Lakers vs. Spurs Indifference
I’m sitting here watching the Los Angeles Lakers taking on the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Western Conference Finals (this is my first sports related post, but I am a big sports fan FYI). I’m having a hard time getting into the game, not because the game isn’t good (it’s a five point difference as of this sentence) but I just don’t want either team to win.
In nearly all sports (professional wrestling especially), there are those you love and those you hate. You feel good when the good guys win and you feel good when the bad guys lose. Unfortunately, this series features two bad guys (yes, those loveable Spurs are evil).
I didn’t always dislike the Spurs, I actually rooted for them in their glory days of David Robinson and the early years of Tim Duncan. After Robinson left, the team was left in the more than capable hands of Tim Duncan and later added on stars such as Tony Parker (also known as Mr. Eva Longoria) and Manu Ginobili. This led them to two more NBA Championships, but along the way they transformed from loveable to insufferable.
Any close call that goes against the Spurs causes them to reactive as if each player is collectively hearing the news that their wife is pregnant and Kevin Federline is the father. Duncan is the single worst offender, who not only complains profusely but who’s eyes effectively triple in size and protrude several inches outside of his head (see picture). Argentinean Manu Ginobli hypocritically is one of the worst floppers in the league, picking up where Vlade Divac left off years ago. So not only is he flopping all over the court (and playing a style that basically has him running madly all over the court) but he’s also complaining when things don’t go way. Add to this combination Bruce Bowen, perhaps the single dirties player in the league, Big Shot Brob (Robert Horry), who is quietly turning himself into a dirty player, and monotonous offensive and defensive sets that aren’t fun for anyone to watch, and you’ve got a team that is very easy to hate.
I’m not sure you need any really good reason to hate the Lakers, they’re like the Yankees of the NBA after all. But I’ll try and give you a few, and they start with Kobe Bryant. Disregarding the current season, Bryant has shown himself to be a selfish, me-first player who would prefer individual glory to team victory. I’ve never heard any athlete speak who I feel is more disingenuous than Bryant. He wants your love more than anything and will do or say whatever he thinks is best to get it. Early in his career, he seemed to think big numbers and being the center of the franchise was the way to go. Now he’s learned that being a team player can do that, and a lot of people are softening on him, but I don’t believe a tiger can change his spots, this is still the guy that drove Shaq out of town because he couldn’t live with being number two (even though he certainly would have surprised an aging Shaq in a couple years time) and who paid off a girl to get out of rape charges. He’s a bad guy and anytime a bad guy is the center of a franchise, you have complete rights to hate said team.
The Lakers’ also annoy me because their fans don’t strike me as true fans of their team. It’s more like a social thing to go to the game and be seen. You see all kinds of stars in the crowd, but Jack Nicholson is the only one that’s there through the good and the bad. That’s what it takes to be a true fan and that’s what LA don’t got.
Eight seconds to go, Lakers with the ball and two on the shot clock. This should be a moment of suspense, a stop and a three pointer can win it for the Spurs or a made basket ices the game for the Lakers, but I can’t bring myself to care when I really want both teams to lose.
/tds/
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