For the most part, it’s a pretty exciting time to be a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers. After being not particularly good for a few years, the Lakers secured the services of LeBron James during the 2018 free agent period. They’ve added some players around him, and in tandem with the team’s young talent, Los Angeles is primed to make the postseason in 2019 for the first time since the 2012-13 campaign.
However, there is a subsection of Lakers fans who are a bit conflicted about James coming to town: Kobe Bryant stans. Bryant, in addition to being one of the best players in franchise history, was rivals with James for some time, so there is an preexisting bias that some people have.
Having said that, there are some Bryant fans who are legitimately not happy about LeBron. We know this because Scott Cacciola of the New York Times spoke to a handful of them at the NBA Summer League, and hoo boy, did these folks have some takes. Here are some of my favorites:
- “I don’t even know where to start. He’s such a diva sometimes.”
- “Don’t get me wrong: He’s good. Maybe I’ll feel differently once he wins a championship for the Lakers.”
- “I’m not a fan of LeBron.”
- “He was a whiny baby.”
- “I never liked him. I always thought he seemed really cocky.”
I’m not here to tell anyone how to be a fan, but it’s kind of insane that a small group of Lakers fans have such acrimonious feelings towards LeBron, right? Kobe’s excited for him to come play in L.A.! This is obviously a handful of people and not representative of the fan base on the whole, but man, these are the kinds of people who ruin a mural because they don’t like that LeBron is called the King of L.A. or whatever.
Anyway, LeBron’s going to be in Los Angeles for four years, so he has plenty of time to either win over these people or, if I had to put money on what will actually happen, get booed by a handful of his team’s fans for not being Kobe Bryant.
(Via New York Times)
