This Lakers team - in the historical sense - seems a lot like the Lakers team that made it to the Final with Divac at center after Kareem retired, and lost to the Bulls. It was a great testament to Magic Johnson that he could lead a team back to the finals without his Hall of Fame center, but they were not a championship caliber team. There's still time for this L.A. team to turn it around and prove me wrong, but Kobe without Shaq = great player, capable of leading a team to the Finals, but not a championship team.