I am 31, single and live near Portland. I became a Laker fan around 86 when all you saw on tv was about one game a week on CBS. Magic and Bird were ofcourse always on CBS and I chose Magic and Showtime. It is important to note that at that time I lived in Georgia. In 88, we moved to Utah where I was in for a rude awakening on what it was going to be like to be a Laker fan. In the South, they did not care who you were a fan of but as we all know about Jazz fans, that is not the case in Utah.

I saw my first live Laker game in 1989 in Utah and saw all of the Laker greats of that era. Kareem, Magic, Worthy. You know the list. I think that it was at that time that I knew that there was no turning back as far as being a Laker fan. I knew that Jazz fans hated us and I couldn’t wait to dish it back to them. We then moved to the Northwest in 1993 and I got to realize that Jazz fans aren’t the only ones who hate the Lakers and I have been here ever since. I have seen more Laker games then I can even count. I have been to the Forum twice, Staples once and a whole slew of games in Portland.

The most memorable Laker games that I have been too are probably the one where Horry hit the three in the corner to beat Portland in the 02 Playoffs and the Double Overtime Thriller in 04 when Kobe could not miss at the end of regulation and double overtime.

I’m 17 I live in Los Angeles. My dad got me started on the Lakers when I was young, He was a fan of the Lakers since ‘80. His favorite match up of all time was Isaiah and Magic, you guys probably know the Lakers classic they play now on sundays, he practically tapes me to the seat and wants to show me how things were done during “showtime”. My first game was in 2003? I think. It was when Utah visited L.A. and Greg Ostertag & Shaq got into a hustle in the first quarter and Greg was ejected within the first 5 minutes haha. Always been in Los Angeles always will be, Lakers through thick and thin. I’ve been to 3 or 4 since then. I still remember crying when Horry hit that shot against Sacramento and when Fish hit the 0.4 against San Antonio. If the Lakers ever become a losing franchise (which a highly doubt) I’d be the guy still buying season tickets.
Anyways I’m comfortable with being a .200 team
i guess being a Rams fan explains that :P

celticKILLA!

I’m 22 and live in Los Angeles and about to graduate from college with no clue what to do; I’m hoping to look for internships within the NBA but who knows. Born in Los Angeles so the first time I saw any form of basketball on TV was watching Magic when I was 5 years old. My extended family were also hoops junkies and there was a framed autographed picture of Magic in my grandparents’ living room. That is what just got me into the game. I started watching all the away games on KCAL starting from when Magic retired, through the Sedale Threat/Anthony Peeler era, to the Nick Van Excel/Elden Campbell/Eddie Jones era before they brought in Shaq and a 17 yr old kid at the time named Kobe Bryant, who I have followed ever since he came into the league.

I haven’t been to any games because well, the ticket prices were out of my family’s affordability and growing up I could only watch the KCAL telecasts and read up on the home games on the newspapers. Now I follow every Laker game thanks to the magic of technology.

Hopefully I’ll be able to save up and attend a playoff game but I regret not being able to attend it at the old Forum.

My name is Brendan, I’m 26 years old and in Lubbock ,Texas. I’m a graduate student currently writing my masters thesis in communication studies and teaching at Texas Tech University. In my free time, I write a fantasy/NBA blog called 2nd Round Reach (http://www.2ndroundreach.com)

I was born in Sacramento, but grew up in Orange County (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA) since my early youth, so I dodged that Kings-fandom bullet. I have memories of watching the last Magic Johnson team in the playoffs as a kid, though I’ve only been a serious Lakers fan since my late teens in the Kobe/Shaq years (despite a distaste for Shaq, even then.) I’m also and Angels and Ducks fan, and one of my greatest fears is that Orange County will get an NBA team and I’ll have to choose where my allegiances lie.

The 2006 playoffs almost killed me. When I see those adds running with Kobe’s big shot and fist pump, I always get a little depressed. Having also lived in Jonesboro, AR (in the greater Memphis areas), I’ve had a soft-spot for my then-local Grizzlies, and was ecstatic when the Lakes pulled off the trade for Pau, one of my favorite players. He’s part of what’s made cheering for America’s most hated team fun again (remember, I live out of market.)

