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Fans of aging stars...


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I have a question, are you loyal being a fan of your aging star... aka players who were superstars in their prime but at present is showing decline because of age... e.g. Iverson, Duncan, Garnett, Kobe...

 

Do you stay loyal or do you constantly look for another young superstar who you can become fan of?

 

 

I am a team fan, not a player fan, so wouldn't know how this feels... so am just curious.

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Well, I'm a Blazers fan, so I pretty much love anyone who is on the Blazers, though I still check Pistons' boxscores for TMac to see how he did. I'll also check TWolves games not only for KLove but to see if Telfair played at all as I still like him back during his Portland days.

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Ask this question in 5 years and just about every Laker fan will be a Clipper fan depending on what happens with Gordon/Griffin and company.

 

I wont be one of those guys. I've stuck with this team through the rough, pretty much 2004-2007. Now alot of you guys wont consider making the playoffs a couple seasons a "rough stretch" but to Laker fans we were accustomed to winning championships or advancing deep in the playoffs. Those first rounds exists stung just as bad as not making the playoffs in 2004-05.

 

Generally speaking though I would probably say that well over half the fanbase are bandwagoners or Kobe fans first so I wouldn't be surprised to see people lose interest in the team once they become irrelevant.

 

As for being a fan, I've been a Kobe fan since his rookie season and he'll continue to be my favorite player as long as he plays and even after he retires. It's really similar to the respect and love people have for Jordan. Alot of hardcore fans don't have favorite players outside of guys on their respective teams, but I'm not like that.

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Ask this question in 5 years and just about every Laker fan will be a Clipper fan depending on what happens with Gordon/Griffin and company.

the Clippers were better than the Lakers in 06 and nothing happened with the fanbase, so your logic is flawed

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Ask this question in 5 years and just about every Laker fan will be a Clipper fan depending on what happens with Gordon/Griffin and company.

That's what they said when Magic retired, and according to an older fan from TLN, that's what they said when Jerry West was done.

 

It's no surprise that non-Lakers fans said the same thing when the Lakers dealt Shaq.

 

I guess we'll just wait for the next batch of rings.

 

--------

 

As far as being a team-fan first, it doesn't matter. People can be die-hard Clippers fans, but still like Blake Griffin because he's an exciting player. I'm all about the Jayhawks in college basketball, but I was a huge fan of Kevin Durant despite him being on Texas (one of the teams I can't stand).

 

It shouldn't matter why a guy likes a team, unless he's bouncing between multiple championship teams and not supporting them when they are down and out. Not everyone was born in an NBA city or had a team near their own city, or had their fathers tell them who to root for when they were five years old.

 

I'm an NBA/Kobe/Lakers fan, in that order...but that doesn't mean I'll stop rooting for LA when Kobe retires, and it doesn't mean I jumped ship during the 2004-05 34-win season, or the two first-round exits right after that. I've written quite a bit, in season and game previews, even administrating a Lakers board, for one team. It makes me sick when people get wrapped up in it, and think they know me, or anyone else in that position, for that matter.

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I'm a true fan. I can't understand how someone could support a player, its like the little 12 year old girl who is obsessed with certain players because they look good.

If you're going to mouth off about it, we can draw a line between my knowledge and the 12-year old girl's knowledge, and where you fall in that mix.

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I wasn't mouthing off about anything.

So how exactly does a 12-year old girl compare to a fan of a particular player? Does the 12-year old girl know more basketball than you do?

 

I'm sure you know exactly where I'm going with it, so hopefully you're going to realize how dumb that statement was.

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So how exactly does a 12-year old girl compare to a fan of a particular player? Does the 12-year old girl know more basketball than you do?

 

I'm sure you know exactly where I'm going with it, so hopefully you're going to realize how dumb that statement was.

 

That's not what my point was, I think the obsession between the fan of a player and a 12-year old girl being a fan of the player seems the same.

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That's not what my point was, I think the obsession between the fan of a player and a 12-year old girl being a fan of the player seems the same.

So the 12-year old girl is obsessed with, say, Shannon Brown...all because she wants to model her game after him? Or because she wants him to lead a team to a championship?

 

Or, are you saying that "player fans" are obsessed with someone like LeBron because they think he's cute?

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I was mainly trolling with my initial post, although I don't think it would be far fetched to suggest once Kobe declines/leaves that LA residents may jump ship as Griffin develops into a superstar and Gordon in the all-star boat, but all things considered Sterling could [expletive] everything up.

 

I don't even care who you cheer for, it feels like topics like these come up every month or so and it is pretty annoying. You pick a team, and you stick with them. If you have a favourite team because of where you live, because you like their jerseys, or your favourite player plays there, then fine, but you support that team unconditionally so long as they are in existence. I don't even have a problem if you are an LBJ fan (for example) and support the Heat now, but don't act like you've been there all this time and will be the first one at the parade.

 

Also don't act like LA's fans have faced or gone through some sort of adversity. Sorry but I don't consider a couple 30-40 win years low points. Talk to me half a decade from now when LA might be forced to rebuild and the Clippers could (BIG IF) be contenders and tell me that it isn't even a remote possibility that fans will jump ship. You've had Kobe a decade and a half, so of course the building has been full, but you are going to sit here with a straight face and tell me once he is gone there isn't a possibility the Lakers lose a chunk of their support?

