SAN FRANCISCO – For much of the last dozen years, the Warriors had two legitimate rivals. Both were easy to identify and equally easy to ignore for much of the planet.
Nothing against the Cleveland Cavaliers (2015 to 2018) or the Los Angeles Clippers (2012-2017), but neither had the global reach to engage fans from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
Only a rivalry between the Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers could achieve that. The Lakers have long had a massive and vocal fan base, and the Warriors now have enough fans to compete. Among the overall popularity of NBA teams, they are ranked 1 and 2, and the order varies depending on the data.
What does it take to solidify a Warriors-Lakers rivalry? According to one devoted Los Angeles fan, there’s a simple answer.
“I think the whole rivalry will happen if we meet in the Western Conference Finals,” Ice Cube, the rapper, actor and co-founder of the Big3 basketball league, said as a guest on KeynoteUSA Sports Bay Area’s “Dubs Talk” podcast. . .
“Right now, it’s just that the teams respect each other and want to beat each other.”
There is no argument here. There’s plenty of juice when the teams face off, but no hint of threat in the air, like there was during the Warriors-Clippers games. Expected and committed technical fouls. Ejections were on the table, as were postgame confrontations in the hallway of the downtown Los Angeles building then known as Staples Center, now Crypto.com Arena.
There’s something gentlemanly about the way the Warriors and Lakers compete. Perhaps they are traces of Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Los Angeles’ LeBron James, two of the three thirty-somethings (along with Kevin Durant) who have spent most of the last dozen years sharing the unofficial title of the NBA’s best player. Curry and James are, by nature, men of professional conduct.
Plus, the relationship between Draymond Green and LeBron has a lot less vitriol now than it did when James was with the Cavaliers.
Still, the Lakers were the last team to oust the Warriors from the NBA Playoffs, sending them home in six games in the 2023 Western Conference semifinals. This was despite Golden State finishing one game higher in the standings to gain home field advantage.
“First round, second round, that’s a pillow fight, you know what I mean?” Cube said. “When you go to the finals, that’s when he really gets serious.”
What is notable about any game in Los Angeles, including the ’23 playoff series, is the sizable contingent of Warriors fans on Crypto. They’re at least as vocal as the Lakers fans who once showed up at Oracle and now flock to Chase Center.
During the most intense seasons of Golden State’s rivalries with the Cavaliers and Clippers, support was much greater for the Warriors on the road than for Cleveland or Los Angeles at Oracle Arena.
There was a time when Lakers fans were much louder in Oakland than Warriors fans were in Los Angeles. That has changed. Dub Nation is still loudest at Clippers games in Los Angeles (tickets are easier to get), but you can hear them during the Lakers game.
Not that Cube noticed. Or maybe he chooses not to acknowledge it.
“No, I haven’t,” he said. “You mean as (loud) as we got here?”
Okay, yes.
“Well, it hasn’t really been the same since it was called Crypto Arena,” Cube said. “So, I guess that kind of thing happens.”
Cube didn’t take the bait. Because there is no discernible animosity between the Warriors and the Lakers. On the contrary, he seems to appreciate what the Warriors have built over the last 10 years.
“It’s cool to see another California team that you know come out on top, especially when the Lakers can’t do it,” he said. “I rooted for the Warriors, when the Lakers were no longer in the playoffs, to win the championship. Everything has been love. “We love the bay.”
Yes, a Western Conference final between the Warriors and Lakers would light the flame. A smorgasbord for every fan base. There is talk of enough garbage to fill the Pacific Ocean.
Hopefully, with Curry 36 and James 39, with their teams finishing outside the top five in the West the last two seasons, that reality wouldn’t seem so far away.
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