Doomsday Scenario: Lakers or Nets?

If the Nets play the Lakers in the Finals, who are you rooting for?

  • Lakers

    Votes: 63 30.6%
  • Nets

    Votes: 103 50.0%
  • Don't care who wins

    Votes: 40 19.4%

  • Total voters
    206

BigSoxFan

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Nets look to be steamrolling to a Finals appearance. Lakers are far less certain but certainly could get there. So, in a matchup of Kyrie, Durant, race baiting vs. LeBron, LA fans, etc., who are you rooting for?
 

Mooch

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To me, this comes down to the same question as "would you root for the Astros or the Yankees in a series?" As a Red Sox fan, is that really a question?

I physically can't ever root for the Lakers.
 

HomeRunBaker

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I would root for the Lakers in this matchup bc I’m a LeBron guy, he’s been the GOAT for several years now already and another ring with bring much pain and anguish to those who feel otherwise. :)
 

jon abbey

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This is the Finals I predicted, I like both teams a lot (sorry). Not sure who I would root for, probably the Lakers.
 

fairlee76

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I voted "don't care" as I likely would not watch many of the games. Sub the Nuggets, Suns, Jazz, Mavs, Blazers, or Clips for the Lakers and I would watch and actively root against the Nets.
 

BaseballJones

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I hate both teams but come on... LeBron and AD vs Harden, Kyrie, and Durant? That’s must see TV. Five of the 15 best players in the world on the court at the same time? Unreal.
 

Ale Xander

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Oct 31, 2013
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F Lebron
F total Fakers titles

FTL

#TEAMASTEROID though

I hate Kyrie and Harden (and Green) more than Lebron, but Kyrie, at least, isn't great enough to be talked about post-retirement. And I liked Durant pre-Nets.
This would be different if Fakers only had, say, 15 titles.
I could only stomach the Fakers when they had Shaq.


Go Embiid (puke), Go Giannis, Go Kawhi, Go Booker, Go Gobert (puke)
 
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mwonow

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I hate this question, its premise, and the reality that makes the premise plausible.

I'm with @Was (Not Wasdin) on Team Asteroid if this is where the Finals end up
 

Euclis20

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I would root for the Lakers in this matchup bc I’m a LeBron guy, he’s been the GOAT for several years now already and another ring with bring much pain and anguish to those who feel otherwise. :)
+1. I'll be rooting pretty hard for the Bucks and any non-Lakers team out west, but should the worst come to pass, Lakers it is.

Durant's career will be a hard one to judge at the end. He's spent his entire career playing alongside all-NBA guys, in three different places. Has any MVP caliber player ever played with this many stars while moving around as often as he has? Maybe just Shaq?
 

Jimbodandy

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Kyrie, Harden, and Durant would have to kidnap a family member before I'd cheer for the Lakers. Maybe not even then, if it was only a cousin.
 

bankshot1

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I'm wrapping my head around Nets & 76er in the RCF and hoping the Bucks crash the party.

The Lakers are not an option.

Maybe in a doomsday one and done against the Klingons,.

maybe
 

EvilEmpire

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Durant's career will be a hard one to judge at the end. He's spent his entire career playing alongside all-NBA guys, in three different places. Has any MVP caliber player ever played with this many stars while moving around as often as he has? Maybe just Shaq?
I know he's been the proverbial "straw that stirs the drink", but doesn't LeBron come pretty damn close to that criteria? DWade, Bosh, Kyrie, AD and even Kevin Love have all been 1st/2nd team All NBA at some point.
 

soxin6

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Both teams should be loathed, but F LeBron and F the Lakers. I have never rooted for the Yankees or the Lakers and there is nothing that will change that.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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I know he's been the proverbial "straw that stirs the drink", but doesn't LeBron come pretty damn close to that criteria? DWade, Bosh, Kyrie, AD and even Kevin Love have all been 1st/2nd team All NBA at some point.
At least we saw LeBron in his first run with Cleveland play with a fairly putrid supporting cast. Even getting swept by San Antonio, just dragging that Cleveland team to the finals in 2007 was a herculean achievement. Here's the rest of the roster:
  • Shannon Brown
  • Daniel Gibson
  • Drew Gooden
  • Larry Hughes
  • Zydrunas Ilgauskas
  • Damon Jones
  • Dwayne Jones
  • Donyell Marshall
  • Ira Newble
  • Sasha Pavlovic
  • Scot Pollard
  • Eric Snow
  • Anderson Varejao
  • David Wesley
Ooof.
 

the moops

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I hate both teams but come on... LeBron and AD vs Harden, Kyrie, and Durant? That’s must see TV. Five of the 15 best players in the world on the court at the same time? Unreal.
This. I want to see this finals because I like watching people that are really really good at basketball
 

Auger34

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Apr 23, 2010
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Definitely the Lakers. KD and Kyrie are insufferable, while LeBron is the GOAT and this would further cement that.
100%.

