this sums it up for me

[schnakenpopanz]

i would like to quote a great post from espn board:

This Suns team is one of the most entertaining teams I've ever watched. The fact that they have a real shot of going all the way just makes it all the sweeter.

You could say that the Suns and Lakers are polar opposites, from the coach to the star player right down to the bench. There's a scene that sticks out in my mind from last night. Kobe hogs the ball (and makes near every shot) for two quarters, then is finally given some rest. While on the bench, he his shown with a scowl on his face yelling angrily at the bench.

I'm not surprised the Suns are underrated. We live in a society that worships their antithesis: greed, arrogance, success at any cost, inter-species competition, immorality. In other words, the Lakers

[MaryvalesFinest]

Last paragraph was spot on

[So Gutta]

I'm not surprised the Suns are underrated. We live in a society that worships their antithesis: greed, arrogance, success at any cost, inter-species competition, immorality. In other words, the Lakers

I don't really understand... It's called basketball. I live in LA and grew up a Laker fan... Supported 'em when Nick Van Exel was their best player... You had a good point until you went over the top. I'm gonna guess jealousy.

[Kerrsed]

I'm not surprised the Suns are underrated. We live in a society that worships their antithesis: greed, arrogance, success at any cost, inter-species competition, immorality. In other words, the Lakers

I don't really understand... It's called basketball. I live in LA and grew up a Laker fan... Supported 'em when Nick Van Exel was their best player... You had a good point until you went over the top. I'm gonna guess jealousy.

DID YOU NOT READ HIS POST??

i would like to quote a great post from espn board:

And Nick the Quick was NEVER the Lakers best player. Ceballos was!

[So Gutta]

I'm not surprised the Suns are underrated. We live in a society that worships their antithesis: greed, arrogance, success at any cost, inter-species competition, immorality. In other words, the Lakers

I don't really understand... It's called basketball. I live in LA and grew up a Laker fan... Supported 'em when Nick Van Exel was their best player... You had a good point until you went over the top. I'm gonna guess jealousy.

DID YOU NOT READ HIS POST??

i would like to quote a great post from espn board:

And Nick the Quick was NEVER the Lakers best player. Ceballos was!

Yeah I read it. And my point is that: WTF do greed, arrogance, success at any cost, inter-species competition, immorality have to do with a goddamn basketball team. It all sounds like hyperbole to me... It's just basketball, no one's dying! A little common sense please?

I was always partial to Nick The Quick. He was clutch.

[Kerrsed]

Yeah I read it. And my point is that: WTF do greed, arrogance, success at any cost, inter-species competition, immorality have to do with a goddamn basketball team. It all sounds like hyperbole to me... It's just basketball, no one's dying! A little common sense please?

I was always partial to Nick The Quick. He was clutch.

Its the same reason so many people hate the Yankees. There is a salary cap, yet teams can still buy Championships. What is the Lakers salary this year? $103 million?? Thats close to DOUBLE the cap! You could have 2 teams in the league play for that much!!!!

I liked Nick too. In my misguided youth i was a Laker fan at one point.

[So Gutta]

Yeah I read it. And my point is that: WTF do greed, arrogance, success at any cost, inter-species competition, immorality have to do with a goddamn basketball team. It all sounds like hyperbole to me... It's just basketball, no one's dying! A little common sense please?

I was always partial to Nick The Quick. He was clutch.

Its the same reason so many people hate the Yankees. There is a salary cap, yet teams can still buy Championships. What is the Lakers salary this year? $103 million??

I liked Nick too. In my misguided youth i was a Laker fan at one point.

This "buy a team" argument DOES NOT WORK in pro basketball. MLB and NBA are 2 leagues that are constructed completely different from one another. Comparing the two makes no sense whatsoever.

Yes, the Yankees basically went on Amazon.com and clicked "Buy it now" for a championship. Therefore I believe there should be a grudge against their championship because the MLB is not set up fairly (IIRC baseball does not have a 'hard' salary cap as the NBA does.)

Yes, the Lakers do currently have the highest payroll, but this has not always been the case, even during the 3-peat years. The NBA is about great drafting, trades, and not overpaying in free-agency.

The Lakers are a very profitable franchise, and give I props for the owner, Jerry Buss for being so competitive he's willing to spend on a good product. I don't see how that could be frowned upon.

If Pro Basketball were set up like baseball, the Lakers were actually like the Yankees, LAL would have Artest AND Ariza, and they would get LeBron and Wade this summer. Obviously it ain't gonna happen.

[Kerrsed]

This "buy a team" argument DOES NOT WORK in pro basketball. MLB and NBA are 2 leagues that are constructed completely different from one another. Comparing the two makes no sense whatsoever.

Yes, the Yankees basically went on Amazon.com and clicked "Buy it now" for a championship. Therefore I believe there should be a grudge against their championship because the MLB is not set up fairly (IIRC baseball does not have a 'hard' salary cap as the NBA does.)

Yes, the Lakers do currently have the highest payroll, but this has not always been the case, even during the 3-peat years. The NBA is about great drafting, trades, and not overpaying in free-agency.

The Lakers are a very profitable franchise, and give I props for the owner, Jerry Buss for being so competitive he's willing to spend on a good product. I don't see how that could be frowned upon.

If Pro Basketball were set up like baseball, the Lakers were actually like the Yankees, LAL would have Artest AND Ariza, and they would get LeBron and Wade this summer. Obviously it ain't gonna happen.

Because a cap is put into place. But we all know there are ways around that. Great drafting? who's the last great draft pick LA got? Kobe? Great trades? Yes, Gasol for absolute trash. I'll give you that one.

