37 Things I'll Miss About Lakers Opening Night

[Editor's Note: Life is filled with color. A blue sky. Green grass. Red lipstick. At sunset, you get to take your pick. Sports is the same way. Tennessee orange. Bulls red. Celtics green.  And of course, our two favorite colors: Purple and Gold. Color is beauty. Color is life. That makes death the absence of color. Every one of us likes color. That's why most of us have wardrobes with many colors to choose from. And, unless you run in certain circles, there's only one type of gathering that has no color to see.

A funeral. That's what today is, the funeral to commemorate the beginning of the 2012 NBA season. And that's why Silver Screen and Roll, joined by all of our NBA brothers and sisters of SB Nation, are properly attired ... in black. -CAC]

1.     Jeffrey Osborne.

2.     The gleam of ceiling lights off the Lakers' logo at center court.

3.     Seeing "World Peace" on the back of a Lakers jersey.

4.     Kobe Bryant's midrange turnaround.

5.     Debating whether the Thunder have surpassed the Lakers in the Western Conference food chain.

6.     The opening chords of the Pau Gasol Redemption Tour.

7.     Lamar Odom attacking off the dribble from the left elbow.

8.     Finding out whether Metta World Peace can still mess up Kevin Durant.

9.     Getting our first look at the Lakers' new free-agent big man.

10.  James Harden's facial hair.

11.  Quin Snyder's non-facial hair.

12.  Knowing I don't have to write or more importantly think about BRI splits, revenue sharing, the NLRB or Billy Hunter for at least the next six years.

13.  Shots of Andrew Bynum in street clothes, followed quickly by sarcastic and not-sarcastic TRADE BYNUM comments in the game thread.

14.  Making fun of how Scotty Brooks says everything in the huddle twice. EVERYTHING TWICE!

15.  Andrew Goudelock's first career three-pointer.

16.  Darius Morris' first career assist.

17.  Them Laker Girls.

18.  The kids who mop the sweat underneath the basket before free throws.

19.  BUILD A MOAT, PROTECT THE MONEY.

20.  Realizing I miss Joel Meyers and his obsession with points off turnovers. (Maybe. Just a little. I don't know, I guess I'll find out.)

21.  Booing Kendrick Perkins.

22.  Wishing Steve Blake still had someone to throw alley-oops to now that Shannon Brown's gone.

23.  A random Warriors or Trail Blazers fan trolling the game thread.

24.  Jack.

25.  "Noooooiiice!"

26.  Thabo Sefolosha shooting 2 for 6.

27.  Derek Fisher taking a charge.

28.  Calculating points per possession.

29.  Your mom. Nah, just kidding - she's still coming over tonight.

30.  Complaining after Matt Barnes shoots an off-target three when he should've been in the paint fighting for position.

31.  Thunder fans freaking over Russell Westbrook's FGA total.

32.  "There's dancing at the Vine!"

33.  Postgame GIFs and cat pictures.

34.  Starting to find out exactly what this Mike Brown character has up his sleeve.

35.  Taking the first few baby steps toward forgetting the horrors of last year's playoffs.

36.  Win or lose, overinterpreting a one-game data set.

37.  Basketball, my homies. Basketball.