Question: Hating??

[Athanacropolis]

And if a franchise really WANTS to be called a "flagship/cornerstone," they should start winning, oh I dunno, 17 championships?

[MyInsatiableOne]

And if a franchise really WANTS to be called a "flagship/cornerstone," they should start winning, oh I dunno, 17 championships?

Exactly. The C's have 17, the Lakers have 9....those are a lot, with periods of sustained greatness throughout. I don't put the Bulls up there because before and after Jordan, they don't have ****..a great team and a dynasty in the 1990s, yes, but not a cornerstone franchise, of which there are 2, Boston and LA.

[DEEP3CL]

Well let me chime in on this one being a guy on the West Coast during the 80's Bird-Magic era. First off hate for me is a weak word to connect to a sports team, now dislike is a word that I'm more prone to use. But for me the 80's Celtics got me riled up but honestly I didn't hate Bird (personally) I just disliked his squad but at the same time media coverage wasn't nearly what it is today so you wasn't as connected to knowing every little detail.

In my eyes champions respect champions so that's the way I see it here, why should I hate the Celtics ? Do I enjoy see them getting beat by the Lakers.........yes but hey that's sports. Maybe my prospective is different because my team has won titles as well as your team so it's no surprise both franchises are hated to no end. Now for those franchises that haven't beaten either I understand why they "hate" they want what you have. I know that other teams like it when either of us are down and seem to be running on fumes, then suddenly trades or draft picks revive us. They can't understand these things, the Celtics and Lakers are the 2 cornerstones of this league.............that's just the way it's been and will always be I hope.

[sully00]

I think hate is the spawn of 40 mph winds and an inch an hour of rain. You spend about 30 seconds outside today in New England and you hate puppies and babies.

See to me the idea of the Lakers and what they symbolized always bothered me more than the individual players. The movie stars, Wilt, Kareem, Shaq roster ladened former number one picks. Constantly coronating themselves the champs before taking it on the court. Bitching about the Garden. I loved watching Magic Johnson and Michael Cooper player ball though.

On the other hand I really just hated Isiah Thomas, Rick Mahorn, and Bill Lambier. Would have swerved my bike to hit'em in the streets.

While it isn't the same for the Sixers, Knicks, and Bulls it is close I think it spills over from the Original Six in Hockey.

[MyInsatiableOne]

^^sully, you perfectly captured it. It also has always rankled me how the media has always been in the tank for the Lakers regardless of the Celtics accomplishments, and this goes back decades...

[JohnStarksTheDunk]

The Celtics have always been hated by the rest of the league, from the opposing teams all the way up to the commish and league officials. It's weird because the Celtics are to the NBA what the Yankees are to MLB...the winningest franchise with the richest tradition, most all-time great players, etc. Yet MLB bends over backwards (and has for decades) to help the Yankees out while the NBA bends over backwards (and has for decades) to screw the Celtics, going consistently all the way back to Red's days on the bench in the 1950s.

I think it's just intensified now because we're good again and people hate on all the Boston teams. National media hates the Sox. They actively and openly rooted for the Patriots demise all season last year (which still makes me wonder about the Super Bowl, hmmmm) and are doing it to the Celtics. I think a lot of it is sour grapes...everyone made all these predictions about how the Big 3 would fight with each other and Rondo sucked and wasn't good enough and our bench sucked, and Doc sucked, etc, and we rolled to 66 wins and the title. Then they said losing Posey would be our demise, and we're rolling again now. They got proven wrong MULTIPLE times and are now getting pissed off and getting "revenge" in the only way they can, by being negative.

But as the poster above said, you'd only be worried if the NBA WASN'T trying to screw the Celtics somehow!

Well, from the perspective of a Knicks, Mets, Bills, Sabres fan from Upstate NY, living in Boston:

I think winning has a lot to do with it. Continued success will cause resentment from fans, for several reasons. I'd be willing to bet that there is a lot more Celtic "hate" this year than last, now that they've won the title and are the front-runner to repeat. It was the same way with the Pats and Sox.

In the 2002 Super Bowl, EVERYONE was rooting for the underdog Patriots to beat the evil Rams (who were disliked because they had already won the SB in 2000). Six years later, with the Pats having already won 3 Super Bowls, with a celebrity QB, breaking every offensive record, amid allegations of cheating and running up the score, and on the verge of making history, everyone outside of New England wanted to see them fail. To put it another way, if the Bills had won 4 straight Super Bowls instead of losing them, there would have been a lot of Buffalo hate out there in the mid-late 90s.

Prior to 2004, the Red Sox were lovable to most everyone other than Yankee fans (who were and are still hated by everyone besides Yankee fans, myself included), and I think most people wanted to see them break the curse. By this season, however, people had already seen them win 2 titles, and they had somewhat entered the ranks of the Yankees in terms of hate from other teams' fans.

Part of it might be jealously, or just a natural human reaction for some people to root for the underdog and hate the front-runner. Add to this the fact that this is BOSTON, which is known for having very vocal, very passionate sports fans -- which unfortunately can contribute to how other fans view the teams.

Just my thoughts.

[Havlicek17]

I live in Atlanta, and I think that's a pretty good summary of how Boston teams have been viewed down here as well.

As a Boston fan, I would rather be hated than not talked about at all. Which was the case before the big 3 got here. Couldn't get a game on TV but two or three times a year.

[MyInsatiableOne]

JohnStarkstheDunk, that was an excellent post and very nice to see from an opposing fan...certainly most Knicks fans who post here are idiots, but your post was great.

I still don't understand why MLB always has looked the other way with the Yankees but the NBA sticks it to the C's constantly...

Stern is a jerk, that's why! I love how he gets booed MERCILESSLY when he shows up in Boston...