The Portland Trail Blazers should rekindle the rivalry with Los Angeles

The Portland Trail Blazers open their season against the Los Angeles Lakers this Thursday. Although the rivalry between these two teams has died down over recent years, perhaps it should be fiercely rekindled. Here’s why…

Portland is a city that is well-known for its’ tolerance to, open-mindedness towards, and acceptance of people from all walks of life, but Rip City should never mistakenly extend those values to the likes of LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers, or any of their loud, obnoxious and insufferable bandwagon fans. Portland Trail Blazers fans have already had to endure an ever-increasing number of Warrior “fans” wearing Steph Curry jerseys to the Moda Center in recent years.

If an ever increasing number of people in the Portland area wearing yellow or gold jerseys and rooting for the wrong NBA teams isn’t bad enough, consider the notion that Portland used to be a city that was regarded as a peaceful and chilled-out destination where traffic might get busy at rush hour but wasn’t such a rampant problem like it is today.

Portland has in many ways become virtually identical to the likes of Los Angeles in regards to the various nightmare traffic scenarios that regularly plague the area.

Think about how much cumulative time you’ve spent driving on I-5 or I-205 in gridlock traffic. Now consider the fact that there are large numbers of people originally from California that are clogging up our roads and raising our insurance costs with all of the traffic accidents that come standard with the driving styles of Californians, who have all have their foot on the gas like Dale Earnhardt, making Oregonians feel like extras in one of the Fast and Furious movies.

Don’t want to take my word for it? Then consider the fact that according to a study by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis, 1 in 5 Oregonians were actually born in California.

What does this all mean? We as Oregon drivers and more importantly, as Blazer fans need to take our commute related anger out on its true culprit: Californians, whom we can safely assume are fans of the Los Angeles Lakers.

This means that LeBron jerseys will surely emerge at the Moda Center, and the stands will begin to fill with those atrocious yellow Laker jerseys every time Los Angeles visits Rip City.

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This is thanks to the hopeless enthusiasm that comes standard with a LeBron James’ debut season as a Los Angeles Laker.

LeBron James is one of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball and his sizeable charitable donations are all well and good. He truly is“bigger than basketball,” but so is the premise that I am about to put forth…

When it comes to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers playing at the Moda Center this Thursday and every game hence forth, the whole squad, but particularly James, needs to be met with Kobe Bryant-esque levels of vitriol and disgust. It’s about time a real rivalry between these two teams existed again.

Blazer fans at what was formerly called the Rose Garden used to consistently “boo” Bryant whenever he touched the ball in what was always a valiant troll attempt by a franchise before “trolling” was even a thing.

Many Blazer fans can cringingly remember Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals, where Kobe Bryant took control in the 4th quarter by scoring 15 points – finishing overall with with 25 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and four blocks. Needless to say, being on the other side of such a demoralizing performance from a Blazer standpoint, made it a bit easier for Portland fans to have someone to hate.

LeBron James could be this new villain.

Blazer fans should be all in on a major rekindling of a heated rivalry with the Los Angeles Lakers. This newfound hatred and vitriol needs to come from a place deep inside us, where everyone knows deep down that that we, as Rip City, need to do whatever it takes to forcibly retake our Portland streets from the Portland Transplants who have the gall to wear a Laker jersey on the Moda Center premises.

This newfound rivalry needs to be reignited because it should signify the retaking of Portland from the Lakers or any other Californian.

Not only would a win over LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers help set the overall tone for the Blazers season, it could potentially re-spark the much-needed rivalry between Portland and a team that I honestly couldn’t hate more, as a longtime Blazer truthful.

Thankfully, LeBron James’s larger-than-life L.A. antics will be an easy target for all Blazer fans alike. Although when it comes to success on the court, LeBron James has yet to tear the hearts out of Blazer fans like Kobe, it is absolutely paramount that the Blazers never let him come close in the first place. Otherwise, the number of purple and gold jerseys in the Moda Center will surely rise.

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But a win streak over the Lakers would strike a chord throughout the NBA and shed light on the fact that if the Lakers are going to be considered a “Superteam,” then the Trail Blazers should deserve a sizable amount of recognition for knocking off Lebron James and his lackluster lackeys this Thursday.