Lakers’ fans twisting with emotion

WORLDWIDE fans of the Los Angeles Lakers are writhing in a whirl of emotions nowadays.

I hope the diehards are not stunned silly with the Lakers’ worst start in the NBA since time immemorial. I trust they are still stabbing the air with a vengeful fist when the team wins on occasion.

The last time I checked, the Lakers were wallowing in last place in the Pacific Division with 10 wins against 22 loses.

They are the second worst team overall in the NBA’s tough Western Conference, ahead only of the Minnesota Timberwolves and their five wins and 26 losses nine weeks into the 2014-15 season.

In a sign of pro basketball’s changing fortunes, the Lakers’ cross-state rivals, the Golden State Warriors—local pride of Bay Area Filipinos—are on top of the West with a league best 25-5 record.

The Clippers are in second spot at 22-11, and, in a reversal of roles, are now casting a giant shadow over their crosstown rivals in Southern California—the biggest bastion of Filipino support for the Lakers in the United States and possibly in the world.
Diminished momentarily with the team’s start that’s as chilly as the unusual Arctic blast in the Southland this year is the Lakers dominance—and their 16 NBA championships.

Gone for now is their record for the NBA’s longest winning streak of 33 straight games set during the 1971-72 season.

Gone for the time being is the distinction of 16 Basketball Hall of Famers who played for the team and the eight Lakers who have won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Awards—including Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

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Despite his team’s misfortune this year, Bryant, now on his 19th season as a player, is on target for his 17th All-Star game appearance.

As of this writing, Bryant was the fourth highest vote-getter with close to 700,000 votes in balloting for the League’s 2015 All Star Game.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James leads the voting followed by Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors) and Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans).

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Looks like the hellish Nampicuan-Cuyapo road in Nueva Ecija has gotten the attention of provincial honchos in Cabanatuan.

My friend, Fidel Dacquel Jr. who goes home to Cuyapo almost every weekend, reports that at a turtle’s pace, heavy equipment have massed on the left lane of the road, bulldozing and grading their way from Nampicuan proper to Barangay Bentigan in Cuyapo.

“Paypaysuen dan sa nga aramidenen,” (It looks like they’re serious about the road’s rehab this time) said my friend in Ilocano.

The six-kilometer stretch we have chatted about in columns past has been utterly neglected for decades. It is one of the worst major arteries in the country.

But when finally cemented or asphalted, the road will open the interior towns of Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan.

It could also serve as an alternate route for motorists to Baguio and the Ilocos who want to avoid MacArthur Highway traffic in Moncada and San Manuel in Tarlac and Rosales in Pangasinan.