Our logo falls into the dust.

Happy birthday to me, but Lamar crumpled like so many cards in a win against the Rockets on Tuesday night.

His fall from the ranks of Lakerland for at least a month could return the Lakes to their last year's paradigm: Kobe scores every time down while the rest of the team takes in his spectacle.

Don't get me wrong; Mamba is perhaps the G.O.A.T. and probably already is with regards to scoring the basketball. However, the evolution of the Lakes into a multifaceted attacking machine was among the more thrilling aspects of this 1/4 done year.

To a large extent, Lamar enabled their startling push into importance. He seemed energized by the death of his infant son. Perhaps his all-encompassing grief finally enabled him to begin to fathom the almost limitless death of his talents. Or, it could be that another year of Phil Jackson was and is causing the Lakers to come together like so many Beatles.The long term effects of Odom's injury could prove more deadly than losing Kobe for a similar span of time. Not to suggest that Odom is more valuable than Mamba. Quite the opposite--his status as 2nd best is what makes this injury so devastating.

Take tonight's game against the Mavericks as a prime example. Mamba dominated the Q3, but as the Lakers fell further and further back as 4Q went on, there was no-one to help Kobe to shoulder the load. Had Kobe been injured, a kind of communal spirit would have been in effect; since there would have been no focal point at which the Mavericks could direct their defensive onslaught, they would have instead been forced to contend with the very real possibility of points coming from anywhere on the floor. As it was, Kobe was reduced to wild heaves with an only theoretical possibility of bringing his team back into it.
The Lakers are not an elite team yet, but Lamar's multifaceted goodness pushed them constantly in the direction of the sanctity of a Top-5 seed. It remains to be seen whether or not they can weather his stormy absence from the court, but never underestimate the wizardry of the man in the suit.