"It's like rais­ing a child and going to see them in their first Lit­tle League game and dis­cov­er­ing 'oh my god, my son is an ASSHOLE.' You still love him, you still care, but you have a hard time lik­ing him.  Every­thing he does -from yelling at his team­mates, taunt­ing oppos­ing team, argu­ing with the umpire- makes you ashamed and won­der 'how did I raise such a lit­tle ass­hole?' And then you begin to feel guilty because part of you goes 'that's not right. I should love him any­way' and the egal­i­tar­i­an part of you go 'no, but he's an ass­hole. If that was some­one else's kid I would hate them.'" - Victor Ganata

I think LeBron and company have this thing on lock. The haters will only be further emboldened. I wonder if the King has thick enough skin to be the anti-hero that Kobe is and MJ was before him, and whom Wilt Chamberlain is the archetype for. - Victor Ganata

this is completely and utterly true! thank you for articulating my turmoil. - t-ra: not givin up

Heh, you'll need to thank the author, Aurin Squire. Now that the Lakers are kind of has-beens, it's been illuminating for me to see what it looks like when the rest of the country hates your team. - Victor Ganata

haters gonna hate. - t-ra: not givin up

See, but Kobe and MJ welcomed people's hatred from the start. After being so adored for so long, I wonder if LeBron will embrace being reviled. - Victor Ganata

Lebron has been fairly lowkey with what he's been saying to the media after 'The Decision'. At the very least, I doubt he'd like to be totally hated because it would reduce the endorsements. - Rodfather from iPhone

After reading the article, I was thinking, damn what are you complaining about? At least your team has consistently been a winning franchise. The Warriors have always sucked. Is this the mentality of most Heat fans? No wonder their arena is so damn quiet. - Rodfather

Kobe and MJ seem to have done fine and continue to do fine with endorsements, despite continuing to do and say things that make them even more hated than they already are :) It's just a question of his temperament. I don't think Wilt ever liked being hated. And I can't imagine someone like, say, Magic Johnson, dealing well with being hated. I mean, I don't think LeBron will be all emo like Lamar Odom would be, but I wonder if he'll just say, screw the public persona, I'm just going to kick asses and win. - Victor Ganata

Yeah, I agree. I doubt he's as Emo as Lamar, but probably takes it to heart more than MJ and Kobe. Kobe has never really been someone who wants to be in the public spotlight though. Someone like Magic and Barkley like the attention. The difference with Barkley is that he doesn't care and people still like him. - Rodfather

I think Barkley has definitely mellowed with age, though, and it's harder to hate a guy who isn't playing any more (although that doesn't seem to stop MJ much :D ) But he never really gave a crap about what other people thought about him either - Victor Ganata

Heh. Now I'm imagining what Jordan would be saying if he were an analyst. I think he would be saying what he would do to take over instead of saying what the players actually playing should do. Or just say everyone sucks on the court and would never beat the Bulls when he was in his prime. - Rodfather

Title aside, I thought that first quote was about Blake Griffin... - Andrew C (✓)

Heh, I think it would be impossible for Blake to ever eclipse Kobe and Drew with regards to douchebaggery in this town. And even though they did really well this season, the Clips are still, ultimately, lovable losers. - Victor Ganata

Griffin does some dickish things on the court (but what player doesn't.) And so far the refs seem to let him totally get away with it. I have no idea what he's really like other than what he does on the court or in his weird Kia commericials, though :) - Victor Ganata