Fan-dom soul-searching w/poll
by RebelRogue on May 30, 2008 8:56 AM PDT
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PrintWarning: This post contains the word "Lakers." Read at your own risk.
For me, my fan-hate of the Lakers began in the elimination game of the Western Conference finals where in the final seconds of the game, Magic Johnson takes the ball and tosses it cross-court to bounce out the remaining time. He didn't hold onto it to allow the Blazers a chance to foul him. No, he did a smart thing, and I hated him - and the Lakers - for it as my dreams of a championship bounced away with the ball - in the wrong direction.
The funny thing about it is, I only hated him as a Laker. If the Blazers had made a trade for him in that very off-season, even if they'd traded Clyde, I would have been glad to have him and give my whole-hearted fan-love. Strange how that works.
It was the players that beat us, not the uniforms, not the yellow and purple. Still, throughout the years, my irrational fan-hate has festered in me to the point where I laughed at the tears in Kobe's eyes when he and Shaq were eliminated after years of dominating. I chuckled and guffawed when that girl tried her best to ruin his life and all the ensuing drama. Everything about me was anti-Lakers. No matter who played them, I wanted the other team to win.
Now, something has changed. During game one against the Spores this year, I found myself gripping my seat, rooting for the Lakers as they mounted a ferocious comeback from twenty down in the third to win the game. (Coming into this series, the Spores were my second least favorite team.)
After the game, I sat back and did some soul-searching. My hate was gone, and still is. The Lakers are simply a team who have done great things this year - a team thier fans can and should be proud of. Kobe has matured some - both as a player and a person, - and dammitall, he's amazing. I don't hate him either, despite all the things he's done to the Blazers.
I'm not saying I'm a Laker fan all of a sudden. I simply no longer hate them or wish doom upon their heads. At least, not when they're playing the Spores. Still, when they play the Blazers (or anyone besides the Spores) in the near future, I'll want them to lose badly - but only because I want my guys to kick their mules. Like Kobe, I think I may have matured a little. Hmm.
So, because we all love polls so much, I've added one. First, I'm going to ask you to imagine the impossible, in like, dude, that'll never happen fashion.
Update: I'm new to posting fanposts. That said I'm a little annoyed that the poll format cut out half of my text. Here is what it should be in entirety;
OK. Here goes... brace yourselves. Suppose Harry Potter is real and the most powerful wizard in the world - who happens to be a huge fan of the Lakers. What's her face with the huge spectacles looks into her crystal ball and sees the future of the NBA. When Harry Potter discovers how dominating the Blazers are going to be for the next twelve years, he casts a spell on the owners and GMs of both teams orchestrating the biggest trade of all time. The teams swap their entire rosters. So do you...
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Dude, that made me kind of sick
This is not the place for tolerance, rational thought, confessions and intriguing hypothetical questions!!!!! Man, that was bad. It’s really hard to keep up irrational hatred towards one team when people keep giving you reasons not to hate. It’s the exact opposite of trying to love Rasheed. Man….. I’m so upset…..
There’s a lot to dislike about the Lakers still. Phil Jackson’s comments about teh officiating were reprehensible. I’ve always like Kobe and hated him at the same time. I can admire his skill, but you’ll never hear my praise for him.
It’s not the team we hate. It’s not the people in the uniforms. It’s the city, their smugness and way of life. They’re flashy and pretentious in our common perception. I live in SoCal now an know that’s a gross misobservation. But, when I’m home out in the Gorge and some jerk wad pulls up in a hummer, his Gucci sunglasses up on his head (it’s a very cloudy day), a vest on. When he’s wearing those tight designer jeans and tries to pump his own gas. He just has to be noticed. Man Californians try so hard to get noticed, to be special, to feel special. The hubris suffocates me. It’s in anything they do, their teams and way of life.
That way of life is antithetical to the Oregonian lifestyle. We’re humble, not vain. It’s this difference that we hate. The Lakers as an institution provide a focul point for that frustration.
It’s a good focul point.
Let’s keep it please.
I'm a really really ridiculously good looking orange mocha frappaccino drinking manhammer sandwich
by hobobob on May 30, 2008 9:37 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Hey!!!! This thing only lets me
recommend your post once….....not the hundred or so times I wanted to. (I think I hurt my finger)
"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss" Robert A. Heinlein
by 92wastheyear on May 30, 2008 10:06 AM PDT up reply actions
Good post. I get what you're saying.
LA bugs me, too. I would never want to live there. Of course, that may be different if my dream involved the silver screen. I like movies, good ones anyway, but for some reason, all those big-name actors lined up in the premium seats have always annoyed me. I can’t explain it. I mean, it makes sense for them to be there, but I can’t help but question their fanhood. With the exception of Mr. Jack Nicholson, I think most of them are there simply because it’s fashionable. I could be wrong, but if it were the Lakers who sucked instead of the Clips, would they still be the same fans?
