Los Angeles Lakers: The End of an Era
How does a guy from Cincinnati, Ohio become a Los Angeles Lakers fan? Well, I'll tell you.
When I first started watching basketball it was early 2000 and Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were leading the Lakers to their first of three consecutive NBA titles. Growing up in Cincinnati, especially being born in 1990 after the hay days of the Big Red Machine and after the Bengals two Super Bowl teams in the '80s, one becomes quite accustom to losing. The Reds and Bengals, until recently, have more than bad in my lifetime, they've been awful.
As a sports fan, I was desperate for a winning team to follow and as my interest in basketball grew, here came the L.A. Lakers. Watching the Lakers play basketball and win doing it was more than sweet, it was awesome. People of my generation in Cincinnati are not use to winning, it's almost seems foreign to us as sports fans, but watching the Lakers gave me a sense of what it felt like to win.
I love winning and am a very sore loser. I'm the kind of guy who yells and curses at the television screen when things don't go my way. I'm the guy who has broken countless PlayStation controllers by not throwing, but "tossing" them at certain objects (e.g. the wall) because he has lost while playing Madden, MLB The Show, basketball or got killed while playing Call of Duty. Pretty sad I know, but I hate to lose, as Michael Scott would say, "Sue me."
Anyway, watching Kobe and Shaq play basketball together in Lakers purple and gold, was my version of watching Jordan and Scottie Pippen play for the Bulls in the '90s. They were the best one-two punch in the NBA and since Cincinnati no longer has an NBA team, I started to follow the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers went on to win three straight NBA titles from 2000-2002 and I instantly became a fan. I love sports and I never had a team to follw that was championship caliber, yet alone a winner. I love the Reds and Bengals, almost as much as I love my family, and they will always be my teams, but the Lakers gave me some of my first experience with winning as a sports fan.
The Lakers showed me how it felt to have your team win it all, not once, not twice, but three times in a row and five times in 11 years. It's such a great feeling to see your favorite team win a championship and I only hope that I can have the same feeling again with the Reds and Bengals.
Kobe and the Lakers have spoiled me over the years and with yesterday's butt kicking from the Dallas Mavericks, the Lakers run may finally be over, but it sure has been one hell of a ride. There are talks of blowing up the team and trying to find new pieces to win another championship in Kobe's final few years. Head coach Phil Jackson, one of the best ever and 11-time champion, is set to retire and who the next coach will be is still up in the air.
New players may be in purple and gold next season from Orlando Magic star center, Dwight Howard, to maybe even New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul. Kobe Bryant will be in a Lakers uniform next year without question. Who will be out there with him is a different story.
Kobe may never win another championship and the Lakers may become the Bengals, God forbid, of the NBA when he retires. But it's because of Kobe and the Lakers that I love basketball and one of the reasons that I love sports so much. That's why I will always be a fan, just a fan 2,188 miles away in Cincinnati.
When I first started watching basketball it was early 2000 and Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were leading the Lakers to their first of three consecutive NBA titles. Growing up in Cincinnati, especially being born in 1990 after the hay days of the Big Red Machine and after the Bengals two Super Bowl teams in the '80s, one becomes quite accustom to losing. The Reds and Bengals, until recently, have more than bad in my lifetime, they've been awful.
As a sports fan, I was desperate for a winning team to follow and as my interest in basketball grew, here came the L.A. Lakers. Watching the Lakers play basketball and win doing it was more than sweet, it was awesome. People of my generation in Cincinnati are not use to winning, it's almost seems foreign to us as sports fans, but watching the Lakers gave me a sense of what it felt like to win.
I love winning and am a very sore loser. I'm the kind of guy who yells and curses at the television screen when things don't go my way. I'm the guy who has broken countless PlayStation controllers by not throwing, but "tossing" them at certain objects (e.g. the wall) because he has lost while playing Madden, MLB The Show, basketball or got killed while playing Call of Duty. Pretty sad I know, but I hate to lose, as Michael Scott would say, "Sue me."
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| Kobe, Shaq and Phil Jackson won three consecutive titles together from 2000-2002 (NBAE/Getty Images) |
The Lakers went on to win three straight NBA titles from 2000-2002 and I instantly became a fan. I love sports and I never had a team to follw that was championship caliber, yet alone a winner. I love the Reds and Bengals, almost as much as I love my family, and they will always be my teams, but the Lakers gave me some of my first experience with winning as a sports fan.
The Lakers showed me how it felt to have your team win it all, not once, not twice, but three times in a row and five times in 11 years. It's such a great feeling to see your favorite team win a championship and I only hope that I can have the same feeling again with the Reds and Bengals.
Kobe and the Lakers have spoiled me over the years and with yesterday's butt kicking from the Dallas Mavericks, the Lakers run may finally be over, but it sure has been one hell of a ride. There are talks of blowing up the team and trying to find new pieces to win another championship in Kobe's final few years. Head coach Phil Jackson, one of the best ever and 11-time champion, is set to retire and who the next coach will be is still up in the air.
New players may be in purple and gold next season from Orlando Magic star center, Dwight Howard, to maybe even New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul. Kobe Bryant will be in a Lakers uniform next year without question. Who will be out there with him is a different story.
Kobe may never win another championship and the Lakers may become the Bengals, God forbid, of the NBA when he retires. But it's because of Kobe and the Lakers that I love basketball and one of the reasons that I love sports so much. That's why I will always be a fan, just a fan 2,188 miles away in Cincinnati.
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