Confession Time. When Did You Become A Laker Fan?

1980. I was a Michigan St fan because of Magic, and the Lakers drafted him.

 

mid 90s during the divac-jones-ceballos-threatt years

right before kobe and shaq

 

@Wino that was a beautiful post man!

I grew up as a nerd not giving a s**t about any sport. For some reason, I started watching the NBA when Houston fought the Knicks in the finals. I was roting for John Starks and the Knicks and it was pretty disappointing to watch him lose the series for his team in the final game.

After that, I was still kind of rooting for the Knicks, but wasn't very emotional about it. Then, when MJ came back and the Bulls dominated the league again, I remember not being a fan of any particular team for a time, just hating on them big bad bulls. It was annoying how seemingly every NBA fan I knew was a fan of one team, and one player only.

I became a fan of the Lakers when Shaq was signed. I didn't like him before and considered him just too gifted physically but lacking the actual skills (HAHA) and only able to dunk on everybody. I still remember speaking to one of my friends who told me - look - he's just using his gifts and concentrating on what he's good at. I put my bias aside and watched a few games of prime Shaq - have been a Lakers fan ever since.

Kobe is and will probably remain my favorite player of all time, watching his career was truly a privilege. I was afraid I would lose interest in the Lakers once he's retired, but here I am, still rooting for my favorite team in all of sports. This community is probably as big of a factor in it as any other - you guys are amazing and it feels great to have this second home online so to speak.

The last few years have been extremely painful. I was on the keep the youth train but am excited as all hell to see the team Rob has assembled go out and compete. We have as good of a chance to get the trophy as any other team and with Anthony freaking Davis should be able to also build a competitive team once Bron is gone.

Go Lakers! And may the clippers rot forever ugh

 

80's

 

My brother and I were playing NBA 2K on Sega Dreamcast as we just got it for Christmas, and were looking for a team with 2 great players to play as. At that time I started to get into basketball as I played baseball most of my childhood. We’re scrolling through, get to the Lakers and see Kobe and Shaq, fire it up and dominate in a video game. I didn’t have a favorite team at the time, and I started to follow Kobe’s career and learn more about the Lakers history and now I have about 12 different Lakers jerseys (past & current) and I’m borderline obsessed and the rest is history!

Some fantastic posts in here.

 

In the Philippines during the early 80's you were lucky if you got an abbreviated game of the week on national tv. For any die hard fan you have to cable tv to be able to piggyback on the Far Eastern Network, which was broadcasted to US military bases. Either that or just read the newspaper. Just fell in love with the Lakers during the Showtime era, it was like watching the local PBA, only a million times better. Kareem was my favorite player, since I played center on my teams( I was bigger than most kids, and painfully unathletic.) Just hated the Cbags and found them arrogant. I was so sad when Showtime ended(the finals loss to the pistons when everyone just got injured, Riley leaving, Cap retiring and then Magic afterwards).

 

Grew up during the Showtime era but didn’t really pay attention to any particular sport. It all started when I was bored out my mind one afternoon and flipping through the radio stations couldn’t find any good songs to listen to. Went through the AM stations just for the pure hell of it and landed on AM 570 where Chick was calling a game. His rapid fire narration caught my attention and I was hooked. Lakers won that game btw. I then listened to every Laker game I could. We had but 1 TV at that time so catching the road games was hit and miss depending on parents mood. So radio was the way to go for me. This was during the Randy Pfund era so Lakers that year were not good. Missed the playoffs in fact. But I didn’t care. I knew once that season ended I was a Laker lifer.

 

We could have taken down the Pistons that year, won a three peat and sent off Cap as a Champ. Just our luck that Magic and Byron went down.

 

Around 2003. I’m from Canada and at the time we didn’t get a whole lot of NBA games shown on tv here. One night I was watching Lakers vs Nuggets and saw some player named Kobe Bryant pull off this dunk:



Started watching every single Laker game I possibly could ever since.

 

early 90s right at magic 1st retirement announcement, became bigger fan during nve, e.jones era

 

I don't really follow a specific team when I was a kid. In my country NBA games are rarely shown. I love underdog teams. This is when Jordan was dominating the league. So whoever the Bulls matched up against during the finals, I root for them. I learned to love Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Detlef Schrempf, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Jeff Hornacek, and the likes. You see, I hated Chicago Bulls because they were the best.

