The Dodgers Are Chasing A Three-peat. They Can Take Some Cues From The 2002 Lakers

Can you excavation it? Can you perceive it?

They’re getting louder, nan echoes from 2002, erstwhile Lakers flags flapped supra car doors each complete L.A., and for a 3rd consecutive year, residents paraded, gleeful and triumphant, pinch different title to celebrate.

As good arsenic immoderate place, Los Angeles understands: Great teams triumph championships. Exceptionally awesome teams repeat, back-to-back it up. But only nan top teams three-peat.

We haven’t witnessed a successful trifecta successful North American sports since those Lakers hit nan Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets successful successive NBA Finals.

But tin history three-peat itself now? Can nan Dodgers deed nan three?

Take a look astatine nan blueprints of erstwhile Laker coach Phil Jackson’s 3 three-peats, particularly nan 1 successful L.A., and show me, do you spot it too?

Do you admit nan acquainted notes and akin focus? The symmetry successful what some teams opportunity astir what it took and will return to propulsion disconnected nan 5th three-peat successful their respective sports? You spot each nan signs pointing to yes?

“The correction that title teams often make is to effort to repetition their winning formula,” Jackson wrote successful his 2013 book, “Eleven Rings.” “The cardinal to sustained occurrence is to support increasing arsenic a team. Winning is astir moving into nan chartless and creating thing new.”

Funny, Dave Roberts said overmuch nan aforesaid thing: “There’s a halfway group of players, but things play retired truthful otherwise each year. I deliberation it’s to beryllium capable to abstracted it and look astatine it by itself.”

It helped nan Lakers, of course, that they had 2 of nan top players who ever lived, successful Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. And that nan Dodgers person Shohei Ohtani, nan top singular shot talent ever — flanked connected each sides by shot A-listers.

Yes, they produce. They besides spur production.

“It was astir winning championships, that was nan anticipation and I deliberation everyone successful that locker room felt that pressure,” said Mark Madsen, whose first 2 NBA seasons were connected Lakers title teams. “I felt that unit arsenic a domiciled player, and that made maine better.”

“It’s easy to travel present and activity hard,” said Ben Casparius, nan Dodgers’ 27-year-old third-year reliever. “I want to execute good for Freddie (Freeman) and for Mookie (Betts) and for these guys who’ve been doing it for a agelong time, who merit that level of attraction and adapting to beryllium capable to win.”

The Lakers ever had stars successful their roles align: Big-shot makers for illustration Horry and Derek Fisher. The Dodgers person big-hit-makers for illustration Kiké Hernández and Miguel Rojas.

The Lakers had Jerry West group things successful mobility then; nan Dodgers person Andrew Friedman doing it now.

The Lakers had Jackson, nan Dodgers person Roberts — title players who’ve excelled arsenic managers of men.

But, listen, that’s only toeing nan separator of nan rubber.

“It has to do pinch management,” said Robert Horry, 1 of 7 players who was portion of each 3 of those Lakers’ title teams. “If they find nan champion massage therapist, nan champion trainers, nan champion nutritionist, each those things play a part. You want to consciousness for illustration you’re being taken attraction of … and athletes, we want to beryllium pampered, we want to beryllium loved, you want to beryllium appreciated, and I deliberation some organizations strive to do that.”

Robert Horry, getting mobbed by teammates aft hitting a game-winning three-pointer successful Game 4 of nan 2002 Western Conference finals, was 1 of 7 players who was connected each 3 Lakers title teams betwixt 2000 and 2002.

(WALLY SKALIJ/Los Angeles Times)

Only a jumpball to unfastened play.

“There’s a batch of glitz and glamour astir nan Dodgers and L.A.,” Casparius said. “But I don’t deliberation group really understand nan magnitude of activity that goes into (it). From our nutritionist to our trainers to our caput of spot and conditioning to our pitching coordinators, everybody’s moving hard. People aren’t happy erstwhile we suffer outpouring training games. People aren’t happy if we make a mates errors aliases pitchers aren’t throwing strikes. The barroom is precocious everywhere.”

Sure, it’s basketballs to baseballs, and not a cleanable comparison; conscionable ideate really precocious Ohtani’s usage would beryllium if you could spam nan pick-and-roll pinch him.

And nan Lakers’ three-peat was almost a 4th of a period ago; their full subordinate payroll was $53 cardinal — astir $4 cardinal little than Kyle Tucker will gain this season.

Oh, but tomayto, tomahto.

If those Lakers — combustible and saturated but built amended than each different squad connected nan satellite astatine nan clip — could move nan triple play, truthful tin Roberts’ drama-free superteam.

But nan first norm astir three-peating is that you do not talk astir three-peating, aliases arsenic 3rd baseman Max Muncy surmised: “The biggest situation of a three-peat is not treating it for illustration it’s a three-peat.”

“Don’t moreover deliberation astir it,” Horry said. “When we were going for nan three-peat, we didn’t talk astir it. We conscionable said we wanted to play nan champion shot that we could.”

The Dodgers understand, Hernández said, because “whatever happened past twelvemonth and nan erstwhile year, that’s already paid for, that’s already history. You’re not trying to triumph 3 championships successful 1 year, you’re conscionable trying to triumph this year.”

The beauty of that reasoning is that it transcends three-peats and starts to beryllium astir life much broadly.

“I remember,” Madsen said, “what George Mumford would ever say, our squad psychologist: ‘Don’t unrecorded successful nan past, don’t unrecorded successful nan future, only unrecorded successful nan present. If you make a mistake, don’t dwell connected it. And don’t get consumed pinch reasoning astir nan future. Only beryllium successful nan present, beryllium nan champion type of yourself successful nan present. The remainder will return attraction of itself.’”

Mark Madsen was drafted by nan Lakers successful 2000 and was portion of nan 2001 and 2002 title teams. He later served arsenic a Lakers adjunct coach, above.

(Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

Of course, opponents are besides going to want severely to beryllium nan champion versions of themselves successful those moments they’re facing nan Dodgers.

“Each and each night, you are nan measuring instrumentality for each squad you play,” Horry said.

Echoed catcher Dalton Rushing: “You person teams that travel to municipality and they could’ve mislaid their past 13 games, but if they return 2 from nan Dodgers, their full month’s complete.”

Gotta emotion that, though, these guys say.

“I return it arsenic a compliment,” Hernández said. “I return it arsenic a privilege.”

Kiké Hernández, supra during a 2024 game, has won nan World Series 3 times pinch nan Dodgers, including nan erstwhile 2 seasons.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The privilege is pressure, unit is simply a privilege and nan anticipation of making specified rarefied history, pinch folks astatine FanGraphs giving nan Dodgers 27% likelihood to triumph this World Series, is thing but automatic.

“We tin spot why nan 3rd clip is nan hardest,” Fisher said connected June 12, 2002, aft nan Lakers swept nan Nets to triumph No. 3, capping a play successful which they vanished tied for 2nd successful nan Western Conference.

“This started arsenic a foregone conclusion. It didn’t look that measurement arsenic we went forward. So, for our hoops team, nan truth we didn’t springiness up makes it special. We fought.”

L.A. remembers it. L.A. appreciates it.

“(The Lakers) had immoderate awesome teams, and this metropolis loves winning,” Hernández said. “And we’ve done beautiful bully astatine winning nan past mates years, truthful we’re trying to support doing it.”

L.A. digs it.