Okay, my musings wandered a bit there. I apologize for making you sick. Keep your focal point by all means! I just wanted to share my epiphany, if you can call it that, and to find out how many of us are fans of the Logo – or the Team. Is the team the players, or is the logo the team? Or, is the location of the team the most important factor? Would Tom still be a fan if the Sonics moved to Hawaii instead of Oklahoma?
"...and that loud noise you hear coming is the Portland Trailblazers." - Charles Barkley
Too-late-warning.
You drop the bomb in the middle of the advertisement.
Humans are trival. Tribes give protection and support. Tribes have rivarlry with other tribes, sometimes fight and sometimes pay tribute to them. This way tribes help other tribes to define their own identity as groups, further of the only addition of their members. Nothing wrong.
"If OJ Mayo falls to the 2nd round We should risk one of our 3 second round picks on Mayo". Mortimer.
I'm not anti-rival.
And the Blazers are unarguably my tribe.
I will still bang sword against shield and chant, “BEAT LA.”
It’s just for the first time, I questioned my “hate.” They are opponents, not The Enemy. Beat them, yes, but don’t spit in their faces afterward or stick pins in voodoo dolls.
"...and that loud noise you hear coming is the Portland Trailblazers." - Charles Barkley
Same boat.
"If OJ Mayo falls to the 2nd round We should risk one of our 3 second round picks on Mayo". Mortimer.
Is it required that you make a voodoo doll
yourself? Or can you just use any run of the mill K*be Bryant action figure?? Is there any thing special about the pin? Do you have to soak them in yak blood or are they just regular pins? Thanks for the voodoo idea…I guess I will have to google the answers to these important questions. OBTW…..don’t be too suprised if in the finals, KB24 goes up for a dunk and and just keeps on flying straight up and slams into the ceiling of the Staples Center (I will have just thrown the action figure up into the ceiling of my living room) or maybe his head will just melt in front of our eyes. Where the heck did I put my lighter?
"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss" Robert A. Heinlein
by 92wastheyear on May 30, 2008 11:34 AM PDT up reply actions
he - he. I'm busting up
That was funny!
Kobe has an action figure? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. He is in LA, afterall. Our guys only get those awful bobble heads.
You can buy pre-packaged voodoo dolls with instructions – the only export of Haiti. But I think you need a piece of his hair or something. Might be difficult to come by.
But really, I think melting his head is going too far. Think of the children.
"...and that loud noise you hear coming is the Portland Trailblazers." - Charles Barkley
Will somebody please think of the children!!
I heard somewhere that they can’t make Kbe bobble-heads. The whole theory of bobble heads is that the head is giantly out of proportion with the body…..the problem is that this is also true of Kbe in real life. So it would be just another action figure
"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss" Robert A. Heinlein
by 92wastheyear on May 30, 2008 12:34 PM PDT up reply actions
Oh good grief. On top of everything else he's an anthropologist too.
You never fail to amaze me amlmart. Have you read every book in the Bodleian Library?
"Besides, AnntheFan will be here any minute to #25 you." T Darkstar
I like to visit the Bod when I walk Broad Street going out of work.
Actually, I´m more for autodidactism, self-directed learning without books. It is a long but interesting story. My father was born after the death of the only child of his parents, when his mother was 40 and the child was 8 years old. The child knew that he was going to die and accept his fate positively, encouraging his parents, saying that he was happy because he will join God and all that kind of stuff. My grandmother was a very strong personality and when she considered that her son was a saint she moved sky and earth to start a process to make her child a saint. I read his life written in little books with pieces of his clothes, even in Japanese, with some miracles by the way. My dead uncle promise to his mother that she would have a new baby, and so my father was born. As my father couldn´t be so good boy as his brother, the ceiling being too high, he had to be the best student, the ceiling being also very very high. So at the age of 7 years old my father had read the books of the most important Spanish philosophers, and in the years to come he won some prizes in school and university, etc. He had The Bible in his memory and detected any mistake in TV programs about religion. Actually he was an encyclopedic man. When my father had his 5 children his world was in the books, so we were sent to a good college but we didn´t suffer any kind of pressure to be outstanding, like he did. As my father learnt by his brother, I learnt by my father that I wouldn´t be an encyclopedist. So I learn my own chaotic way. Nothing similar to a professor. This is the way I´m learning English here.
"If OJ Mayo falls to the 2nd round We should risk one of our 3 second round picks on Mayo". Mortimer.
That is sad and funny. I’m glad I’m not dead.
I think I have a man crush on Bobby Flay.
by tominhawaii on May 31, 2008 12:45 AM PDT up reply actions
We don´t know what we are missing being alive
but I understand, even share, your point of view.
"If OJ Mayo falls to the 2nd round We should risk one of our 3 second round picks on Mayo". Mortimer.
Cool
I’m glad you’re alive too.
I think I have a man crush on Bobby Flay.
by tominhawaii on May 31, 2008 10:52 AM PDT up reply actions
That is a sad and beautiful piece of family history amlmart.
