Staples Center is Not a House For Real Lakers Fans

I grew up in Los Angeles watching the Lakers. There was something about Magic Johnson and Chick Hearn that captured my attention at a very young age. Chick Hearn got you excited about the team as early as the start of training camp. And then Magic Johnson did the job of backing up Chick Hearn’s words of hype with his on the court brilliance. That’s what captured me as a fan. I started watching and listening to basketball broadcasts a ton in the late 80s. By the 1990-91 season, I was to the point where I NEVER missed a Lakers game on KCAL or KLAC (back then my family didn’t have cable, so I had to listen to home games on the radio). This was the best basketball education I could ever receive. Chick Hearn taught me how to analyze the game as a Lakers fan in a balanced way, and Magic Johnson taught me how to play the game the right way. So I know what a true Lakers fan is like. As I wrote before, Magic still gets this. But for the most part, as the games get more important and the tickets get more expensive, less and less of those fans are in the lower bowl of the arena. 

L.A. is a town of transplants and people that don’t really have a strong connection to L.A. or its teams. And there’s no better example of this than the people sitting in the lower bowl during these NBA Finals. They expect the Lakers to make every shot and only stand by the team when the Lakers are going well. They have to be urged by scoreboard to cheer at certain points in the game. They get more excited for shots of Will Smith on the scoreboard or the kiss cam than they do for a great Lakers defensive play. They don’t know the game or the players well. And they make statements throughout the game that makes me wish I had chosen to watch the game at home instead of having to put up with such basketball ignorance. 

What is it about these particular L.A. “fans” that makes them think they are entitled to seeing a winning team, when most of them probably watched a handful of Lakers games during the NBA season? Also, what makes them think they are above standing and cheering for their team, through thick and thin when their supposed favorite team needs them the most?

I hate the Staples Center. I really do. Too many people are concerned with what is going on in the crowd instead of what is happening on the court. The lights out movement helped move the attention away from who is at the game, but it hasn’t done enough. It’s obvious that many people attending these Finals games in L.A. come to be part of the scene, not to cheer for the Lakers. They are vapid, narcissistic, individuals that see NBA Finals games as means of flexing their muscles and showing their status as a real player in a town composed of transplants that mistake status for substance. Most of them are clueless about basketball and what it means to be a real fan. They are more concerned with making sure they have V.I.P passes from Tim Harris and that they are going to get rub elbows with the proper people, than they are with the Lakers winning or losing. These "fans" really need to watch a Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, or Boston Celtics home game and get a clue of how you are supposed to stand behind your home team. 

The sad part about it is that there are people in L.A. that are real fans. There are people that grew up learning from Magic and Chick the same way that I did. But in a city full of transplants chasing the Hollywood dream, the real spirit of Angelinos often get pushed to the side by ‘Hollywood”.  Make no mistake, those are not real Angelinos and they certainly are not real Lakers fans.