A Timeline Of The Lakers Crazy & Underachieving Season

Sunday night, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the depleted and old Los Angeles Lakers, 103- 82, completing a 4-0 first round series sweep and ending the Lakers incredibly tumultuous season. The contest included Dwight Howard's first season with the club ending in a rather bizarre and unexpected ejection.

As a result of last offseason's acquisitions of Howard and Steve Nash, Las Vegas posted the Lakers odds of winning an NBA title at 8 to 5. That of course did not happen. Instead, the Lake Show experienced arguably one of the craziest and most underachieving seasons in sports history.

The craziness started as they struggled through a winless preseason, before getting off to a 1-4 start. This poor beginning led to the shocking dismissal of head coach Mike Brown. Initially, it looked like Phil Jackson was going to return for his third stint as head coach, but that course of action was overruled by controversial owner Jim Buss, who instead elected to hire Mike D'Antoni.

Injures were also a major part of the Lakers downfall, with Nash hurt for the first part of the season, as each key player missed periods of time throughout the year. In fact, LA's anticipated All-Star lineup of Nash, Kobe Bryant, Metta World Peace, Pau Gasol and Howard only played in seven total games together.

One of the biggest Laker dramas involved Dwight Howard's troubled relationship with Kobe Bryant. Much of the season, it appeared as if the pair was simply unable to get on the same page. It even got to the point where Bryant called out Howard, for not playing through his ongoing shoulder injury.

The most devastating event of the Lakers season involved the death of legendary owner Jerry Buss. Buss created “Showtime,” while building the franchise into one of the most iconic and celebrated teams in all of sports.

The Lakers season would also witness Kobe Bryant severely injuring his Achilles tendon, late in the campaign. Who knows if Kobe will ever be the same, after experiencing a major injury at 34-years-old?

With an old team, many key players not signed past next season and Dwight Howard's impending free agency, the future of the Lake Show is very much up in the air, at the present time. Going forward, it will be interesting to see if the Lakers will remain the glamour team that NBA fans are accustomed to seeing, or if a period of temporary decline strikes this organization, so synonymous with winning NBA championships.