It’s sad your father felt he couldn’t succeed on his own merits from the time he was small. He sounds like a fascinating man. And he did succeed if he was able to send 5 children through college. You may not be an encyclopedist but it certainly seems you have an encyclopedic mind and very καθολικός (catholic in the greek sense) interests. Maybe learning in the way you do enables you to see connections that other people can only guess at.
"Besides, AnntheFan will be here any minute to #25 you." T Darkstar
Kobe = Magic
Well… obviously there are some HUGE differences, but in this context they are the same to me. I hated Magic and the Lakers during the Drexler years, but as soon as Magic wasn’t a Laker any more he became one of my favorite basketball players… and I always knew it would work out that way too.
I have a perspective on Kobe that most people don’t get… or at least a very good friend of mine does. He spent a few years as an autograph hound hanging out around the exists after games, learning tricks to find out what hotels the big names were staying at despite their aliases, getting to know all the security staff at the hotels, etc. He got to see the “real” people. He knows who signs, who ignores you, and who stops to ridicule you before not signing. He knows from the cleaning staff who has the wildest raunchiest parties . He knows who stays out partying before the games. He’s never had anything but good things to say about Kobe and even has some notably good stories (inviting him up to his room once, coming through for him on things he said he would do for him).
Of course there’s that other bit which, if true, means that’s all crap and he should rot in heck… but innocent until proven guilty and all that.
by Gargen on May 30, 2008 10:41 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Thanks for sharing that
It’s always great to get behind-the-scenes info. Kobe has always struck me as a cocky, arrogant, not-so-little terd who unfortunately doesn’t stink. I never got that impression from Magic. Still, maybe that’s just Kobe’s game face, and if anyone has a right to be arrogant, it’s him. He does seem more mature this year, but that might only be because they’re winning. In the offseason wasn’t he whining and demanding a trade?
"...and that loud noise you hear coming is the Portland Trailblazers." - Charles Barkley
Swap the teams?
I thought about this. If kobe had been on our team from the start, I’m sure we’d all love him. Frankly, i love his killer instinct because no one in this league has that right now besides him. Wade was starting to own it, but injury stopped him and how knows if that killer will be back.
So, what would I do? My hate for the lakers team has died somewhat, and now I pretty much hate them on principle. However, I couldn’t root for them as suddenly “my team”. I couldn’t root for the blazers who were suddenly lakers. I’m torn.
What would I do?
I’d walk away from basketball. It’d be meaningless and flavorless because any championship would have been bought and not earned and any games the lakers won… they’d be lakers who had bought it as well.
Cool post and thankfully KP isn’t that stupid even if Harry DID cast a spell on him. I can’t see it taking effect. KP would be employing wizards of his own, and Potter might be strong by himself as a Wizard… but wizards of the coast have hermoine and she’s FAR smarter, so I’ll take her and the WIZARDS. Strength in brains and strength in numbers.
"We play for one thing and one thing only, and that's championships." - The Devil Spawned
good post
I do not hate the Lakers either. The past is the past. Also, California is as good as they are bad. They lead the country in ‘posers’, but they also lead the country in the solar energy industry (I could go on).
As rebelrogue stated, their fandom exists because it is fashionable. For those blazer fans without season tickets (myself included), we are going to find it harder and harder to attend any games without paying $$$$. Why? Because it will be “fashionable” to attend Blazer games again.
As far as Kobe is concerned, he is a great competitive basketball player. I enjoy watching great basketball players.
Dang it, RebelRogue.
Do you have to be so mature? This is a FAN site after all. ;0
"Besides, AnntheFan will be here any minute to #25 you." T Darkstar
Mature? Me?
Ah, I see you don’t see the real me, hiding behind these words on a computer screen. I just turned introspective for a few moments and look what happened. My whole idea of myself as a fan, as a hater of the Odomized Lakers, has crumbled down around me, exposing a naked and trembling newborn, confused and blinking at this new and frightening world – without hate.
You have just been Odomized! Hiccup. Dratted beer!
"...and that loud noise you hear coming is the Portland Trailblazers." - Charles Barkley
Dude
Just last week, my coworker looked and me and said, “Your from Oregon right, Eugene?” I said, “Yeah, what off it, you want to fight?” Then he said, “Isn’t Floater from there? Then he went on about the drummer playing drums with a screwdriver. After that we got colonics together.
I think I have a man crush on Bobby Flay.
I would like to have this
"If OJ Mayo falls to the 2nd round We should risk one of our 3 second round picks on Mayo". Mortimer.
Dude, Floater is an awesome band.
Yeah, they are from Eugene originally. Now, they call Portland home. Check ‘em out. www.floatermusic.com. They have a small sampling there, though, some of their music may be too heavy for some.
And dude? I’m like completely ignoring your colonics remark, because that’s just plain sick. Excuse me while I barf.
"...and that loud noise you hear coming is the Portland Trailblazers." - Charles Barkley
They can't be that hardcore
They sing a song about Cinnabons getting stuck in their eyes.
I think I have a man crush on Bobby Flay.
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