SodaPopinski

When I started working at the company I work at now six years ago, I met another Blazer fan on one of my first days on the job. One of the first things we talked about was our disdain for THAT TEAM. She said, "If the Lakers were playing an alien race for control of the planet, I'd root for the alien race." Needless to say she and I have gotten along swimmingly since then.

-Pop

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e_blazer1

INTERVENTION!!!!

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Blazermania is BACK!!!

#10

They're Californians, disliking them is as natural as breathing. Add in all the basketball reasons and you get one detestable team. If you can't understand that, may I ask where you're from?

alext42083

Let's keep this to reality...

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It's_GO_Time

Well Martell did work out with Kobe in LA . . . I'm guessing they probably socialized during the summer.

In fact, given the definition of a Blazer fan in this thread, does that mean Martell is not a Blazer fan?

Entity

If we want to go with all-time not including their days in Minneapolis, I'd rank the Lakers' rivalries like this:

From the Eastern Conference:

Top Tier

• Celtics (top overall, 10 NBA Finals, lost 8 of them)

2nd Tier

• Pistons (3 NBA finals in the last 20 years, lost 2 of them)

3rd Tier

• 76ers (4 NBA finals [as Los Angeles and Philly], only one in the last 25 years)
• Knicks (3 NBA finals [as Los Angeles], all of them 35 years ago or more)

From the Western Conference:

Top Tier

• Spurs (7-3 in playoff series all-time against them, 3-2 in the Kobe era, 3 WC Finals, the only other team winning multiple titles lately)
• Suns (7-4 all-time against them, 1-2 in the Kobe era, 2 WC Finals, eliminated by them in the last two playoffs, have lost more times to them than any other WC team)
• Trail Blazers (9-2 all-time against them, 5-0 in the Kobe era, 3 WC Finals, have been top-4 in the NBA with them more than any other division or former division rival)

2nd Tier

• Kings (4-0 in the modern era [big rivalry in the Minneapolis days when they were the Cincinnati Royals], 3-0 in the Kobe era, 1 WC Finals, only started up in 2000, in-state team)
• Rockets (6-1 all-time against them, 2-0 in the Kobe era, 1 WC Finals, only once was not a 1st Rd matchup)
• SuperSonics (5-2 all-time against them, 1-0 in the Kobe era, 2 WC Finals, mattered more in the 70's and 80's)
• Warriors (6-1 all-time against them, 0-0 in the Kobe era, 2 WC Finals, mattered more in the 60's and 70's, in-state team)

3rd Tier

• The Rest of the Conference for getting squashed on a regular basis (except for the Jazz, who the Lakers are 1-2 against in the playoffs and somehow manage to avoid despite their playoff regularity)

Something worth noting: The Lakers have been to at least one WC Finals or NBA Finals with every single franchise they've ever played in the playoffs with the exception of franchises that no longer exist. That would be 21 present franchises out of a possible 29.

Almost everyone is a Laker rival, but Boston is their #1. It matters a lot to Portland, but it also matters a lot to several teams. But the crystal ball says the Blazers and the Lakers have a chance to be huge in the next decade the same way that the Celtics and the 76ers had been once upon a time.

BlazerFan22

Good point as I recall from Jason Quick Martell and Kobe are pretty tight.