I don't think the Laker hate is too complicated.
First, there's a general backlash against teams with national followings. This is true of the Yankees, the Cowboys, and any of the Boston teams. Everyone's had to deal with front running or transplant Laker fans. So that's a part of it.
Then, you have to add on that the Lakers are from LA, home of Hollywood and thus of celebrities. In addition to the general dislike of the major cities that I discussed in the LeBron post, the Lakers are particularly egregious because of Hollywood. Not only do celebrities live there - they show up to Laker games all the time. The Lakers come off as the team of the rich and famous, and nobody wants to cheer for the team all the rich people cheer for.
Most of this leads to people projecting hatred onto the players. Players traits can generally be viewed positively or negatively - Jordan either "knew how to take over a game" or "was a massive ballhog" depending on how people felt about him and the team.
Kobe also suffers from the A-Rod problem - neither is a really naturally social person, but they both want to be liked. A-Rod, ironically, improved this by stop trying to get people to like him after the steroid stuff happened. He started dating Kate Hudson, did nothing but hit baseballs, and suddenly people liked him more. Kobe's image is improving too - because a puppet does his ads now.
As far as the game last night goes, there's not much to say. The Lakers looked off, particularly Kobe, for most of the game. The Knicks miraculously didn't turn it over, and kept it close. Larry Hughes was terrible, and the Lakers built a lead. And no Knick could guard Pau, which makes you wonder why it took them so long to pound it inside to him. As a Knicks fan, its at least been heartening this year to not see every visiting superstar light it up, unlike last year when Kobe, LeBron, and D-Wade took turns trying to put up the most riduclous game at the Garden.
Unrelatedly, Rufus Wainwright has the best voice in pop music. That's all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Great piece, Chris. As someone who hates the Lakers, I have to say... you pretty much nailed it. It's funny that even living in Orange County for a while could not make me a Lakers fan. I think your best point is the team for the rich and famous. We all want our sports stars to be god-like, but we want them to be gods of the people. Sports are supposed to be the one time we feel like we're all equally part of something, represented by our uniformed heroes. Of course, it's a fantasy (but have you been to a pro game in a while? it's ALL a fantasy land with lights and fire and half-naked women). All the celebs bring that fantasy crashing down before we can even fully delude ourselves with it. It's the exact same reason why people hate the Yankees, by the way--great point.
ReplyDeleteAs for your video- did you see the J. Timberlake and Matt Morris version on the Hope for Haiti concert/telethon? It was surprisingly good for a couple of ex-Mouseketeers.
I did see that performance. Thought their best choice was styling it like Rufus and not Cohen/Buckley - I like that song when its sung beautifully, not gruffly. Thought JT nailed it.
ReplyDeleteI just remembered this, and it's not worth a full post: the best Kobe ad, better even than the puppets, I think, is the one where he's riding a donkey and trying to sell you ankle insurance.
ReplyDeleteNotably, though, this is a late-career ad (late-career in the sense that it happened recently -- there's a good chance that in the context of his full career 30 years from now, we'll call it mid-career). The early Kobe would probably be too afraid of looking ridiculous to agree to ride a donkey on camera.