Warriors Fan in Los Angeles

Welcome to Los Angeles, city of angels, home of the most spoiled fans in the NBA.   

Now that the Lakers are in the finals, it's become excruciatingly tough being a diehard Warriors fan in Los Angeles.  As a Bay Area native, a deep contempt for the Dodgers and Lakers runs through my veins.  It's how we were brought up.  Beat LA!  Beat LA!  Beat LA!  Imagine being forcefed hype and discussion about a team you hate every waking moment of your life.  Radio DJs, coworkers, every news media outlet, friends, and a rapidly increasing number of Lakers fans that actually think it's cool to attach gaudy Laker flags to their cars are all involved in a city-wide plot to drive me insane and out of SoCal. 

While Bay Area sports fans thrive on the NorCal-SoCal rivalry, LA basketball fans have no such innate contempt for the Warriors.  In fact, many of them were cheering for the Dubs against the Mavs and Jazz last year.  A die-hard Warriors fan would die hard before cheering for the Lakers.  You could put Hitler, Castro, Charles Manson, Ashlee Simpson, and Heidi from The Hills in uniform against the Lakers and my knee-jerk reaction would be to hope for a triple-double from Hitler.

Last year's upset over the Mavs ended over a decade's worth of failure.  Warriors fans, like 99% of all other sports fans, understand what it's like to truly suffer and toil in frustration.  That's what makes victories like last year's so sweet.  True fans stay patient and realize that fanhood is a roller coaster.  Not so with Laker fans.  Laker fans are basically the Yankees fans of the NBA: spoiled to the point where nothing but a championship will do. 

Spoiled by megastar NBA players, celebrity-status coaches, star-studded rosters, championships, and the constant stream of media attention, Laker fans act like an NBA championship is their birthright.  Most Laker fans possess an infuriating rich kid's sense of entitlement   But really, what's not to be spoiled about?  From Shaq coming to the Lakers to Chris Wallace gift wrapping Pau Gasol for Mitch Kupchak, the ball just always seems to bounce the Lakers' way.  Unfortunately, I have to put up with this in addition to being force-fed Laker news through local media.

Like a litmus test, you know bandwagon fandom has reached it's peak when girls, real ones with long hair and nice smelling perfume that think that Shaq is still on the Lakers, the most casual of all sports fans, all of a sudden act like they've been Laker fans their whole lives and start putting out crap like this on your daily email thread among all your friends:"OMG Kobe Bryant is so awesome!  I can't wait for him to kill the Celtics = )"

Um, yah.  Thanks for stating the obvious in girlspeak.  Some more:

"Spurs are going down!  goooo Jordan Farmar!  he's so small but cute!"

And:

"go lakers! pau gasol is sexxyyyyy"

Bandwagon girl fans know nothing of sports, so they contribute helpful remarks on attractiveness.  Now I know I'm not qualified to judge any male modeling walkoffs, but since I don't ever recall seeing any 7-foot bearded Spaniards in People Magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People lists, and have actually seen Pau Gasol on TV, I can honestly say that Pau Gasol is not sexxyyyyy. 

If it sounds like I'm a little bitter, maybe I am.  Am I jealous that the Lakers are in contention every year and the Warriors made the playoffs only one time in the past 14 seasons?  A little.  Am I drinking the Haterade?  Probably.  But like most people, I always had a tendency to hate on the kids that always seemed to get whatever they wanted without having to work for it.