Next season I’ll have league pass and get to watch 82 Laker games for the first time in 7 or 8 years, assuming my girlfriend won’t leave me first…

I’m 19 years old live in the Bay Area, a GS Warrior fan,also a fan of the Lakers. I just graduated from high school last year. Became a Laker fan since Kobe was a rookie. Everytime the Lakers come up to the Bay to play the Warriors, you can find me in the arena (cheering for the Warriors haha). The Lakers always seem to win except when the warriors came to L.A. 2 seasons ago and upset them with those two 3 pointers by Stephen Jack. Anyway since the Warriors suck this year im gonna be watching the Lakers during the playoffs.

My name is Tim, surprisingly I’m sure, and I’m 47 and a member of the Smartassery Brigade™® over at Blazers Edge. I live in Oregon and the Trailblazers are definitely my number one squeeze in the NBA, but I grew up in Northern California in the early 70s, and the purple and gold team were my guys when I was a kid.

So I am sort of a freak of nature, a Blazer fan that does not hate the Lakers. It’s a strange place to be with the Portland fan base whipping itself into hurricane frenzy with the reemergence of the team from half a decade of criminality and incompetence.

I haven’t found a Laker board that’s moved me — and I’m hoping that this site will take off the way that Blazers Edge has exploded become a force of nature (1500-3000 comments in the game threads, a reporter going to practices and at press conferences and taking pictures, a podcast, outstanding content on the front page and in the sidebar, a steady stream of jokes and smart assery and a real community…

It is something to strive for.

Anyway, I’ll see if I can do my bit during the coming months and I hope all of you will, too. It is important to post, post, post, post, post during this site’s early days to build readership and generate critical mass. There are a lot of SB Nation sites that have withered and died through lack of interest…

thanks for the props. I hope everyone gets to know everyone else a little better.

I’m currently a student at UCLA and a diehard Lakers and Bruins fan, having lived in Los Angeles all of my life. I have been a fan since the late 90s, but I was young and really didn’t understand what the Lakeshow was all about until the 99-00 season when I went to my first game, bought my first Lakers hat, and watched them win the championship. Since then I have watched every game I could, and although I haven’t been able to go to many games (success comes with a pricetag I guess), I am fortunate to be able to go to the season finale tonight.

I will try to post my thoughts and impressions for everyone when I get back. Hopefully enough fans (season ticket holders?) find this blog that a post-game fanpost from someone in attendance can be done after each game. I think that would be pretty neat because you see and hear so many more things being there in person.

Also, if any of you are UCLA fans and like this blog I highly encourage you to check out Bruins Nation. New members (especially Lakers fans) are always welcome!

Probably because I shouldn’t be posting at work!

But here goes:

I’m in my thirties. Married, no kids. I played basketball in high school, stuck to intramurals in college, and play in rec leagues in the Los Angeles area.

Basically, I go by Amazing_Happens at the LA Times Blog and Pinky at the OC Register and Forum Blue and Gold (I don’t know what happened, I’m not a very consistent person).

I can’t stand people who automatically assume Kobe Bryant is a villain, and characterize everything he does in the most negative light. You know, those same people also call anyone who attempts to portray Kobe as human being as a “Kobe Lover”. I can get carried away in my defense against trolls, but I’m getting better at ignoring them. Sometimes, though, they get the best of me!

I still have Game 4 of the 2006 Playoffs against the Phoenix Suns on my DVR.

I feel that Pau Gasol’s offense and Lamar Odom’s defense are underappreciated.

I question people who think they know than Phil Jackson about coaching at the NBA level.

I think that statistics are a lot more meaningful at the team level than the individual level, give the fluidity of game. Basketball is much closer to soccer than baseball. I’d be interested in what kind of stats are kept in soccer, and if they even use them to determine who is the “best” as they try to do in basketball. Given this, I’m not a big believer in Wages of Wins or PER as systems to value individual players. I can judge quite well (and I hope better) with my own eyes who is contributing and who is not, and how, thank you.

On the team front, I think the best single gauge for a team’s defensive effectiveness is opponent FG%.

