Beat LA! Now and 4ever!

by Krang on Apr 11, 2009 12:50 PM PDT

Alright, basking in the glow of our glorious victory over IMO our most hated rivals, I've decided to vent on a little thing I've noticed that has begun to bother me more and more.

The thing that is bothering me is the idea advanced by La*er fans and some others, that we should not "Hate" LA. That this rivalry only exists in the Northwest and is one-sided, coming only from "backwards" or unsophisticated Blazer fans. You've heard it, I've heard it and it is total BS!

Perhaps it's just good psychological manipulation on the behalf of La*er fans. To react to our rabid support of our team and our ravenous desire to Beat LA! with indifference. Obviously the star studded crowd at the forum can't match our "backwards and unsophisticated" level of support, so feign indifference. But come on La*er supporters who do you think you are kidding? This rivalry has existed for decades, very near to the inception of The Blazer franchise itself. I grew up when the Pacific Division was the battle ground of The La*ers and The Blazers with each team taking turn as the alpha dog. I'm not going to rehash the history between these two teams, we all know it and we all know it exists.

So my point is, in Portland, in the NW. It's Beat LA! Sure in the typical arrogant La*er fashion, The La*ers and their fans can belittle us by pretending there is no rivalry or mocking our simple groundroot support but IMO that's just jealousy. Kobe and The La*ers just might be the team to beat this season, but they've gotten a good look at the future and The future is Black and Red with a Blazer Swirl. So as La*er fans do the math and realize our core is young and their core is old, I'd invite them to embrace the rivalry. Ultimately crowds that arrive late, leave early and look like it's game night for the Hollywood Old Folks homes, aren't going to win a championship.

So fair warning to The La*ers and their fans. The rivalry exists. If you don't want to aknowledge it or embrace it it will be to your ultimate and inevitable detriment.

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I explained it like this to a non-Blazer, non-Laker fan...

…he said that EVERYONE hates LA. This was my reply:

It’s different.

In Portland, you can literally be shunned for wearing Lakers gear. Right now we have a mayor who is openly gay and is being investigated by the FBI for statutory rape against a male intern (who’s 18 now and was briefly 17 while he was an intern), then bribed a reporter to keep it quiet, but he’s still mayor (although this came out after his recent election). But no mayor could be elected here if there were photos of them in Lakers gear.

This city doesn’t just hate the Lakers, a lot of the people here hate everything LA represents, hate the attitude of the people there, hate the approaches to lifes choices that the city takes.

I don’t know that I can really describe the ways Portlanders hate LA. It transcends sports, and it’s not entirely because of the Lakers, or maybe not even mostly because of the Lakers. This city really hates LA, and it doesn’t matter if the fans or players in LA care, or hate us back or anything. We don’t get our fire, and our players don’t get their drive, from trying to make the other team hate us. The drive comes from vying for superiority; utter defeat of the other team.

by JordanLeDoux on Apr 11, 2009 1:22 PM PDT reply actions

I hate USC too.

by RipCityRoyCity on Apr 11, 2009 6:36 PM PDT up reply actions

See if they downplay the rivalry in Round 2

by jiminut on Apr 11, 2009 1:53 PM PDT reply actions

I'm sick of the hate stuff

It used to be fun to hate everything about the Lakers. Now some Blazers fans take it so serious that it is often way out of line. It is supposed to be a light hearted hate. It should be a hate that only applies to the NBA and not areas outside of the game. People are making it personal and using derogatory terms that border on the real kind of “hate speech” and it often goes too far.

It is fun to call Phil Jackson the devil and find photos of him that look like the devil, or even Photoshop pictures of him to make him look like the devil. It is not fun when people call him dirty names or bring up his personal life. Basketball is just a game, and there is an obvious reason I didn’t use Kobe as my example.

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by tominhawaii on Apr 11, 2009 2:46 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs

I agree to a point

I hate everything about the Lakers, basketball wise. I will always root against them, and I got an irrational degree of satisfaction watching them get blown out in the finals last year, but that’s really where it stops. I don’t mind Kobe as a person, and I never really think about Colorado any more since that stuff strikes me as over the top. For some reason, though, I really just don’t like Brian Shaw, still. Not sure why that’s the case, still.

I still despise their fans with every fiber of my being, not sure if that counts as going too far.

by Royster on Apr 11, 2009 2:59 PM PDT up reply actions

Rec'd. I agree, it's getting tiresome.

