Incorrect. It shows that hating the Lakers transcends being a Blazer fan. It transcends being an NBA fan or a sports fan in general. It means hating an organization and it's fan base that for almost three decades has stood for smugness, egotism, poor winning (and losing), and an insufferable lack of respect towards it's opponents. It's fan base ignorantly and classlessly use the team's success as a means to claim superiority over other teams fans. One must only observe the behavior of Laker fans in the Rose Garden. Plus, DaRizzle's claim that he's not a "bandwaggoner" is laughable, since he's never had to endure any kind of lasting pain and emotional anguish for rooting and hoping for success for a Laker team that's clearly outmatched at the hands of it's opponents. I myself have long decided that I am a Laker Hater more than I am a Blazer fan. I root for any team that takes the court vs. the Urine and Bruise. I root for them to go 0-82 every year. I hope that they fail so completely that they have to shut down as an NBA franchise for pure ineptness. Yes, it's petty, and vengeful, and spiteful, but over three decades of watching the Blazers and the rest of the NBA come out on the short end of the stick to the Lakers more often than not, and having to have that fact shoved in your face by Laker "fans" who wore Detroit Jerseys in the late 80s and Bulls Jerseys in the 90s, makes a fire pit of hell in my heart that will never be extinguished.
That right their explains it. I am a Blazer fan and a fan of the wonderful sport of Basketball. Some people will just hate, and I guess thats now what I'm about. It reminds me of when I went to Yankee Stadium a couple years back and they played the Mets.. their were fans walking around with Red Sox Hats and Mets Jerseys.. that to me is as sad as a bandwagon fan. At least bandwagon fans show their allegiance to one team. Not spread 50/50.. or in your case since you are a laker hater over Blazer fan and an 0-82 record would be victory for you.. you spread your allegiances to 29 teams.. that puts your alliegance percentage at a whopping 3.45% to each other team.. thats a lot of bandwagons to hop to and from.
and it reminds me of.. sorry to offend some.. cause I know youre not all like that.. but a lot of Beaver fans are the same way with the Ducks. Strikes me as pathetic. But I know not all are like that.
Dude, your just envious that my team kicks ass....I was born in 1979...my dad took me to my first game in the 1987 season...I was able to say hi to Jack and saw Magic dribble the ball only 10 feet away from me when I was walking down by the court...needless to say I was hooked. Is it my fault that I grew up in the town that had the Lakers? Is it my fault that I started appreciating sports when I was 8 and the Lakers happened to be good??? There was the mid 90's when the Lakers were down but I was still a fan. Would you like to see my "Wall of Lakers" in my apt? Just to jog your selective memory I stated hanging with you guys in the midst of Kobe demanding a trade and the Lakers about to be blown up...So dont talk to me about me being around only for the good times....Its not my fault my team has kicked ass over the years. ...bitter old Blazers fan
Questionable? My ass, Kobe flat out chucked his way out of those games. Excuses these Kobe kids make are hilarious. LeBron has had several, no doubt... and so has Malone and Wilt. But not more than Kobe. No matter what happens, you can bet your life that if the Lakers win the Kobe Homers will give all the credit to Kobe for carrying his "soft, weak" teammates... even if Kobe himself lays an egg. On the other hand, if the Lakers lose it'll be everyone's fault (including Phil Jackson) except Kobe. Some of us will be able to watch the game and assess it objectively, of course.
Um, maybe, just maybe Kobe will be the best player on the court and deserve the majority of the credit...I know, crazy talk
That's besides the point, I'm not denying that Bryant is a great, great player. If I was, your claim would have some validity. To me, it's all about success in the playoffs / Finals... and a player doesn't necessarily have to win it all, mind you; however even when his "team" loses, a guy will score points with me IF he consistently takes his game to a higher level when it matters most. LeBron has had several, shall we say, less than stellar "individual" performances in the playoffs... and after 6 years in the league he's had only moderate-to-good team success. Regular season accomplishments are the icing on the cake for me... but if the player doesn't have that post season success first and foremost, I don't think he belongs among the all-time elite. There are a couple exceptions to the rule, of course... guys like Oscar and Wilt were soooo far ahead of their peers that their regular season accomplishments simply canNot be ignored.
That's what I'm talking about. When they lose, he's the leader, and the majority of the blame rest upon him. While Kobe homers *ahem will continually blame it on his "weak/soft" teammates.
I can assess Kobe having good if not great series multiple times against the Jazz, Nuggets, Spurs, Blazers, Kings, with a bit of Houston and Phoenix in there; all of which he's pretty much torched. The Western Conference was the decider of the title back then as well. This 40% shooting in the Finals nonsense is just a rhetorical flourish when he constantly shows up against Western 55+ win teams. Of course they didn't win against the 2006 Suns, but I'm sure it was due to Kobe's choke act in game 6 where he had 50 points or trying to get his teammates going in game 7. He sure lays a lot of eggs that Bryant guy.
Great. So how do you get to the Finals without deep playoff success? I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. And he has far from "chucked" in all these series you've mentioned.
That was gonna be my first question. My second one is: compared to whom? It's easy to say that Kobe has choked, etc., but I wonder which great players have NOT had games and series where they've failed. I don't think that anyone is saying that Kobe has NOT had failures, but I think that failure is just part of playing the game, and even great players will have off nights and off weeks. Ed O.
He's had, 2-4 bad series out of how many? Detroit, missed about two games in Indiana and played with a sprain, then Boston? If anything that's not much of a body of work against him. People will restate last year's Finals in ten different ways to make it seem like a bigger problem.
Yeah a LOT of eggs, especially in the finals, when it matters most. When you're compared to the GOAT then this is what happens, unfair criticism. I guess what you're saying is that WINNING CHAMPIONSHIPS was no longer beneficial to Lakers after 2002, eh? Kobe will go down as the greatest sidekick of all-time. Maybe ahead of Pippen.......maybe.
Yeah...ok dude. A top 20 (hes higher, but just to prove my point) player is a "sidekick"...your just trying to get a rise out of us, or you have no idea what you are talking about
Ok... Except you just contradicted yourself and said playoff success should be enough of a barometer. Even without titles, which Kobe has regardless. You do know this isn't even true right? First, if you go by individual games that isn't the route you want to take... You cherry picked a handful out of almost a 1000, lol. Relative to the "team choke", Kobe was not that bad. You ignored the 3 games he played well in the FINALS, against the Celtics as well.
Never once did I say that or contradict myself. I cherrypicked two playoff series(Spurs and Suns) and the rest were finals series. Secondly I didn't ignore them at all, I know of them but I looked at the series as a whole where he iced his teammates out and pulled an epic choke job.
