Here We Stay

I am a proud, unabashed, (overly)passionate fan of the Los Angeles Lakers.

I got made fun of in college due to said obsession. Around my pick-up basketball circle, I am known as the guy "who has all the Kobe shoes." My mom hates all sports, because she thinks I waste too much of my life following the Lakers.

Last night, the team played its last 2010-2011 regular season game on the road against the Sacramento Kings. They needed a victory in order to secure a number-two seed in the Western Conference playoffs and avoid a tough first round opponent in the Portland Trail Blazers. I saw the game as an absolute must-win, since it would place the Lakers against a much-less formidable New Orleans Hornets squad.

You da man, Doug!

Complicating matters was the fact that the Kings were playing possibly their final game in the city of Sacramento. Not too long ago, they were an extremely entertaining, run-and-gun title contender who pushed the Lakers to the limit during their last three-peat run. I hated them. Chris Webber was soft. I couldn't tell whether Mike Bibby was white or black. Hedo Turkoglu was/still is the ugliest thing I've ever seen.  Vlade Divac didn't play real basketball. Doug Christie was a comically whipped husband.

Most of all, I hated their fans. Loathed. Detested. Abhorred. I derided them as northern California hicks who had nothing better to do in their barren town than obsess over a terribly annoying basketball team. (Yes, I realize the irony of this sentiment given my opening paragraphs.) Those fans, who brought it each and every game, cheering on their fabulous team with those dreadful cowbells and unhinged enthusiasm.

That's why I can't help but feel mixed emotions as I think back on last night's contest. I knew in my heart of hearts, above all else, I wanted a Lakers victory. As the Lakers went up 20 points in the second half, I cared not one iota that my team was on its way to giving Sacramento a crushing farewell. Once the Kings started their improbable comeback, I was in a furious state and close to breaking things. I didn't even celebrate when Kobe hit his tying three at the end of regulation, still bitter that the game was even close at all. I almost wanted the Lakers to lose in the end, thinking they deserved a harsh wake-up call in the Trail Blazers after such a depressing run to end the season.

Through all these thoughts, however, I could not help but feel those fans again. That hate, a presence long dormant, bubbled up once more. What those devoted 17,000 achieved last night, before, during, and after the game, was nothing short of incredible. They epitomized everything fans are supposed to do: will their team to something higher. And despite the loss, considering the circumstances, the Kings did their faithful proud. What a moment.

I won't pretend to know all the details surrounding the Maloof brothers' decision to move the Kings to Anaheim. Business, however bumbling or misguided, is business. I get it. I do know, however, that Sacramento is a top-20 TV market. I do know that the Kings are top five all-time in consecutive sellouts. I do know they have a proud, unabashed, (overly)passionate fanbase.

I do know that if the Lakers ever left Los Angeles, I would fall into a near-clinical depression. That is not an exaggeration.

That's the toughest part for me regarding this whole mess. For sports fans, the teams we love become part of our personal identity. To rip them away is to lose part of yourself forever. No, that's not as foolish as it sounds. What if you took instruments away from a musician and told him he/she could only listen to others play? Brushes away from an artist? Keyboards from bloggers? Stupidity away from Glenn Beck? It leaveS behind such an aching, lasting pain. That passion for whatever (basketball, music, art, etc.) you were originally invested in may come back eventually but will never feel whole again.

I imagine many Kings fans are, or will be, experiencing such misery. And today, as I watched and read about last night's events, I say with absolute, utter sincerity that I feel for them. That hate is totally gone.

So whatever happens in the coming months, at least for these next two days as the Lakers rest up for the playoffs, in between worrying about Andrew Bynum's knee, fearing the implications of Kobe Bryant not having chicken pox as a child, and lamenting why Shannon Brown is still an "important" contributor, I am proud to say I am a Sacramento Kings fan. We all are.


Anyone know where I can buy a cowbell?