I despised the Lakers during the Kobe & Shaq era. I followed the team when they seized being so dominant. That was 2004. Initially because of Lamar Odom. I knew Kobe was pretty good at that point! Just not a fan of his cockiness. Then came the scoring barrages, the lockdown defenses and the killing of other teams on his own. Well, you can say he changed my mind about him pretty fast. I became his fan! He's wearing #8. Later the m****rf**k*r decided to change his number. He stole mine!! Never worn #24 again after that haha.

After Kobe retired I was thinking on following the OKC mainly because of Durant and to a lesser extent Russell. But Durant chose the Dubs, you know how I feel about dominant teams? Yea, I rather sink with Randle, Clarkson, D'Angelo, Nance and Ingram than ride that ship!

 

Was a Laker fan in the womb.

Seriously, remember seeing a yellow team on the tv when I was 3 years old and liked what I saw. Then when I was 5, my school took us to the great western forum for what I assumed was a Laker game. I just remember seeing people faraway on a basketball court with yellow clothes on.

That always stuck in my head. Started really watching basketball in 92. Was a big Jordan fan, but left him to start following my Lakers again in the 96-97 season. Been a true fan ever since.
:Moeshaka:

 

From Birth

 

Growing up in New Jersey (lived there untl I was 13), Patrick Ewing made me a fan of the Knicks, I saw my first NBA game at MSG in 1992-1993. After moving to Southern California, it was the Shaq and Kobe Laker Teams that made a fan of the NBA and basketball in general. Kobe became my favorite player instantly since I got to follow a teenager playing in the NBA while I was 14 with all my high school years in front of me. I would use Kobe’s relentlessness to get better on the court was my own motivation when playing basketball (I was never any good but you get the idea). I remembered how when Kobe shot those airballs against the Jazz in the 97 playoffs, I felt for him. My favorite commercial of his is t/o his career was the Sprite commercial from the summer of 97 where he's using the airballs as fuel for improvement.

The funny thing is I initially remained a Knicks fan even through the early part of the futility that transpired the last 19 years after they traded Ewing. However the Lakers, starting in Kobe’s rookie season, were the Western Conference team I pulled for. That move to So-Cal as a teenager gave me access to every Lakers game from 1995-1996 until now. I’ve seen more Lakers games than games played by any other NBA team since living in Ca.

My dad was a Lakers fan in the 1980s (thats where I got my love of sports from-watching games with him as little kid). In the first two years after my dad passed away (2008) the Lakers won their last two titles. In those years I took being a Laker fan to higher level by purchasing a Kobe Jersey. In college, during the 2000-2001 season, I purchased a Kobe Bryant bobblehead that keep on my office desk now. I’ll never forget how in 2001, especially the playoffs, Kobe just flipped the switch in his play that carried him for the rest of his career. For me that was the year the Mamba was born.

The day I decided I was done being Knicks fan and ready to commit myself full time to the Lakers only, was in the summer of 2016. I had just been recently married, and my cousin-in law asked me what teams will my wife root for (since she’s from another country). I told her and my cousin, when it comes to the NBA, my wife and kid(s) will be Lakers fans b/c I don’t want to wish the Knicks and their inneptness on them. I want them to actually enjoy watching the NBA and become basketball fans.

I see my finally becoming a Lakers fan and passing them on to my family as a way to continue my dad’s being a fan of the showtime era, with my being a fan of the Kobe era teams and linking it to the future Laker teams that will exist when my first child is born.

 

I grew up in LA in the 80s. The Lakers were like demigods to me. I thought they were these supernatural beings that won every year. I also thought Magic Johnson had that name because he was the player with magical powers. He’s basically been my favorite person ever my entire life.

 

That and the dunk on Sprewell, are my favorite ever.

Oh!

And Dwight.

 

Here’s a little foot note from my when I became a Laker fan:

No joke, in NBA live 96 on the day the Hornetts trade Kobe to the Lakers, I went to create a player, created Michael Jordan a second time (he, plus a bunch memebers from the 1995-1996 rookie class, and a bunch of hall of famers could automatically entered in by just typing their name and hitting enter) and edited his name and birthday to Kobe’s info, gave him number 8, and an afro. I remember from the time Kobe declared he was taking his talents to the NBA, they began Jordan comparison talks. The Kobe Shaq Lakers became my NBA Live team in multiplayer games for as long as I continued to play NBA Live 96 on my super nintendo.