Lakers Fans: Spoiled By Success
by aramnath on Dec 28, 2009 1:20 PM EST
in Fans We Root Against
2 comments
The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the greatest franchises in all of sports and have won 16 championships in their history, including four in this decade and their most recent coming in last year's NBA Finals. Since being founded in 1946, the Lakers have missed the playoffs only five times in their entire history. Legendary players like Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, George Mikan, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant among others have donned the purple and gold. In the history of basketball there are the Celtics and the Lakers and then there is everyone else.
Usually I write this article on Wednesdays, but I couldn't wait any longer after witnessing the pathetic display put out by Lakers fans on Christmas.
With all the history and success that the Lakers have been a part of, you would think that their fans would have some patience with their team. Even I was under that until Christmas. The Lakers hosted the Cavaliers in what was billed as a showdown between the Black Mamba and King James. The Cavaliers turned in a dominating performance however and were up by double figures for the majority of the second half.
Heading into the game the Lakers were 23-4. At halftime they were down by 11 and there were some Lakers fans that actually started booing the team. The chorus of boos became even louder during the end of the game when it became clear the Lakers would lose.
Did the Lakers play under par? Definitely, but how do you boo a team attempting to repeat as champions, that has lost a grand total of five games more than a quarter of the way through the season?
That wasn't even the worst part. With the Lakers down 19 with 4:04 left in the fourth quarter and the game all but done, the Staples Center crowd was so pissed by the officials not calling what they felt were fouls that they started throwing foam fingers out on to the court. Granted the referees definitely missed some calls in this particular game, but how many times do the Lakers get the benefit of every bullshit, ticky tack foul going their way?
You stay classy Los Angeles.
Now before we delve into how throwing foam fingers on to the court for all of forty seconds is the most pussy ass reaction you could have, are you Lakers fans actually complaining about not getting calls? Give me a break. This is team that won a championship in 2002 because the referees decided to hand them their Western Conference Finals series against the Kings.
Now back to the foam fingers. If you're going to throw a hissy fit over your precious championship-caliber team dropping a game in December and the officials not bailing them out for once, do something a little bit more outrageous than throwing foam onto the court. If this was in Philly you would see chairs flying from courtside onto the floor and beer pouring down from the rafters. That would be an actual reaction meriting some kind of attention.
Has anybody ever noticed that the Staples Center only looks full sometime mid-way through the second quarter, because everybody shows up late to the game. Here's a hint guys: It's not a party, you don't need to show up fashionably late so that everybody sees you make an entrance.
I also loathe the Lakers because of their success in comparison to the Knicks' decade worth of failures. This is what makes me want to bitch slap every Lakers fan. If the Knicks won a championship I'd be satisfied for five years and i certainly would not boo them for losing a game that sent them to 23-5. I would be at games an hour early trying to get Kobe Bryant's signature during warm-ups and then I'd scope out the building for any celebrity sightings.
The Lakers are a great team and have a good chance at repeating this year as NBA champions. Maybe after 17 titles their fans will actually start to give a shit.
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First of all, I admit, some people here in Los Angeles have no class. I’ve lived in L.A. all my life and I’ve met a lot of classless people, but we’re not neanderthals!! Why would we pour beer out of the rafters and throw chairs to the court?! That’s a riot waiting to happen and people would actually get injured from that kinda shit, so that “pussy ass reaction” was the best thing that could happen in that situation. People were just expressing their frustration in a classless way, not trying to kill someone or get on national news!
Second of all (referring to the fans being late), have you been to Los Angeles? If you haven’t, then obviously you don’t understand L.A. traffic. Think about it . . . the Lakers games usually start at 7pm and the gates usually open an hour before the game. Around that time, traffic on the freeway that runs right by Staples Center is HELL. Not only is it rush hour, but there’s 19,000 fans trying to find parking in Downtown L.A. which is not exactly the easiest thing to do since parking by Staples is expensive and the cheaper parking is blocks away from Staples which means more walking. To add on, Nokia Theatre is right accross the street, so when they have events, you add another 9,000 people trying to make their way around Downtown.
Third of all, I’m almost certain that the fans were booing the refs and the Lakers’ effort that day, not the Laker team. You may not think there’s a difference, but I do. Believe it or not, there are true fans here that actually give a shit about the Lakers, but of course, there’s a ton of bandwagon fans as well.
Finally, I agree with you 110% about us Lakers fans being spoiled by success. I admit, I’m spoiled by their success as well. We all know the Lakers are a championship caliber team so we have the tendency to expect a win whenever they play the suckish teams and we don’t expect a loss by a large margin. Some of us just needs to realize that the Lakers aren’t going to win every single game and the Lakers are going to have some of those off nights. We also need to realize that the Lakers are the defending champions so every single team they play is going to play their hardest.
For the record, I don’t remember a time when Los Angeles had class. I love L.A. with all my heart, but I don’t meet too many classy people. People from L.A. are just a different breed of attitude.
Obviously I was being sarcastic in saying they should pour beer onto the floor. It was just hilarious seeing one of the most well-behaved crowds in the NBA try and express their frustration without having ever done it before. Plus nobody really wants to be like Philly.
They may have been booing the team’s effort and I understand there’s nothing more frustrating than watching your favorite team go through the motions, but as you said I think there needs to be more perspective among Lakers fans. It’s difficult to expect guys to go all out for 82 games in the formality that is the NBA regular season.
Most of this is in jest, but it is nice to see that some of the stereotypes people have of Lakers fans have been confirmed by you. There are definitely some real Lakers fans, like yourself, but unfortunately the bandwagon fans are overwhelming.
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