MavsFanatic had the pleasure of following a 25 year old Lakers’ fan on Saturday.  The goal was to catch a glimpse of the die hard fandom that is “Laker Gang”.  To get first hand look at this phenomenon from his perspective, we spent the day with a Laker fan here in the DFW area.  Here’s what unfolded:

Through extensive research, I found a Laker fan here in Dallas that I could meet with for my research.  We exchanged information via Facebook and the appointment was set.  I arrived at Laker fan’s home at about 5:00pm on the Saturday of game day.  Laker fan lived in an apartment in Garland, just off I-30.

MavsFanatic:  “Thank you so much for letting us spend the day with you.  We appreciate it.”

Laker Fan: “No problem man.”

MavsFanatic: “So, how long have you lived in Texas?  When did you move here from Los Angeles?

Laker Fan: “I was born in Texas, bro.  Lived in Mesquite and just moved to Garland one year ago.”  (These are Dallas metro cities, for those reading outside of DFW)

MavsFanatic:  (with a dumbfounded look on my face)  “Oh really?” So why the Lakers?”

Laker Fan:  “I’ve been a fan all my life, bro.  Just love the purple and gold.  17 championships baby.”

MavsFanatic:  “oh yea?  How many of those championships were from the days in Minneapolis?”  (I asked as if I didn’t know, but I knew the whole time.  I was testing him early.  My assumption of him was coming to fruition.  This could be a stage 5 bandwagoner.)

Laker Fan:  “Huh?  Minneapolis?  What are you talking about man?  You crazy, haha.  You need some coffee or something bro?  You still asleep?” (He said jokingly)

MavsFanatic:  “haha, no.”  (I said playfully as to let him believe that I was indeed, the crazy one)

“Hey listen, we should probably get going.  Got to get to the AAC to beat the pre game traffic”

Laker Fan:  “Aight, let me go get my jersey.”

(At this point, Laker fan comes out wearing his white Kobe “24” jersey and a yellow hat.  On the front of this hat, was a Yankees “NY” logo.)

MavsFanatic:  “of course!”  (I said out loud, accidentally)

Laker Fan:  “of course what?  You talking to me?”

MavsFanatic:  “No man.  My bad.  I was just thinking of something else.  Let’s roll”

(We got into my car and started the trip to the AAC.  Some other small talk ensued.)

MavsFanatic:  “So who’s your NFL team?  You have a favorite?”

Laker fan: “Dallas Cowboys all the way.  I live and die with the star.”

MavsFanatic: “oh….okay.  That makes sense” (I said as I turned my head away and rolled my eyes as to not have Laker fan see my reaction)

Laker Fan:  “Yeah man, Tony Romo needs to go bro.  That fool always throwing picks.”

MavsFanatic:  “I disagree but let’s change the subject.”  (I said as my patience was already running thin.  The bandwagon-ness of this guy was wearing on me.)

“So what do you think about this years Mavs team?”

Laker Fan:  “I don’t know bro.  Mark Cubans blew up the team after they got lucky in 2011.  Haha.”

MavsFanatic:  “Got lucky huh?  I recall that we swept you that year”

Laker fan:  “And what happened last year?  Haha.  We got 17 championships bro!”

MavsFanatic:  “Yea, you mentioned that.  You remember those championship runs before 2000?  How older were you, negative 10 years old?  You probably started rooting for them in 2002.  And 5 of the other titles were when the Lakers were in Minneapolis.  You counting those too I guess?

Lakers Fan:  “What the hell is all this Minneapolis talk?  You crazy man.”

MavsFanatic:  (my tone became more hostile at this point as I was losing my professionalism) “The Lakers moved to LA from Minneapolis in 1960!!  Hence the name “Lakers”.  You seen many lakes in LA?”

Laker Fan:  “No.  I’ve never been to LA”

MavsFanatic:  “Oh really?”  (I said sarcastically).  “You’ve never been to LA?  Didn’t see that coming.”

(The car ride became more awkwardly quiet at this point.  As Laker fan could sense my intolerability.  We listened to sports talk radio as we got closer to the arena.  Some Texas Ranger talk was just starting when Laker fan spoke up.)

Laker Fan:  “Man, Rangers some Buffalo Bills choke artists, you a Ranger fan?”

Mavsfanatic:  (I closed my eyes for about 2 seconds out of disgust.)  “Yes, of course I am.  I was born here, that’s my team.”

Laker Fan:  “Man, they’ve sucked for years and now everybody is a Ranger fan around here?  My Yankees got 27 championships.”

MavsFanatic:  “Again, you’ve been alive for 4 of them.  And can you name any Yankees other than Jeter or A Rod?”

Laker Fan:  “Uhhh.  Uhhhhhh.”

MavsFanatic:  (I made a buzzer sound with my mouth) “Times up!”

Laker Fan:  “Man you trippin.”

(We pull up to the parking lot at the AAC.  At this point Laker Fan tries to offer to pay for parking.  But he was taken back by surprise when he learned that the parking attendants didn’t take a debit card.  So I paid the parking.)

Laker Fan:  “Whew. My Lakers about to do work son!”

(As soon as we walked into the arena, Laker fan spotted other Laker fans like him.  They started high fiving and talking about the past rings.  They started predicting the amount of points that Kobe would score that night as one predication was more ridiculous as the next)

Laker Fan: “Kobe bout to drop 45.”  (Realistic, I’ll give him that)

Laker Fan 2:  “ *expletive, Kobe about to drop 60 on the Mavs tonight, they soft!”

 

During this conversation, I’m just listening and praying that we just don’t get blown out.  That would be the worst thing that could happen.  I then walked off to find my seat and that was the last I saw of Laker fan that night.  We went our separate ways.  I felt almost 10% dumber from spending the last two and a half hours with Laker fan so I did a Sudoku at halftime to exercise my brain.

To my horror, The Lakers went on to blow out the Mavericks on Saturday night, 115-89.  I’m pretty sure that Laker fan was responsible for the “Lets Go Lakers” chant that echoed through the American Airlines Center.  So to show my appreciation, I let him experience the Dart Rail back to the nearest stop to his Garland apartment.

MFFL