But when you have a team that is close to DOUBLE the salary cap, it makes it seem like there really is no cap. I dont think we will ever see that Lakers spending less than 90mill. Soft cap FTW i guess.

[MaryvalesFinest]

I'm not surprised the Suns are underrated. We live in a society that worships their antithesis: greed, arrogance, success at any cost, inter-species competition, immorality. In other words, the Lakers

I don't really understand... It's called basketball. I live in LA and grew up a Laker fan... Supported 'em when Nick Van Exel was their best player... You had a good point until you went over the top. I'm gonna guess jealousy.

I think he was talking about the cross country following teams like the Lakers have. There's a difference between the cholos from east LA and San Bernadino with the Farmar jerseys who save up enough to go to a game in the nosebleed seats, those are the true Lakers fans, not the celebs who show up at Lakers games to be "seen" or the guy who never stepped foot in LA or Cali and gets a Kobe jersey and claims to be a life long Lakers fan and talks about how he contributed to the teams success, unfortunately there's more than a few people for the second option.

[impulsenine]

baseball does not have a 'hard' salary cap as the NBA does.

I stopped reading here.

[DBrimstone]

You just have to get the guy on your team, own his bird rights, and you can spend all you want. Especially when you're a team in a market that will always be buyers in trades instead of sellers. You'll always be trading away the expiring contract.

The reason we have such an easy time hating the Lakers is you boo your team when they lose to rivals or just play bad. It's chamionship or bust. Win every game or you're a failure of a team. When San Antonio got swept by us, their fans gave their team a standing ovation for a good season. Same with Portland. We trolled back and forth but when it comes down to it, they support their team no matter what, and that's a very very easy kind of thing to respect. It just feels like 95% of all Laker fans are fare weather fans, and are therefore, so easy to hate. Hence the impression that Laker fans come off as greedy and arrogant

[So Gutta]

baseball does not have a 'hard' salary cap as the NBA does.

I stopped reading here.

You conveniently left out where I stated "IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY..." But hey, you look really cool posting stuff like that.

Salary cap implications are completely different in the NBA as opposed to MLB. In the NBA, you pay dollar-for-dollar over a HARD cap which changes every year. This does not happen in baseball.

Maybe you can explain it better???

[sunskerr]

Yeah, maybe the lakers did get gasol for nothing...ok?
But shouldn't memphis also be blamed? I mean, they're the second half of the trade. It's not like Gasol was picked up off the streets.

[Miklo]

you pay dollar-for-dollar over a HARD cap

I mean how hard is a "hard cap" that you CAN go over, you just have to pay more?

[AZdeuce]

If you cant understand why the Lakers represent everything wrong in sports and society then your just playing the blind man or your just plan dumb or in denial!

No need to explain everyone knows why the Lakers are whats wrong with sports! Oh except the Lakers fans!

I kinda wrote a thread about the Suns vs Lakers; Good vs Evil

[phx#7]

Salary cap implications are completely different in the NBA as opposed to MLB. In the NBA, you pay dollar-for-dollar over a HARD cap which changes every year. This does not happen in baseball.

Maybe you can explain it better???

NFL=HARD cap that teams cannot go over at all.

NBA=SOFT cap that teams can go over.

Hopefully there will be a hard cap in the next CBA.

[RandomVillain]

Two ways to confuse most current Laker fans.

Ask them who was the better Laker player, Kobe or Earvin. Majority of the time the answers are with a confused look..."Who the hell is Earvin?"

Ask them why they are even called the Lakers. Most have no idea.

[thamadkant]

So_Gutta

the point most suns fans are trying to make is..

teams like LA, NY are allowed to go double the salary cap, because simply they have big enough market to compensate on the "fines" of going over the cap.


Of course NY is not very good at the moment, but thats because they do not have a superstar nor an all-star player that other stars want to play with.


But BELIEVE me, once they nab a star.... especially LeBron.... that team will be stacked to the brim of stars, and the rest cant do anything about it.... they'll be the "new" lakers.... dominating the league because of their star studded team, which is allowed by the league as long as the league makes money off them through "fines".... but those fines are easily offseted by the big market they have there...

tell me if thats fair for the smaller teams.... Spurs are an anomaly that they arent a major american city, but they did have an international impact....

Plus, the Lakers has always been the "glamour" team of the NBA, every since the 80s, they were "glamour", the fans, the city the franchise developed this aura that they are superior to everyone else and hence dont bother... even the bad years...


in the end, yes it is basketball... but knowing that these teams with big market WILL take advantage of the "soft" cap.... means bad news for every other small teams who cannot generate enough money/income to offset the "fines" the NBA impose for violating the cap...




to be fair... NO one should be allowed to breach the cap... and in the most extreme cases, where the bird rights of the players are used, then a team should be allowed maximum to go over 5% over the cap... anything more is illegal..


anyone heard of the Melbourne Storms? in Australia, they won 2 championships in rugby... however they were found to be 10% over the cap and got their championships... taken away..... during those seasons where they breached the cap.... and not only that, they arent allowed to "win" any more games for the rest of the season.... however for pride purposes... they still defeat all other teams knowing they cannot win the championship..... NOW thats a hard cap... and a harsh penalty for breaching it... in the NBA, the rich is allowed to breach it because they can afford to.... no other penalties..

[sunskerr]

But rich teams breach the cap, and it IS allowed.

[albasuna]

there is nothing wrong with the Lakers. They have different philosophies and the Suns have different philosophies. I

No reason to overblow it and call it good vs evil. Let's discuss basketball not morality.