Here's the most important piece of advice you could get (from a transplanted Brit, no less): DO NOT PICK PORTLAND AS YOUR TEAM! Think rationally, rather than emotionally: suppose you could go back in time to your birth year and you wanted an as-yet-unborn child to get the most happiness he or she could out of life. Would you choose the team that they would love to be (boring, boring) Arsenal (or, much worse, my own choice of Leeds) or Manchester United (or, depending on your age, Liverpool)? In a similar vein, as you have yet to pledge your undying love to a franchise, go with the Lakers or the Heat. Do it for your sanity, before it's too late. The Blazers are a cursed franchise. It's too late for us, but for God's sake, save yourself!
You should always pick your teams with your heart, not your brain. Arsenal have tortured me enough for me to follow the Blazers. In fact, you can compare them in many different ways.
No, that's lovers. But (I'm guessing) Arsenal either weren't a choice at all (native North Londoner), or you chose them when you were a tot too young to know better. Now you have a chance to make an informed decision. Exactly! Haven't you suffered enough? Fair enough. Don't say I didn't warn you. You may have gathered that the Lakers are Manchester United. Only less likeable. (Incidentally, saying things like "Kobe worked it there" isn't kosher. You should comment disgustedly on what the refs let Kobe get away with. Minstrel would disagree with me here, but pay no attention to him.) The Heat are what the "MK Dons" would be if they were suddenly bought by the Sultan of Brunei. (ie., Man City without the history.) While I'm on a roll: the Celtics of the past three years were rather like Revie's Leeds teams: widely reviled and borderline dirty on defense, but ruthlessly efficient.
I lived in Stoke Newington briefly in the early nineties. So long ago that I got to watch Fulham play Exeter at the Cottage when both were in the same division. Welcome aboard!
Those were the days when Chelski were shite, Nottingham Forest were epic, and United were still a bunch of pricks. The Arsenal years for me must of been between '98 and '05. Funny thing is, Fulham have a pretty decent team but I'm not sure they'll be the same without Hodgsons at the helm. "The ref was shit" must be one of the most common phrases in England after any club plays at OT.
