility ask for permission to reprint them a million times. Shaquille O’Neal is more than an NBA champion, he is a national treasure, and I am very proud to be his fan.

KATY GOULD

Chatsworth

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As a lifelong Laker fan, a person who has celebrated every NBA championship the team has brought to Los Angeles, I think it is time to publicly thank the one person who has had an integral part in every championship.

Thank you, Jerry West, for your class, for your commitment to winning and most of all for defining what it means to be a Laker.

REX PAUL

Simi Valley

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Now I understand why Donald Sterling keeps winning all of those civic awards. He always makes sure that the Clippers do not cause a downtown riot by winning the NBA championship.

To the LAPD who let the riot happen: I saw who started it. It was several hundred hooligans wearing Laker jerseys. There were at least two dozen No. 34s and about a hundred No. 8s. All the No. 41s are innocent because they kept missing when they tried to throw objects into the bonfires.

SCOTT SHIMAMOTO

Pasadena

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I agree with those readers who wrote in last week complaining of Christina Rice’s comments. All inexpert, unsolicited nonsense should be restricted to Viewpoint letters.

MO LEE

Newport Beach