That’s it, back to work.

I’m 25 and I’ve been a Lakers fan since the womb (no joke, my mom watched games while she was pregnant with me, and she said I would kick when they scored). I live in Long Beach, and I probably go to about a game a year. The truth is, I take my basketball seriously enough that on any given night, I’d prefer to watch a game alone from the comfort of my own home with Tivo so that I can see the game better than watching at a bar or even going to the game live. Unitl I can afford Jack’s seats that is. I’ve been with the team through good times and bad (I considered a user name involving either Mike Penberthy or Travis Knight) and it will be that way forever.

I’ve never really participated on a blog or message board before, but I figured this was a chance to get in on the ground floor. After reading some of the initial contributions, so far it seems like a pretty intelligent group, free for the most part from arguments that are slightly more sophisticated than “Because I said so.” and I plan on doing my part to keep it that way.

and not ashamed to admit it.

I grew up in LA and Lakers basketball was the only sport I was exposed to. Have followed them off and on since the late 80s/early 90s. My favorite players from that era were Magic, Scott, and Worthy.

I’m in San Diego now and I watch the Lakers on TV every chance I get, listen to the radio if I don’t have tv, and follow online if I don’t have radio.

I’m glad the Lakers have a home here on SBnation. I only hope the haters and the misguided/misinformed Laker fans don’t ruin it for everyone else.

at the University of Missouri, studying journalism. I’m from Dallas. Why am I a Lakers fan, you ask? Simple! My dad has loved the Lakers his whole life (he was born in Santa Monica, grew up in Malibu) so I naturally became a Lakers fan growing up. My favorite Laker has to be Kobe, although I have huge respect for past Lakers such as Jerry West (dad’s favorite player) Wilt, Kareem, Magic, James Worthy, and others. I still like Shaq, and my favorite Lakers moment (besides championship wins) was either Horry’s 3 against Sacramento at the buzzer in 2002, Kobe’s winner in the 06 playoffs against Phoenix, or Fisher’s 0.4 shot.

been a lakers fan since the day i was born. i’m currently in college and wishing i had a job. i’m not a casual lakers fan. i’m a DIE HARD fan. and when i say die hard, i mean die hard. i mean i wanna blow up the celtics die hard

YES! Never Mind! That is how the conversation starts off if my girlfriend wants us to do something together. She loves me but hates the me as a Lakers fan. It is obvious that there are a lot of Laker fans out there. There is no other team that generates so much hatred like we do. I mean when people refer to us as Lakers Nation we truly are a Nation. Does any team really have it’s own chant at opposing homes? That’s right, “Beat LA”.

Anyways, that has been my life since 85. I am now 33, I have a degree, working on getting married and having my first child but I still feel the same anxiety that I had back in the 80’s when the Lakers played. I became a fan because by nature I am a competitive person and the sport of basketball caught my eye and my passion like no other sport has. I still cannot handle seeing the Lakers loose but I have to remind myself that it’s just a game at least until the playoffs start then it’s personal. I love this team and will always cheer for them.

Hey All

Coming over from Respectkobe.com site, I’m 23 and been playing basketball forever but couldn’t catch a break to do it professionally being that I’ve always been moving. I just recently moved from NY to GA so right now I’m just finishing up my college online, and I have been a laker fan ever since Kobe got drafted and traded to L.A., never been to L.A but what hooked me to the Lakers is that I thought Kobe was cute and still do to today but now I have been just tired of ESPN.com and all the haters on Kobe’s A** that I decided to get online and try to change every haters opinion about Kobe.

In short, I have too much time on my hands or don’t sleep enough, likely a combination of the two. I do a fair share of writing over at another SB Nation blog, Bruinsnation and am psyched that SB Nation now has a Lakers blog. I was approached about heading up the Lakers blog over here, but I couldn’t make the time commitment. A major thanks to SilverScreenAndRoll for doing it. I’m 20 and have lived in LA all of my life. My dad was here when the Lakers moved to LA and has been a huge fan ever since. He wen to alllll of the games and was at the Forum to watch the Celtics beat us each and every year. Naturally, when I was born, I wasn’t given a choice of whether to be a fan or what team to be a fan of. I was a Lakers fan from day one and thank god because being a Lakers fan is awesome. I’m lucky enough to be able to go to a good amount of games and will be at most, if not all of the playoff games so I can’t wait. To quench my Lakers thirst between games, I’ll be right here will all my random thoughts, musings and emotional outbursts so I apologize to you all in advance for my quirks.

