[Ed. Note:  Lakers fans and Blazers fans do not get along. Of course, for Lakers fans, being hated by fans of other teams is nothing new. It's also understandable that fans of other teams get burned out by the more classless of Lakers fans. I don't buy the idea that there is a higher percentage of classless morons in our ranks than in the ranks of any other fanbase — there's more of them overall, just because there's more of US overall. But I'd argue that the percentage of classless fans to classy fans is no different in the Lakers' fanbase than anywhere else.

Case in point: Here, in the SB Nation blog network, Blazers Edge has the most classless, trollish fans out in the SBN NBA community. We get bombarded with them, from time to time, and we're not the only ones. But that's simply because there are more "BEdgers" than anyone else. More people, more total morons — that doesn't mean there's a higher percentage.

In any case, we don't get along with very many "BEdgers," and they DEFINITELY don't like us. Which makes what jscot has to say here truly remarkable. Would that we should have more "Can't we all just get along?" moments, like these. I've gone on for too much already — I'll let jscot take it from here.]

As a Trailblazer fan since 1970, one who liked West but hated Wilt, Kareem, Magic, and everyone who came after, I never thought I'd join a Lakers' blog to make a comment.  Well, I might have, but it would be a comment that would get me banned for life.

Do you sense a "But..." coming? Click the jump...

Why do we hate the Lakers?  You know, every time I type that it comes out L@kers.  I have to keep going back and changing it because you don't allow that.  Doing it the real way (with the @ sign) has become engrained -- I suppose it was because my parent taught me not to swear, and even typing "Lakers" feels dirty to a black-and-red-bleeding Blazer fan.  Who knew there'd be a site that actually required swearing?

Anyway, right here on a Lakers' fan forum, I'm going to tell you that often Blazer fans hate the Lakers as much for their fans as their team, sometimes even more.  You probably know the fans to which I'm referring, the ones who know nothing about basketball, jump on a bandwagon, and then rant and rave and make themselves intolerable.  I know that we have Blazer fans like that as well, they infest the Internet everywhere, but yours seem to be louder, and crasser, than anyone else's, even Boston's.  I don't know why that is.  Maybe it is just me that thinks that, because I'm a Blazer fan.

So why am I here?  Primarily to say that Blazersedge has had an infestation of Lakers' fans in the last 48 hours or so.  Lakers' fans coming to offer condolences, to wish Greg Oden well, to say they know what it feels like, etc., etc.

Class. 

It's been the Rockets and the Lakers fans leading the way, though fans of other teams have come along, too. 

I still hate the Lakers.  Always will.  Sorry, that's just the way it is.  I am on record as saying that the only thing better than having the Lakers miss the playoffs is sweeping them 4-0 in the WCF.  Even if I wanted to change my opinion, I couldn't.

But you guys have a lot of classy fans.  People are people everywhere, and in every one of us there is both good and bad, but there's been a lot of good coming out the last couple of days.  Basketball is a game, and a fun one, but it's just a game.  We're all human beings, and you have been well represented by some fine human beings. 

That kind of thing needs to be recognized, acknowledged, and appreciated.  So thanks to you all from one Blazer fan, for being classy, for keeping wins and losses in perspective, for functioning on the level of shared humanity instead of the superficial level of basketball rivalries.  Your comments don't help our team in the least, but it's at times like this that basketball intersects with human reality in the things that matter, and you've been well represented by those who recognized and embraced that intersection.

Take care, all.

p.s. Your "all home all the time" schedule is about to catch up to you.  (I just had to throw a little trash talk in, sorry.)