The louder and more obnoxious some BEdgers get about hating the Lakers and their fans, the more I want to say nice things about the Lakers and their fans. When it comes to rivalries, there’s a line that should not be crossed and many Blazer fans cross over it with a steamroller. I commented about this in a response to pslakerfan in the other thread yesterday. BTW, pslakerfan said he probably won’t return to BE because of the nasty response he got from a lot of BEdgers. That’s our loss — he had some intelligent things to say and was generally polite and interesting when he wasn’t being attacked.

by MiledAnimal on Apr 11, 2009 3:16 PM PDT up reply actions

I agree.

Too easy to go overboard with that stuff. I take it in stride as a joke but know that people will naturally get carried away. If it isn’t for the quality of the opponent then a victory has little meaning anyway… that lady in the photo screaming at Kobe in the fanshot looks like she has gone off the deep end. That’s my 2 cents worth.

by QuebecBlzrFan on Apr 11, 2009 4:44 PM PDT up reply actions

Were those Canadian or American cents?

by MiledAnimal on Apr 11, 2009 4:46 PM PDT up reply actions

I think we could make you walk the plank today tom ;)

The Faith don't panic, the faith freaks out burns out farms and torchs small villages in the name of The Faith.

by faith on Apr 11, 2009 5:44 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm not that swell of a swimmer

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by tominhawaii on Apr 12, 2009 2:56 AM PDT up reply actions

laughes...

tha’d be the idea ;)

love ya though man, and I couldn’t watch you drown….lol..after a good miniute of watchin you struggle I think I’d have to jump in and drown with you ;)

The Faith don't panic, the faith freaks out burns out farms and torchs small villages in the name of The Faith.

by faith on Apr 12, 2009 7:12 AM PDT up reply actions

I can tread water ok

For some reason I fail to kick as efficiently as I should.

by tominhawaii on Apr 12, 2009 7:36 AM PDT up reply actions

Alright..alright..alright...

Perhaps “hate” is too strong a term…(somehow I think not) but for some perhaps using the word hate is just too inflamatory. I guess if it really, really boils down to it I don’t “hate” the La*ers in the full 1960’s technicolor, Biblical sense of the word. Yes sports is a diversion, it’s an entertainment and at some point the mentally healthier of us should keep it in that perspective. However some of the responses to this post are exactly what I’m talking about, there’s a subtle weakening of the rivalry. Of course I don’t want fans of either team to act stupid or violent, but on the other hand let’s not get so Politically Correct that we water down the rivalry. Come on guys, it’s okay, infact it’s perfectly wonderful to Extremely, immensely, rabidly, fanatically dislike The La*ers, It’s the difference between chanting “Let’s do Good against LA!” and “Beat LA!”…

By the way, I do agree that if individuals stray beyond good sense and use the rivalry as an excuse to perpetuate REAL acts of hate and hate speech then that is absolutely 100% wrong. But I also think that individuals like that are @ss-holes with or without the rivalry and they are going to be idiots regardless of what real fans are chanting. Unfortunately those type of people exist regardless of ritual or rivalry not really because of ritual or rivalry.

"Mother Nature started this fight, I think it's about time we ended it!"

by Krang on Apr 11, 2009 10:47 PM PDT up reply actions

well, when we get the first

hate crime conviction for a Blazer-Laker fan incident, we’ll know it’s gone too far.

by Royster on Apr 11, 2009 11:51 PM PDT up reply actions

Imagine if hate-speech laws were applied to sports.

by MiledAnimal on Apr 12, 2009 7:12 PM PDT up reply actions

We can put this whole thing to bed in the play offs

All we need is a Blazers playoff series win in Game 6 in LA with a miracle 3 at the buzzer. Preferably hit by someone like Batum. Then we continue to the NBA finals from there.

After that the rivalry will be on forever from the L@ker fans’ perspective too. And It would be totaly AWESOME for us Blazer fans!

by The Thinker on Apr 11, 2009 2:48 PM PDT reply actions

game 6

will be at the rose garden. If the lakers can win enough to force a game 6.

by lurtsman on Apr 11, 2009 10:07 PM PDT up reply actions

One sided rivalry

I am a die-hard, lifelong Blazer fan, but I live in LA with several good friends who are Laker fans, so I have a pretty good feel for the attitude and pulse of Laker fans. And the truth is, as much as we want to play it up, it really is a one-sided rivalry. They really do not think that much about the Blazers and their fans, except for 1-2 days surrounding any given game, and that is only in years when we are competitive with them. Definately the only true rivalry for the Lakers is with the Celtics. They are the only team LA has a hatred for and is always on their minds. The Lakers have a long history of epic contests with Boston, along with more than their share of heartbreaks and losses to the Celts. That is probably the reason why they don’t think that much one way or the other about the Blazers….because with a very few exceptions, they have never really tasted heartbreak or any significant losses at the hands of Portland. Maybe we can change that this year…!!

by socalblazer on Apr 11, 2009 5:06 PM PDT reply actions