Originally posted by TX9R:
Couldn't the same be said about the NBA if your team sucks? I mean do they even watch the NBA in Memphis? I sure as hell wouldn't. My interest in sports is directly correlted to the suckiness of my team. Except in football, I'm stoked no matter what. If you weren't a Lakers fan I wonder if you would feel the same, I mean you know they'll always be at least decent. It was that way as a Niner fan for 20 years.
LOL, touche. Even after Shaq was traded, they were watchable because of a great player. The one time that they sucked and didn't have a superstar was when I was about 12 years old, and I was still a huge Laker fan, but when your enthusiasm and optimism when you're 12 are a lot more than when you're 28.
I think I'd still hold the same interest in the Lakers because of the front office. Jerry Buss has been the owner of 3 entirely different championship teams, so even when we suck, there's a realistic hope that things will get better...cause they always do.
But you're right, the Lakers have probably increased my love of basketball as a whole, and have gotten me interested in the intracacies of the sport. Another thing though is that they're the only team that I root for that's from LA, so there's a bit of camraderie with other Laker fans. It's easier to root for a team when you can go out to a bar and scream your ass off with 200 other idiots that are rooting for them too.
Anyway...I'll stop the thread jack.
[ Edited by LA9erFan on Sep 3, 2009 at 11:18:22 ]