You didn’t even mention the guy who ate his way out of a city and a franchise that basically bent over backwards for him for years. Or the one that dogged it so badly at the beginning of the year that the fucking Pistons wouldnt put him on the court before miraculously getting better once in Brooklyn.

The Nets have a truly loathsome roster. It’s like a voltron of phonies, front runners and fake tough guys. Of all the people in the rotation the only ones I can stomach are Harris, Bruce Brown and Claxton. Fuck everyone else.
 

Buster Olney the Lonely

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That 2006-07 was a pretty great achievement. Especially considering it was LeBron’s fourth year in the league (he was 22) and would have been his senior year in college.

The second best player on that team was? Big Z? Larry Hughes?
 

Euclis20

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I know he's been the proverbial "straw that stirs the drink", but doesn't LeBron come pretty damn close to that criteria? DWade, Bosh, Kyrie, AD and even Kevin Love have all been 1st/2nd team All NBA at some point.
He comes close but as mentioned above, he spent the first seven years in Cleveland and during his tenure his teammates had a total of two combined AS appearances (Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Mo Williams each made it once). Outside of his first two seasons, I don't think KD ever played with such a mediocre group (and rookie Westbrook and second year Jeff Green might have been better players than anyone Lebron played with in his first tour with Cleveland).
 

EvilEmpire

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I think that is a good argument, but I do think Durant with the Thunder taking a really strong Golden State to seven games in the 2016 WCF, even though he had Westbrook (who is complicated), was an achievement that rivals what LeBron did with the Cavs against San Antonio in 2007.
 

ElcaballitoMVP

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It's easier for me to root for KD and Harden over LeBron and AD and I can just ignore Kyrie, so I'll take the Nets.

We'll be a few rounds past the Celtics series if they make the finals, so our hate for them will die down a bit.

The Lakers hate will never fade.

Plus I don't want to add to the LeBron is better than Jordan talk that would follow.
 

Auger34

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I think that is a good argument, but I do think Durant with the Thunder taking a really strong Golden State to seven games in the 2016 WCF, even though he had Westbrook (who is complicated), was an achievement that rivals what LeBron did with the Cavs against San Antonio in 2007.
Isn’t a pretty good portion of that achievement negated by signing with the Warriors immediately after?
 

EvilEmpire

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Isn’t a pretty good portion of that achievement negated by signing with the Warriors immediately after?
Why? If we're talking about how good a star player is absent a super team, why would that matter? Sure, Durant then moved on to stacked teams at Golden State and Brooklyn and has been judged accordingly. LeBron was great with a decidedly unsuper team in Cleveland, but once he had a choice (like Durant), what did he do? He's pretty much been with stacked teams since.

Edit: I know it isn't a perfect comparison. It took LeBron a year of toiling with the Lakers before he could assemble the team he wanted, but I don't think that move was a total shot in the dark.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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I voted Nets on gut reaction to a Lakers title but realistically once it got to the point of the teams being on the court I would 100% be gunning against the Nets.
 

Ralphwiggum

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I don't currently follow the NBA as closely as most here, but I grew up in the 80s with the Cs and there's no way in the world I could ever root for the Lakers to win anything, ever. I generally like LeBron and I get that the Nets have unlikeable players but they have no fan-base and nobody will really care if they win. The Lakers are the Lakers, in the same category as the Yankees for me.
 

osori

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I have respect for Lebron, but absolutely despise flat earth, twitter burner dummy and beard fatso.
 

Cellar-Door

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I'm not a big fan of AD, but clearly the Lakers.

I don't care that much about a rivalry that mostly happened 35 years ago, and I definitely don't care that much about counting banners (especially when like the Yankees half of ours are before anyone not on social security was alive).
LeBron is the best ever and he moved to LAL only after going back to his hometown team and bringing them a title.

The Nets have Kyrie who shot his way out of two cities, Harden who actively went out of his way to break COVID protocols so he didn't have to get in shape but wouldn't get fined, then showed up and tanked his team, Blake who intentionally played like shit (and refused to dunk) so his team wouldn't be able to trade him but had to buy him out... there are so few Nets guys who are likeable... most of them got shipped out in the Harden trade.
 

Auger34

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Why? If we're talking about how good a star player is absent a super team, why would that matter? Sure, Durant then moved on to stacked teams at Golden State and Brooklyn and has been judged accordingly. LeBron was great with a decidedly unsuper team in Cleveland, but once he had a choice (like Durant), what did he do? He's pretty much been with stacked teams since.

Edit: I know it isn't a perfect comparison. It took LeBron a year of toiling with the Lakers before he could assemble the team he wanted, but I don't think that move was a total shot in the dark.
I’m sorry but this argument infuriates me.

