If Beauden Barrett had had his kicking boots on, the All Blacks would have won the second test, even down to 14 men. In the third test, there was the little matter of a dropped pass by Julian Savea, more kicking misses by Barrett, missed opportunities by others - even before that French refereeing mess at the end.
So anything other than an analysis suggesting that the series result should have been 3-0 to the All Blacks is steeped in what Andy Haden used to say to rugby scribes outside Auckland when discussing their commentary: "Do you think your perspective is affected by your regional bias?"
No, Sean, credit where it is due. The Lions drew the series against the All Blacks - the second best result in Lions history in this country; Gatland can forever quote that fact.
Having heavy legs and being over-trained had very little to do with the result. There was, after all, no sign of heavy legs and over-training in O'Brien's try and in that heroic defence, even though Gatland remarkably conceded O'Brien might have had a point.
People talking in the media often bend the narrative to their own advantage. O'Brien wanted, he said, to make sure things were better "going forward".
His remarks led to Gatland tossing in the towel as Lions coach, so all O'Brien really achieved was to illustrate players can quite safely slag off the coach once the tour is over and their selection on the next Lions tour (O'Brien will be 34) is not an issue.
Gatland wasn't immune from flexible remembrances. He recalled the New Zealand Herald headline that disgusted him as "Gatland aims at Barbarians' weakness - his son". A search through Herald digital archives yielded no such headline.
"Gatland v Gatland - Bryn first piece in test jigsaw" was the Herald piece run on the day complained of - and it must be said media all round the world fastened on the unmissable angle of (player) son opposing (coach) father.
Maybe he didn't like the contention that he had told power No. 12 Ben Teo to run at his son.
But just a minute...this is international rugby. Everyone is wearing their big boy pants. If there was a fault in the Herald story, it may have been that there was no corroboration re the Teo reference - but I will bet you the Taj Mahal to a teabag that someone in the Lions will have given Teo licence to run at the new boy. As I recall it, Gatland junior played rather well.
Maybe the Herald's caricature of Gatland as a clown was a bridge (of the red nose) too far but was the so-called campaign of negativity as bad as all that?
"Sumo", as he was known in the All Blacks during his long deputyship to Sean Fitzpatrick, is a Kiwi. He surely knows his countrymen are apt to be over-sensitive when the former colonial overlords come to town.
Gatland also surely knows the treatment handed out to World Cup winner Sir Clive Woodward in 2005 was far more vicious. Woodward paid the penalty for trying to massage a losing Lions tour with slippery PR spin - and was roundly chastised by everybody.
"Sir Clive Woodward was revealed as a coach with a strategy rooted in a time warp in 2003 and the highly-flawed concept of a test team chosen on reputation, with the novel technique of not allowing them to play together to develop combinations and rhythm. It's a truism that a PR strategy can only work if the core strategy does. If not, PR professionals end up doing what they describe as "polishing the turd".
So thundered one unforgiving scribe. Oh, all right, me again...
Woodward has never coached another international rugby team though he did win Olympic and football roles before ending up on the speaking circuit and writing a column in the Daily Mail.
It's easy to admire Gatland for his openness in discussing the tour and its flaws - but you do wonder whether positioning himself as a victim is the right way to go.
