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Purple and gold: Utahns hate L.A.

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 4, 2008 by Brad Rock Deseret News

LOS ANGELES -- With the Jazz starting their playoff series with the Lakers today at the Staples Center, this is probably as good a time as any to address the issue of irrational, unreasonable, yet somewhat understandable hatred.

Sort of like the Rosie O'Donnell-Donald Trump thing.

Why Jazz fans hate the Lakers so much is multifaceted. All I can say is I don't know anyone in Utah who likes the Lakers. Given a choice of cheering for the Lakers and

cheering for a famine, most Utahns would take the famine -- and toss in a locust infestation for good measure.

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I know Jazz fans who admire the Houston Rockets, a team that gave the Jazz a tough six-game series. There are also Jazz fans who revere the Celtics, with their tradition and their newfound superpower lineup. I even know people who like the Spurs. They respect the no-nonsense approach of Tim Duncan.

But mention the Lakers and you're just inviting a rant.

"I don't care that much about any other team," a friend was saying the other day, "but I hate the Lakers. I just can't get over it. I don't know, I just hate 'em."

Yeah, well, get in line.

L.A.'s success this year has conjured up deeply held resentment. Forthwith are my own half-baked theories on why L.A. is the team Jazz fans most love to hate:

KOBE BRYANT: The man is a preening, smirking, hyper-competitive superstar who has now won the MVP. Even though criminal charges were dismissed in the Colorado sexual assault case and he settled out of court in the civil suit, it seems Jazz fans still hold it against him.

Of course, most fans would hold a parking ticket against an opponent if they though it would help their cause.

If there's anything Utahns seem to hate worse than cockiness, it's cockiness accompanied by the ability to back it up, time after time. Bryant averaged 30 points against the Jazz this year as L.A. won three of four games.

Beyond that, it was Bryant who said Jazz fans were classless for booing Derek Fisher's return this season.

A good way to make people hate you is say you don't respect them.

In this case, the feeling seems mutual.

DEREK FISHER: The former Jazz guard left Salt Lake, saying he wanted to get better care for his seriously ill daughter. Then he signed with the Lakers.

While it's doubtful he would actually jeopardize his daughter's health for a basketball decision, that didn't keep Jazz fans from booing him when he returned to Utah.

Still, it may not be personal. They also booed Karl Malone's return as a Laker, despite 18 seasons in Utah; booed Gordan Giricek and Raja Bell upon their returns, too.

In Utah, it's pretty easy to differentiate the good guys from the bad. The good guys are wearing Jazz blue. Everyone else is a cockroach.

PHIL JACKSON: And you thought Kobe was smug and condescending.

THE SHAQ RESIDUAL: The Lakers haven't been popular in Utah for a long time. About a decade ago, Shaquille O'Neal slapped the Jazz's Greg Ostertag to the floor after a shoot-around. Ostertag was a goof, but still, Jazz fans didn't like the big guy treating their loopy center that way.

As Wilt Chamberlain once noted, everyone hates Goliath.

Especially when Goliath slaps one of your players silly.

STAR POWER: Los Angeles is the anti-Salt Lake. In Utah, Debbi Fields passes for celebrity. In L.A., stars are everywhere.

"They've always had great players, and (L.A.) has always been full of celebrities in the crowd," says Jazz swingman Kyle Korver. "You can't be caught up in it. If you get caught up in that stuff, you're gonna get beat. That might be one of the reasons why they've been so tough."

So Jazz fans go to the "You think you're better than me?" card.

Maybe it's a case of beach-envy.

It's actually a lot like hating the prom queen. She may never have done anything to you, but you hate her because she's beautiful. Or rich. Or popular.

On one hand, she's everything you want to be. On the other hand, she's everything you despise.

PROXIMITY: Since the Lakers are in the West, they play the Jazz four times a year. It's a lot easier to hate a team located in a city you can drive to than, say, Detroit or Boston.

The Lakers are close, easy to recognize, and you just keep bumping into them. And every time you do, it reminds you what it is you didn't like about them.

E-mail: brock@desnews.com

Purple and gold: Utahns hate L.A.

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 4, 2008 by Brad Rock Deseret News

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