You don’t think there’s a gigantic difference between going to a team with basically an empty roster (Talking about Miami. Not even going to mention the Laker thing. That roster wasn’t close to a super team, LeBron just wanted to play for the Lakers) and going to a team that just won 72 fucking games in the regular season and acting like you’re “the missing piece”?

There are levels and degrees to super teams (I mean, how many idiots at sports bars have claimed that the KG Celtics are really the first super team ) and the Durant move to Golden State blows every other one out of the water. BTW, apparently the man himself agrees with me since his reasoning for leaving Golden State was to be the “‘main guy” on a championship team.
 

bsj

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Lakers without hesitation.

the Celtics losing the all time record is inevitable and the result of NBA team building and super teams and Boston just not being a destination any more.

I can’t see that POS Kylie win a title
 

Kliq

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The problem with this horrible scenario, the thing that really bothers me, is that both of these franchises, Brooklyn and LA, are that they were terribly run, tire fire franchises that fucked up a million times, but were bailed out because star players wanted to live in LA and NY respectively. The NBA is buddy-buddy and encourages players to tank their trade value and hold teams hostage so they can be in anticompetitive situations and the result is that we have two Frankenstein teams that might make it to the Finals for franchises that have no business being there outside of the privilege of playing in markets that are attractive for wealthy young men.

People should not discount that the Lakers have EASILY the worst fanbase in all of sports. Not even close.
 

EvilEmpire

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I’m sorry but this argument infuriates me.
OK.

LeBron and the way the whole "The Decision" thing went down, from the televised spectacle, to arriving in Miami with two other free agent stars bothered me more than Durant being a front-runner with the Warriors, maybe because it happened first and (I think) started this current superteam era for the NBA.
 

Cellar-Door

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The problem with this horrible scenario, the thing that really bothers me, is that both of these franchises, Brooklyn and LA, are that they were terribly run, tire fire franchises that fucked up a million times, but were bailed out because star players wanted to live in LA and NY respectively. The NBA is buddy-buddy and encourages players to tank their trade value and hold teams hostage so they can be in anticompetitive situations and the result is that we have two Frankenstein teams that might make it to the Finals for franchises that have no business being there outside of the privilege of playing in markets that are attractive for wealthy young men.

People should not discount that the Lakers have EASILY the worst fanbase in all of sports. Not even close.
Meh, the Nets were actually pretty well run in the Sean Marks era. That rebuild job was pretty good, I liked their pre-Durant team a lot. Getting Stars is how you win titles, that's just the way of things, the Nets set themselves up to have a chance to get Durant and Kyrie by opening cap while having good young talent.
 

bankshot1

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I'm not a big fan of AD, but clearly the Lakers.

I don't care that much about a rivalry that mostly happened 35 years ago, and I definitely don't care that much about counting banners (especially when like the Yankees half of ours are before anyone not on social security was alive).
LeBron is the best ever and he moved to LAL only after going back to his hometown team and bringing them a title.
That was round 2 of the greatest rivalry in NBA history, and one of the greatest in all of US pro sport. Round 1 was about 60 years ago (most of the 60s) and had one of the more memorable championships in Celtic history. ('69, a mere 52 years ago, when an aging Celtic team beat arguably the first super-team).

And social security ain't half bad.
 

nighthob

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I’m pretty sure that I would root for France before rooting for a team with two alpha-front runners like the Nets.
 

GoJeff!

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Are you fucking kidding me? Right now only two more people on a Boston message board prefer the Nets winning over the MF Lakers?!

Look, I like LeBron, I think he is the GOAT. I'd root for him on another team.

The Nets? Kyrie probably sucks, although I'm not sure how much of his schtick is trolling the media. KD is a superteam addict, and Harden is a stat-padding fat guy* who plays boring basketball. I don't know any Nets fans.

But the Lakers? The Lakers?

I hate the 10 million bandwagon fans that only show interest when the playoffs roll around.
I hate the fact that global temps will rise 3 degrees from all the stupid Laker flags on cars.
I hate the idea of another 12 months of Kobe idolization and praise to the modern icon of Laker basketball.

Fuck the Lakers.



*not actually fat guy
 

McBride11

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If you are a Celtics fan and voted "Lakers" - please turn in your fan card and move on to someone else.

It is akin a Red Sox fan rooting for the Yankees in the WS.

Then as pointed out you have the 18 championship shenanigans instead of 13. Insufferable. I am guessing 75% of Laker fans can't describe the origin of their nickname.

I am honestly shocked this is so close.
 

Devizier

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Honestly, I never thought I’d root for the Lakers in any circumstance, but I’ve lived away from Southern California long enough to stop caring what Lakers fans think.

Kyrie (and Harden’s no-show act) annoys me that much. Also, fuck Kobe. Maybe a Lebron era can erase a little bit of that guy’s legacy.
 

Batman Likes The Sox

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I mostly don't care and voted as such.

That said, I'm never rooting for the Lakers.

And there's a small upside that a Nets championship may be displeasing to some Knicks fans.