Back in 2008, the Lakers played the Celtics once again in the NBA Finals. Truth be told, I rooted for the Celtics during the season. And when I learned they were playing the Lakers, I decided that I would be impartial and just enjoy the games.
But when that first game started, I just couldn't help but feel like I wanted the Lakers to win. Don't get me wrong. I flippin' dislike Kobe Bryant. If he were one of my students, I would have told him to check his ego. Alas, he's a jerk and still part of the game.
Then, the "F*** LA" and "Beat LA" signs started showing up. And when the Celtics won, the chanting of "F*** LA" was non-stop.
I'm not so naive to believe that there weren't any "F*** the Celtics" or "F*** Boston" shouting going on. But I do know that there weren't any "Beat Boston" t-shirts that came from L.A.
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| This is from the Orlando Magic's store. |
I went to the Celtics' online store and the Lakers online store, and these are the respective first pages.
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| The part of the window with the shirts actually flashes through different items. |
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| What you don't see is that any shirt that references the Celtics has a picture of Paul Pierce facing Kobe Bryant. |
See, Lakers fans are more happy that their team made it to the top. Lakers fans just like to show their pride for their team. In fact, I can extend this to Dodgers fans. Okay, so the majority of L.A. sports fans just love their teams. That's it. Sure, they understand the importance of rivalries. But at the end of the day, Angeleno's are content to just deck out their cars with Lakers flags.
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| Personally, I think they're quite tacky. |
So, here we are again. The Lakers vs. the Celtics in the NBA Finals. Folks here in Boston are sporting their "Beat LA" shirts once again, and my family members are sporting their Lakers jerseys. Well, except that my parents are so anti-Kobe that they're rooting for the Celtics.
I'm still rooting for the Lakers, mainly because they didn't win the last Finals they played with the Celtics. But at the end of the day, I could give a flying f*** about the lot of them.
I've got to agree with you there. Really enjoyed your post. I noticed something similar when the Celtics were playing the Cavaliers. Seeing that I have many facebook friends from Boston, many of them were posting things similar. It wasn't "Yay Celtics!" but more like "F*** Lebron James" It made me a little sad, to be honest. I guess that's what it's like when in the last decade your town wins 3 super bowls, 2 world series championships and an NBA finals. Ya think they would be happy when in the long run it's just so much negativity. Not that all Boston fans are like that and not that those types of fans aren't anywhere else, it's just the majority of what I see from my point of view. I don't know who to root for during these NBA finals. I'm just rooting for a 7 game series of well played games.
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