These Lakers fans are living in la-la land

No.

It's the rare air around the Los Angeles Lakers. And it would make you choke.

This sounds like homerism, I know, but folks out here are delusional. Sure, they deserve happiness in the wake of the Lakers winning the NBA championship in Orlando Sunday, but it's way over the top. There's talk about Kobe as equal to Michael. Some think Phil Jackson is better than Red Auerbach. And they actually believe they are an NBA dynasty.

There's more. All restaurants in LA have been ordered to serve Kobe beef. Los Angeles high school geometry classes are teaching Jackson's triangle offense. Pau Gasol is recording a duet with Enrique Iglesias. The word "great" is being thrown around like "awesome" and "dude."

Nobody talks about how a year ago the Celtics humiliated the soft-shell Lakers in six games. This is LA and 12 months ago might as well be the Dolph Schayes era.

Please. Do they actually think they would have won this year if Kevin Garnett had been healthy?

Anybody remember that the final score of Game 6 last year was 131-92? Or that Paul Pierce copped the Finals MVP trophy, totally outplaying the ever-joyless Bryant?

It makes me long for Garnett's return to full strength and a possible Celtic-Laker rematch in 2010. If the Lakers win that one, we'll give them their props. Meanwhile, this is a little like when the Larry Bird Celtics beat the Houston Rockets in 1981 and 1986 respectively, to win NBA championships. Those titles were nice, but not as special as 1984 when Bird, Parish, and McHale beat Magic, Kareem, and Worthy.

We can all be glad that Red didn't live to see Jackson move to the top of the championship coaching list with this 10th title. Red was never particularly gracious about Big Phil (or anything else, for that matter). It started out as an anti-Knick thing, then got serious when Jackson started racking up the titles with the Bulls and the Lakers. Red always held that Jackson "picked his spots."

While it is true that it's harder to win an NBA championship today than it was in 1966 (more tiers of playoffs, more scouting, salary cap, etc.), need we remind you that Red hung up his whistle after winning eight straight championships and nine in 10 years? And he was only 48 years old.

Back in the days when a juiced Jose Canseco was hitting 40 homers and stealing 40 bases, Mickey Mantle said, "Hell, If I'd known 40-40 was going to be a big deal, I'd have done it every year!"

It's the same with Red and this magical figure of 10 championships as an NBA coach. Had Red known that smarty-pants Jackson (Phil wore a yellow cap with roman numeral X after Sunday's win) was going to jump from Michael and Scottie to Shaq and Kobe, and hang around the bench to the age of 64, Red no doubt would have stayed on the bench and collected a couple more titles.

It's not just Red getting dissed out here. Patriot fans - a group more protective than kindergarten parents of an only child - will be dismayed to read that estimable LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke Monday declared that Jerry Buss "becomes the best sports owner of the 21st century."

Ouch. Plaschke correctly noted that LA has won four NBA championships since 2000. The Patriots, you might recall, have three Vince Lombardi trophies this decade and came ridiculously close (anybody remember that one?) to a fourth one in Glendale, Ariz., in February of 2008.

I am happy to report that there's one voice of reason in the 310 area code. Under the headline "Idolatry of the Lakers is ludicrous," Times columnist T.J. Simers (Manny's BFF) wrote, "a victory doesn't suddenly make unlikable athletes likable . . . The Lakers are champions, but they did little to cozy up to the folks of LA beyond being good . . . It has always been about them. Kobe and Phil . . . Kobe and Phil's personal quests now for individual greatness . . . "

Wow. Guess T.J. won't get a float in today's parade.

The parade starts at Staples Center at 11 a.m. tomorrow and proceeds 2 miles to the LA Coliseum.

Very nice. But we all know that if the route went through Causeway Street things might have been different. See you next year.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com.