 

My point is that there are a ton of Kobe fans in this world, and all I WONDER(I don't even declare it as fact at all) is what will happen once he is gone. I am not directing it at you, or even anyone here for that matter, it will just be interesting, at least to me, to see how the franchise's support is when the team doesn't have a top 5 player or a superstar on it, if we get to that point.

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I completely agree with Real on this. What Yugo said was very stupid and just an ignorant comment. I'm a fan of TMac because I like him as a player, I like his game, had a lot of fun watching him when he was with Houston (you don't see many, if any, Detroit games televised like you did with Houston back during the day with TMac and Yao), that you'd compare me to an obsessed 12 year old girl? That's rediculous. I'm a Blazers fan and I'll always be a Blazers fan no matter what, but I think I'm entitled to like other players outside of the Blazers and to follow just that player whether he's playing for Houston, Detroit, New York, Miami, or the Lakers. Just because TMac is on Detroit, doesn't mean I'm a fan of Detroit, I'm just a fan of TMac. I never declared being a fan of Detroit or New York (when he played for them). I'm a McGrady fan and will follow him no matter what team he plays for. I will always follow and support the Blazers no matter who is on the team or how good/bad they are.

 

Make an sense at all?

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I completely agree with Real on this. What Yugo said was very stupid and just an ignorant comment. I'm a fan of TMac because I like him as a player, I like his game, had a lot of fun watching him when he was with Houston (you don't see many, if any, Detroit games televised like you did with Houston back during the day with TMac and Yao), that you'd compare me to an obsessed 12 year old girl? That's rediculous. I'm a Blazers fan and I'll always be a Blazers fan no matter what, but I think I'm entitled to like other players outside of the Blazers and to follow just that player whether he's playing for Houston, Detroit, New York, Miami, or the Lakers. Just because TMac is on Detroit, doesn't mean I'm a fan of Detroit, I'm just a fan of TMac. I never declared being a fan of Detroit or New York (when he played for them). I'm a McGrady fan and will follow him no matter what team he plays for. I will always follow and support the Blazers no matter who is on the team or how good/bad they are.

 

Make an sense at all?

 

Liking a player is good but following a person religiously is where it gets gay in my opinion. Just a misunderstanding, I don't think you guys know what point I am trying to make so we'll leave it be.

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Liking a player is good but following a person religiously is where it gets gay in my opinion. Just a misunderstanding, I don't think you guys know what point I am trying to make so we'll leave it be.

 

Why is it gay? Because I like and support a player? So I should stop liking him just because he got traded to a different team? You're not making any sense and are now just looking completely ignorant. Especially saying it's gay.

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Why is it gay? Because I like and support a player? So I should stop liking him just because he got traded to a different team? You're not making any sense and are now just looking completely ignorant. Especially saying it's gay.

 

See you're not understanding me again. I said liking a player is cool but following someone religiously isn't.

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So, basically, my posts were dodged because there's absolutely nothing to debate. Good thinking. Don't compare anyone on OTR to a 12-year old girl that is obsessed with a player's face. That 12-year old girl, more than likely, doesn't know a single thing about basketball, and if that player were to have 20-win seasons throughout his career, she wouldn't care.

 

Translation: [expletive] off if you don't like "player fans." That's what needs to be said.

 

I'm a fan of the game of basketball. If the Lakers disappeared tomorrow, I'm still watching 29 other teams (like I do today), unlike many around here. I watch the sport before anything else, including the Lakers, including Kobe.

 

Nothing insecure about my fanhood, at all. The insecurity lies within those who continue to pounce on everyone who is not born in an NBA city, or who didn't have their daddies telling them what team they should support as they grew up. It has been that way on OTR since the entire community started growing comfortable with each other, and it's pretty much garbage, and displays the lack of maturity.

 

And the mediocrity of other teams doesn't mean shit. The Lakers were mediocre one season, in 2004-05, and we heard it worse than any team to date. The two first-round exits against the Suns were more painful than any 20-30 win season a team could have because our fanbase was stomped on by the media. Does anyone really care what the 30-win teams do in the NBA? Has ESPN written a famous article about how bad the Pistons are this season?

 

Cool, say some guy is from Detroit and he has been a Pistons fan for decades, and that he's still a fan even today. I don't care. There's a chance I know more about that Pistons team (or any team in the franchise's history) than he does, and that knowledge is all that matters to me. Unlike many of those die-hard fans (and not all die-hard fans are like that), I don't drool over the team I support. I don't call Von Wafer the next Ray Allen, or say that Vujacic is going to be as good as Peja was. Not being "the norm" and being able to say that I actually chose the team I wanted to support (even before they had Shaq, by the way) is refreshing.

 

If that pisses anyone off, maybe you need to re-evaluate your stance on the subject, because you're in the wrong, and you always have been.

 

Go ahead and ramble on about whatever makes you feel a little better about your fanhood. At the end of the day, you being a fan takes more than just talking about it, and there are a couple of guys around here that haven't walked the walk and really have no reason to ever question anyone else.

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