Kinda crazy how random life can be. I found CL by total chance as well. I was 21 and had just gotten hired at a new company. I just so happened to be walking by a coworkers cubicle when I saw CL's front page on his computer. I distinctly remember it was during the (probably forgotten) Jack Haley "Lakers Trading for Carlos Boozer" fiasco during that trade deadline that never actually went through. For some reason I even remember what the graphic & headline looked like. It said "The Tradey Bunch" and had a Brady Bunch-style box layout of different Lakers headshots (Caron Butler, etc). I went to the site from there and signed up for the first message board I'd ever belonged to and you guys have been stuck with my subpar takes ever since.
I joined CL in 2004 (I believe). Hit 30k posts or so. So many nights of just posting and ranting while studying or whatever in college. Good times.
I can't remember when I joined CL, but it was when Kareem Rush was still on the team as you can tell by my username so probably around 2004. By the way, I read LB every day, I just have almost no time to post like I once did years ago at CL. I remember the religious and political threads, good times.
I joined CL in 2007 during the Kobe trade request summer. Ah those were the days. Gumbygld updates on Ariza and Bynum were quite memorable. And of course the Gasol/Kwame trade was insane. Took forever to load the pages.
I actually didn't even try coming to CL after the Gasol trade. It's hard to surf the internet when you are laughing manically for 6 hours straight.
Driving my best looking in S. Calif 1978 International Scout II home from WBR and let out a whole long stream of whoops. Similar color in dark burnt orange with much tastier and smaller pin striping, smoked back windows and mags instead of white rims. 4 barrel added along with headers on engine rebuild. All the bells and whistles. Bought for $4,800 used when my first Scout, older and not as cool, shorted out in the dash and burnt all the wiring and got totaled by insurance. Sold on eBay 20 years later to a gal in TX for $7,200.
I think I just googled Laker Trade Rumors back around 2003 and CL came up. Then I got banned for overusing the emojis that they had, and then was able to get back with a new account when I moved to a new state. (I guess they banned/blocked the IP Address or something back in the day) Stayed on from there, and then saw this get created but just felt indifferent in general back then and so after a while, I just disappeared from here. Now I’m back.
The Gasol Trade? That one and the “Basketball Reasons” I was driving around in my little Colorado Truck, listening to everything on ESPN XM and I screamed and pounded my steering wheel in excitement both times. But now I hear Basketball Reasons and David Stern and randomly have PTSD and Severe Anger. I don’t know why.
I laugh now though, because I was a 13 year old kid on the high of the 3-Peat and I was just abusing the emojis and then asking everyone for a Sig and Avatar whether it was this Laker Link account or my LakerPeenu account. Just trying to be cool like everyone else. If not cooler.
I have participated on a number of Laker forums over the years. I have mostly used Lakersground, but have been bummed with the extreme negativity there. I had been looking in here for awhile before creating an account in 2017. I am a longtime Laker fan, started watching them when Jerry West was a rookie. I went through all those agonizing losses to the C Bags. This taught me the value of the journey and having patience. Yet, I realized that all the negativity on Lakersground was turning me against our team. I feel like this site is more balanced. We look at the positive aspects of the team too. Being a sports fan needs to be fun for me. When it gets to be a total drag I will walk. I was a fan of the Rams back in the days of d***erson and Ferragamo but when Frontierre screwed things up, I quit supporting the team. Huge fan of the Dodgers but McCourt drove me away. I am only now getting back to being a fan again. This down time has been trying for me, I have had to examine my own commitment to the team and really look at Magic with an open mind. I have begrudgingly accepted that he made a mistake and damaged our front office. Still think Jeannie made mistakes as well, but in the end things may work out. I have more hope now than I have had in the last 6 years. I believe that there are a lot of fans like me, who love the team but don't really want to put up with a ton of hopeless, endless negative discussions. Some is OK but as a fan base we need hope and a positive environment. The press in this country is on a bad roll across all platforms. They want to manipulate us all for clicks and to increase their control. When you see what they are doing to others it should concern you because one day they will do it to you.
