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What: “Close TWO a Dynasty”

Author: Lyle Spencer

Publisher: The Sporting News

Price: $24.95

This 111-page coffee-table book full of photos and text commemorates the Lakers’ second consecutive NBA championship season.

Lyle Spencer, a sports columnist for the Riverside Press-Enterprise who used to cover the Lakers for the old Los Angeles Herald Examiner, takes the reader through the 2000-2001 season. However, the book begins in the end. Chapter 1 is on the Lakers’ victory parade.

Chapter 2 deals with the relationship between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. That’s where the “TWO” in the title comes from. The story is how the relationship went from bad to good.

Spencer writes about how, in the locker room of San Antonio’s Alamodome, the two touched knuckles and O’Neal said, “You’re my idol.” Writes Spencer: “A few months earlier, Shaq and Kobe going fist to fist would have had a different meaning entirely, with dire consequences.”

Chapter 3 is titled “Phil and the Role Players.” This chapter begins with a comment about Phil Jackson from John Wooden: “I don’t think his biggest job was with Kobe and Shaq. It was getting the other fellows to accept their roles.”

Subsequent chapters deal with the regular season, the playoffs through the conference finals and finally, with a game-by-game breakdown of the NBA Finals.

For any Laker fan, this book provides plenty of good memories.