There are some teams across professional sports that have brands of greatness that extend beyond their own league, iconic franchises like the Los Angeles Lakers, New England Patriots, Boston Celtics, Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Those teams have a few things in common, from fanbases that extend beyond their own geography and are accustomed to a certain level of greatness as well as ranking among the top in their respective leaders in titles.
The other thing all those teams have in common? Former NBA journeyman and Kobe Bryant 81-point game allower Jalen Rose never played for them, which might actually have something to do with the former qualities.
While recently speaking on NBA Countdown, Rose made it clear he has no love lost for the fanbases of those franchises:
“I have some straight-talk for sports fans that’s going to leave you shook. Write these teams down. If somebody claims to be a fan of two of these squads, I don’t trust their opinion. Lakers, Patriots, Steelers, Packers, Cowboys and Celtics. If you root for two of those teams, I don’t trust you.”
Some of this might be a bit of jealousy on Rose’s part because he’d surely have a lot more respect for those fanbases if he’d been part of championship teams with supporters as dedicated as the followers of those six franchises.
In the case of Lakers fans in particular, Rose might have a semi-justified level of animosity towards them given how many he’s had to block on Twitter over getting roasted for his role in allowing Bryant to score the second-most points in a single game in NBA history while Rose was on the Toronto Raptors.
And while yes, Rose does have a point in that all of those franchises do have segments of obnoxious bandwagon fans in their midst, it’s only because of their high level of success. And all fans of those teams don’t deserve be lumped in under the ‘not to be trusted’ umbrella simply because their teams have had the type of success that would lead those same bandwagon fans to other teams like the ones Rose played on if they had been any good.
Except Celtics fans, obviously. They still shouldn’t be trusted.
WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE NEW LAKERS NATION FORUM CLUB