From Hanging An IST Banner To Puffing Their Chest Out Over Twitter Likes About A Bronny Tweet, The Lakers And Their Fans Are Currently Down Horrendous

You know, there was a time when the Los Angeles Lakers were once a proud franchise. I'm not really sure what's changed, but outside of a Bubble title run, things have been pretty brutal these last 10+ years

Only one 50 win season (the bubble), missed the playoffs 7 times, a couple of first round exits, I wouldn't exactly say the Lakers are the class of the NBA like the old days. To be quite honest, they've been no different than say, the Raptors, only the Raptors have made the playoffs more in recent years

These aren't your parents' Lakers or even the Kobe Lakers. Those were historic teams that did nothing but win, and as a result, hung real banners. As a Celtics fan, there was a real rivalry there between the teams and the fanbases.

But now? In 2024? All I can do is sit back and look at how far this once great franchise has fallen. In one corner, you have a franchise that has an identity crisis that for decades talked about how they only hung championship banners, only to do this with the IST banner

Allen J. Schaben. Getty Images.

Fitting they put it with all the Minnesota Banners which aren't real either when it comes to LA that they only needed to start including because they were insecure about how far behind they are to the Celtics. 

Once that happened, you knew this franchise was cooked. 

Now I will give them credit. I like the JJ Redick hire. He wants the be another Joe Mazzulla, and who could blame him. That man is an NBA champion. I actually think it's pretty cool that Bronny and LeBron get to play together, and at the 55th pick who gives a fuck? 

But with that selection of course has come our lastest example of just how down bad these Lakers fans really are.

I don't care if you despise me, the Celtics, all things Boston etc. There is no way any Laker fan can view this tweet and not be extremely embarrassed for how far this franchise and the fanbase has fallen off. In November you're treating the IST tournament like the NBA Finals, and now here you are having to talk about Twitter likes, all while your arch rival is hanging their 18th (and actual 18th) banner. There is just something so funny about that to me. Congratulations, you got more likes! Hell yeah! 

And hey, maybe this is just another example of me just being old and not getting it. Maybe in 2024, Twitter likes are actually more important than actually winning an NBA championship. I have to imagine this is a teenager (because if not…woof), and if so when you combine this with the debate last night, we as a society might really be fucked. 

On some level, this makes me a little sad. I want the Celtics/Lakers rivalry to actually come back. The league is better when both of those teams are elite. But on the other hand, seeing their fanbase have to celebrate Twitter likes because the only other thing they have is a fugazi IST banner brings me a great amount of joy. It's quite the pickle for someone like me, but I'll deal with it.

Because at the end of the day, Twitter likes or not, let's not forget what reality we currently live in. Then again, if I was a Lakers fan I would do everything in my power to convince my brain this didn't happen. Sadly, it did.