On the heels of the popularity generated from Nick and Jessica&8217;s MTV program &8220;Newlyweds,&8221; ABC gave us a taste last week of a short-lived sports reality show entitled &8220;Divorcees.&8221;

Too bad the enlightening look into the degradation of a professional sports franchise had to come at the end of the NBA season.

The typically more than two-hour episodes were captivating, filled with infighting between self-absorbed individuals blinded by Hollywood&8217;s lights, who forgot the No. 1 goal: win a championship.

Reality television had never been as intoxicating as it was with Los Angeles&8217; Lakers during the Finals.

If you had Detroit in five: one, you&8217;re a big fat liar, and two, there&8217;s a spot reserved for you beside me at the no-limit, hold-&8217;em table.

Whether you liked the Finals depended on what kind of basketball purist you are. If you long for the days of Paul Westhead, Alex English and the early 1990 Denver Nugget teams that forced scoreboard light bulbs to be replaced routinely, you probably enjoyed summer reruns of &8220;Punk&8217;d,&8221; the &8220;Law and Order&8221; carousel or the not-to-be-messed-with Nick at Nite lineup.

On the other hand, if you&8217;re having an identity crisis and feel like a soccer fan trapped in a hoopster&8217;s body, then the Pistons&8217; smothering defense and low-scoring affairs were enough to tolerate that ridiculous &8220;Let&8217;s Get It Started&8221; theme song.

Tuesday night&8217;s 100-87 series clincher, the exception to the arduous-scoring rule in these Finals, will be less memorable since I was parked watching my Chicago Cubbies start what ultimately finished Thursday as a four-game sweep of Houston, supposedly their biggest competition this year, at Minute Maid Park (my friend and lifelong Cubs fan Chandler wanted me to get that in).

Was I shocked that Shaq, Kobe Phil and the rest of the &8220;Dynasty&8221; cast lost? Sure. I mean, did you see the jumper on that Alexis Carrington chick? She got game.

Of course, I thought the Lakers were destined to win their fourth title in five years. With four future hall of famers in your starting five, destiny should have little to do with Ws.

However, it was only a matter of time before they imploded faster than Jennifer Lopez relationship. The Kobe-Shaq drama has been must-see-TV for the eight years they&8217;ve played together &8212; I use that term loosely &8212; in L.A.

But it wasn&8217;t until team owner Jerry Buss hired Jackson that the combustible pair reached the precipice of the NBA.

Through his Zen artistries and a Staples Forum full of incense, PJ got the dynamic duo on the same page &8212; figuratively and literally, through the books he gave each one &8212; and they three-peated.

Now, they&8217;ve failed and the relationship has dissolved into a nasty &8220;COPS&8221; domestic dispute.

The Lakers&8217; personnel will look much different at the start of next season. It&8217;s quite possible L.A. could go from you grandmother&8217;s &8220;stories&8221; to an early-morning infomercial.

Chuck Corder

is a sports writer for The Natchez Democrat. Reach him at (601) 445-3633 or by e-mail at

chuck.corder@natchezdemocrat.com

.