I’m 21, a senior at UCLA, and was born and grew up in Los Angeles. Everyone in my family is very enthusiastic about sports, and we are all especially interested in any and all Los Angeles sports teams (except for soccer…cuz that just doesn’t count). My brother to this day is still a diehard Raiders fan, god bless his poor soul.
I’m definitely not a casual fan, but I admit I’m not the most diehard hardcore fan either. I make an effort to watch almost every game and closely follow the development of all the players. I’ve been looking forward to the playoffs this year ever since the Celtics put a beatdown on us last year. I am of course hopeful for a better result this year

ive been waiting for the lakers board to come about, after all the clippers have one, why wouldnt the lakers. anyways im 24 in law school moving to reno, and my dad lives and has lived in bakersfield forever. thats how im a fan, im excited about the team this year, and dont buy into the kobe is over-rated crap ive heard alot of fans say. i like everyone on the team, including morrison, but that doesnt mean i wont criticize, i just always try to stay positive.

been waiting since I joined the Tennessee Titans community here.

I’m 34 and have been a KAJ and Lakers fan since the early 80’s. Lived through the Ceballos / Van Exel era. Relished the Shaq / Kobe dynasty. And just excited about the Pau / Kobe era.

I’m a Pinoy and reside in Dubai. Hope to contribute to the growth of this community. Go Lakers!!!

I’m a Suns-Celtics-Heat fan (in that order) from Hungary, middle of Europe. I’m a 21 year-ld english major on Hungary’s second-most important university. I joined this blog to have some actual intelligent conversation with Laker fans as this seems to be different than other Laker blogs (the other exception is Forum Blue and Gold) as it is actually much more based on arguments and much less on bandwagoneering (sorry, I know, every team has “blogs” like those, but Lakers fans just seem… different than others usually).
Okay, so you probably guessed I’m not a Lakers fanatic, but I hope we can engage in good arguments without personal insults.
peace
praises to Jah

I have been hoping for some time that it would happen. This is in perfect time for the playoffs and our first round matchup againts the Jazz.

I have been a Lakers fan since the mid-80’s when I was watching Bird and Magic in the NBA Finals with my dad.

(Yes, you know me :))

I’m so happy to find a new Lakers blog here on sbnation, which I visit so frequently due to Bruins Nation.

I’m 27/f and a grad student/academic in the humanities at a local university. As you can probably surmise, I went to UCLA as an undergrad (during the Lavin years – sigh) and fell in love with basketball there. My freshman year roommate was a huuuuge Lakers fan. Couldn’t say when exactly I jumped on the bandwagon, but I was pretty much hooked at the end of my freshman year. (I know people use the term “bandwagon” pejoratively, but I really don’t see it that way. We all had to have jumped on the bandwagon at some point. The only thing that matters is that we stay on.) When I was an undergrad I worked in a coffee shop — I have fond memories of replacing the store-designated muzak with Chick Hearn during the Lakers’ playoff runs. Now I torture my students by inserting the Lakers into every quiz I give them; I once told a Spurs fan to get out of my classroom (joking, of course).

Being in grad school is pretty rough, and I don’t know many Laker fans “in real life” in my current setting, so these blogs keep me entertained (and sane, when I need a break from critical theory).

I am near 40 years old and married. I have my 5-year-old daughter trained to root hard for the same teams I do, so she’s about the only one that can stand to watch games with me.

My screenname comes from being a Cowboys fan in Illinois. Oddly enough, I became a Laker and Cowboy fan simultaneously. When I was young, I had a copy of Boy’s Life that had bios on Roger Staubach and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. They were the first players I’d heard of, therefore, they were the teams I started to root for and it never changed. Might sound dumb, but that’s how it happened. I’m a Cardinals fan in baseball. So I’ve been fortunate enough to see my teams win several championships in my lifetime. Also, caused me alot of heartache. (1984 and 2004 NBA Finals were particularly gut-wrenching.)

