Bill Simmons breaks down the three types of Laker fans
Celtics die-hard (or should I say supposed Celtics die-hard) Bill Simmons attended a Laker playoff game and wrote a typically long column about his experience. Here’s an interesting bit on the three different types of Laker fans:
The inherent problem with any Lakers game: There are three types of Lakers fans, so the balance of any crowd depends on Type A and Type C overriding Type B. Type A would be the die-hards — mostly middle or lower class, populating the upper levels of the arena as well as the higher corner seats. These are the ones who attend championship parades, stick flags on their cars, wear jerseys to games and defend Kobe to the death. They are my mortal enemies, and I love when they are unhappy … but I respect their passion. Type C would be the wealthy die-hards — upper class, connected, and in many cases, family-owned season-ticket holders since the days of Magic/Kareem or even West/Baylor — only it’s a disproportionately large group compared with any other NBA city except New York. I don’t mind these fans unless they are giving their tickets to Spaulding Smails-type relatives, which happens more than you think. They always return for the playoffs, just one reason why those games are always better.
The wheels come off with Type B: wannabe die-hards, locals there to be seen, couples showing up late and leaving early, C-list celebrities, agents or producers jabbering with clients and ignoring the game … it’s everything I hate about Los Angeles in a nutshell. Every negative impression of a Lakers fan comes from the Type B’s, who tend to cluster for weekend games and Game 7s — anything that’s a difficult ticket — so instead of “Night of the Living Dead,” it’s “Night of the Living Pseudo-Fan.” The worst possible Lakers crowd? Any Finals game. It’s mostly Hollywoodites who called in favors or paid big bucks; the real fans get shoved into the upper decks or priced out entirely. (Important note: I will always believe that the 2008 Celtics won Game 4 of the Finals because it wasn’t a typical Lakers crowd.) If you want to have a sports experience with a healthy amount of L.A. sprinkled in, you want to attend a Lakers playoff game during the week. You get the highest percentage of real fans that way.
I live in Newport Beach, so I’ve run into my fair share of Laker fans, but it’s usually at a sports bar. Type B fans are the worst; they’re front runners and extremely annoying. They’re the ones that pop a Laker flag on their window when the team has a shot at the title, but in the post-Shaq years that flag was sitting in the trunk.
Simmons goes on to discuss why Laker fans are irritating:
1. The constant gushing over Kobe.
2. The unwavering collective belief that any time Kobe misses, this absolutely means he was fouled.
3. The unwavering collective belief that any time Kobe gets whistled for a foul or a turnover, he definitely didn’t do it.
4. Everyone’s willingness to overlook the two or three times per game when Kobe blatantly shows up one of his teammates or sells them out with a nasty look.
I witnessed all of these firsthand when I went to the Bucks/Lakers game earlier this year. Plus, the guy behind me wouldn’t shut up. Ridiculous.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Posted in: Fantasy Basketball, Humor, NBA
Tags: 2010 NBA Playoffs, Bill Simmons, Kobe Bryant, Laker fans, Los Angeles Lakers
Hey man,
Remember that Simmons’ column deals with fans at a Laker game, not Laker fans in general, which is what your post suggests. And that’s unfair.
And really, come on John, his take on the three types of Laker fans is tripe. Only three types? What about the fan that’s rooted for them since Nick Van Exel was the toast of the town, yet this fan doesn’t own a Kobe jersey or need to put a flag on his car. Also, fans in Boston don’t wear Garnett jerseys or put team logos on their cars? Only in LA do fans buy tacky junk for their team?
It happens to so many sports nuts that move here, or move to a
surrounding area. You already have the preconceived notion of what Hollywood is, so why so dumbfounded by who supports the sports teams? The city is historic, memorialized in some of the best literature (Raymond Chandler), the film and television work of David Lynch, and even satirized seamlessly by Larry David. But yet, everyone is surprised when the same type of people who comprise Hollywood attend a Laker game. Why is that?
As smart as Simmons is, I’m disappointed by his usually keen eye only finding three types of fans at a playoff game. It just comes off as, I don’t know, under-researched, lazy and bellicose. Funny that he ends up enjoying himself at the end of his column.
Three types of Laker fans? Look, remove the first five rows at Staples Center (the rows that Simmons seems somehow surprised to see), and what you’re left with is the same makeup of a fan base for every sports franchise across the country: businessmen who are fans, businessmen who aren’t fans and are out with clients, the die-hards with money, the die-hards without money, the knowledgeable fans without money who don’t cover their cars in team crap, the knowledgeable fans with money who don’t cover their cars in team crap, hot chicks out on dates that don’t know about basketball but consider themselves fans because they live in the area, hot chicks out on dates that do know about the team, the middle class dad out with his son,
the upper class dad out with his son, drunks who don’t know crap, drunks who know an unhealthy amount, etc. I’ve seen all these fan types at Laker games…and at other stadiums and arenas all across the country. Beyond those first few rows at the Staples Center, the fans are no different than anywhere else. And if you remove those first few rows maybe Simmons wouldn’t have a column anymore, but without those first few rows it wouldn’t be Los Angeles. And if you’re surprised by what makes up Los Angeles, then you’re probably an alien. Not an illegal alien, but the kind that looks like Rajon Rondo.
And yeah, I had to comment on this. Go Lakers.