Confessions of a ex-L*kers Fan

pretty amazing….

but my curiosity finally wins out.. what do you mean by…

I am not surprised to hear this what so ever!

im not suprised you became a blazer fan after living /schooling in Portland.

Sophia

The teams I hated most growing up were the Pistons and the Celtics.. and I couldn’t even bring myself to root for the L*kers against them in the recent Finals! I wasn’t rooting for any of them.. just watching basketball at that point..

At this point, I think I’m closer to a part-time Spur fan than L*ker fan because I really respect the organization and how they put themselves in a great position to win championships during every part of Duncan’s career.

the l*kers were division rivals for over 30 years before realignment, and the playoff clashes between them and the Blazers still makes them far more of a rival than either the nugs or jazz.

Game seven WCF 2000. No self respecting Blazer fan in that game could ever root for a l*ker ever again.

picking a contoversial stance. I can’t believe you stoop that low as to root for… them. I really question how you can be a fan of the Blazers if you can be a fan of… that team. Sometimes I really think think you come on this blog for a bigger stage. I mean you know a lot about this team, but you usually only try and use your knowledge to push people’s buttons. Normally I try and let it go, but really I see no way that anyone can be both a flakers and Blazers fan. Maybe if someone is just a caual watcher with no loyalty. Outside of that, you can’t like the Yankees and Red Sox, can’t like the Eagles and the Cowgirls, and you can’t like the Blazers and… them. That’s just how it goes.

In some ways, my family made me more of a fan. I started out kind of reserved and.. well.. bookish.. about it all. But my wife and mom really just wanted to go rah-home-team really loud, and they were like a flood once I got them going they pulled me even further!!

in that way, Blazermania is a lot like conjunctivitis!!

Good to know there are a few fellow ex-’ers out here!!

That’s also an interesting perspective that I got to experience as I was becoming a Blazer fan and looking to read about the changes that happened in the Blazer organization since 2004.

Anyone who writes these sorts of things:

-Perhaps because of the direction from which my fandom grew, I am very much set against bringing in big free agents. Phrases like “All-Star,” “marquee,” “legit,” and “big name” make me shudder and turn away. I love the fact that Portland is a bit of a small backwater when it comes to the NBA. I like the lack of national spotlight coupled with intense focus from local media. I enjoy the way the team grew last year, slowly, organically, but together. I love building through the draft, teaching the players what you want, and then retaining them while they prosper. I would relish it if we slowly grew a contender over a few years, without any big media stories surrounding a free agent acquisition or trade, only to suddenly explode onto the championship tier with the same pieces that we’ve held for a while. Don’t get me wrong, a key veteran teacher here and there would be immensely helpful, but I don’t want an over-the-top player to come in and put a stamp on a championship mold that we had been patiently grooming.

-I love Oregon. I think it is the best state in the nation and one of the greatest places on the planet. If players don’t want to play here because of whatever perceived lack of lifestyle, that is fine with me. I don’t want someone who cannot appreciate the wonderful standard of living in a city like Portland. A player who is not happy with his locale is not a player that will be performing at his highest. For that reason, I gained a lot of respect for Magloire at the end of last season. While he was talking about wanting to stay with the Blazers, one of his frequent comments was how much he loved the city and how great it would be to raise a family here. I understand letting him go, and am not really sorry about it, but that view was more endearing to me than much of his basketball skills and shortcomings.

 . . . would have been proud to be a fan during the early 80s. That lost era after the championship and before Clyde Drexler. – Elgin

could drive the length of the floor with the ball at 6’11"….rememeber him as #11 think he played awhile on the KNicks….Spencer Haywood could almost guard him if I remember

when you look at the flow of talent that went through LA between 79 and 89 – it’s pretty ridiculous..

sometimes when my Blazer homerism is in full gear I can totally imagine the Blazers winning 4-6 championships between 2011 and 2021… and doing it with more intact pieces than any other dynasty team ever..

I always thought I’d always love my LA teams..

and if I cared about baseball.. I would root for the Dodgers.. it was nice seeing them do well last year, but I can’t actually sit through a baseball game anymore..

and I would probably watch NFL football if I considered them legit but its tough when you don’t have a LA team..

All I can say is that I only flipped.. I never flopped.. I haven’t considered the L*kers as my team in a long time.. it turned out that once ‘the Magic’ was gone, it was gone for good..

but still…..

I would say that my team betrayed me more than I betrayed my team..

given that neither of us really betrayed the other

you don’t want 98% of L*ker fans to join the red & black.. a pretty snotty bunch with questionable basketball iq and commitment..

I stuck with them for my first couple of years in Portland. But I hated what Nellie and the Warriors’ idiot owner did to the team. Meanwhile, I got to like the Blazers—especially Jerome Kersey (I’m a sucker for that type of player). After awhile, I only rooted for the Warriors when they played the Blazers. Then before I knew it, I’d crossed that final frontier and lost all allegiance to my hometown franchise.

The conversion process took about 3 years, I guess. Even the Jailblazers weren’t enough to shift me back, but I wasn’t wild about that group. While their playoff meltdown vs the Lakers was excruciating, on some level I felt it revealed the team’s character. In my view, even had they won that fateful game, they’d have blown it in the Finals.

It took Brandon Roy’s first game to make me a true Blazer fan, I guess. I love this team as much as I did the Warriors of my childhood. And that’s saying something.

I am missing my central coast reds and that Pismo sun in the afternoon…….ok…..back to the beautiful rain and the green trees!…and air I can’t see!

It’s a feeling I never got living in LA or San Diego. Between the variety of sports and the weather and the tourism/entertainment industry.. there are just more things to occupy people’s time. A much lower density of fans for any particular sport team..