Look forward to talking Lakers with you folks. Hopefully, it’s about celebrating another title in the next couple months.

I’ve been here in spain for a year but I’m returning back home to sunny southern california to my home in Redlands (hour south of LA). I’ve been a lakers fan my whole life- part of my upbringing and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I remember as a kid only being able to stay up past my bedtime if there was a laker game on- great parenting! As you can tell by my screen name I am also a diehard Angels fan. I try to contribute to HalosHeaven here on SBN as often as I can and I am very excited and looking forward to contributing here! FINALLY AN SBN LAKERS BLOG!!!

What I wouldn’t give to have a little Chick Hearn in my life these days. I only got the tail end of his career, when he was already getting a little senile, and he was still the best that’s ever been.

I have tried to support the Warriors, but their management (up through to the ownership) make it so so so hard.

In 1998, I noticed that Phil Jackson retired and wrote a book, I forget which one (Sacred Hoops?), and I found it very interesting. To be honest I despised him when he was coaching the Bulls… I wanted that team to fail so much. I really bothered me that Jordan was somehow legitimated as a horrible teammate because of their championships, and it really bothered me that their playoff success was very much not solely because of Jordan (Pippen and cast pulled them through some real Jordan stinkers), and yet everyone would bow down to MJ. So through transitivity, I despised Phil for facilitating that process.

So, I got interested in Phil’s methods… and I became even more interested when he took over the Lakers in 99. I was really curious if his wacky ways and triangle could work without the legendary Jordan/Pippen, given the contemporary view that Shaq was a choker and Kobe was a whiny selfish bastard. It’s amazing how a few championships will change people’s conventional wisdom.

Anyway, I followed that 99 team with curiosity and was rewarded with a fascinating year and success far faster than expected. And I think sometime during Game 7 of the Blazers-Lakers series I realized that I had become by accident a Laker fan, because I was so upset when the Blazers went up by double-digits in the fourth quarter and so so elated when the Lakers came back (I can still see that alley-oop now and feel myself leaping off the couch).

So, the years have passed, Phil is still here and it’s been really rewarding to watch this bunch of Lakers bloom over the last few years. I’ll be lurking around, so I look forward to much more thoughtful, passionate, civil discussion.

As you can guess I’m a big fan of the Halos, along with the Purple and Gold. Been a Laker fan all my life, through the thick (3peat) and thin ( Randy Pfund anyone) . My first game was back in 1980 at the somber age of 6. I was at the rally in 87 or 88, I really can’t remember now, when Pat Riley tried to guarantee another championship. Now that I’m in my mid thirties, I’m glad to say I have handed down the tradition of rooting for the Lakers to my oldest son ( my youngest is a fan of the clips, I DON’T KNOW HOW THAT HAPPENED!!). To this day my favorite players are Big Game James and Eddie Jones. Worthy is self explanatory, but for some reason I’ve always had a soft spot for Eddie, and hated trading him to the Hornets. Of course, the Lakers got the better end of the deal ( rings) but it still sucked losing him. Originally I’m from San Bernardino, now I live in Temecula, don’t get to as many games now that I live farther away, but I still bleed Purple and Gold.

Hey I’m 25, born and raised in Los Angeles but traveled the world and currently living near PHX. Really started getting into sports in about the fifth grade but always watched Laker games with my mom and dad as a little kid. Luckily for me, they taped just about every playoff game the Lakers played through the 80’s so when I got older I was able to go back and really appreciate just how good the Showtime Era was. Now I’m grown up and have evolved in to a complete sport nut, but my allegiance to the Lakers has always remained the strongest. I’ve had to defend them time and time again and I always will. Glad to see a Laker blog on here finally and it is the reason that I created an account after reading other teams blogs for the last several months and seeing what other fans say after losing to the Lakers during the season! ;)

Pet Peeve: When fans of any sports team refer to them as “we.” You are not on the team. Stop it.