Yes Lakers, we hate for your championships, your MVP awards, your eliminating us from the playoffs more times than I like to count. For Kobe getting a late whistle BS foul in his favor on a last second desperation 3 in a game in which the Lakers would later win in OT. For trading a box of Kleenex and some upper deck basketball cards for Pau Gasol.

We hate you for Karl Malone, for Derek Fisher, and for Kurt Rambis. We hate Vlade's often imitated but never duplicated Laker flops. We hate that your fans trash and set fire to your city after WINNING a championship. Were the Jazz ever to win one (likely not in my lifetime) we would gather in front of the Stockton Statue at ESA and sing "Praise to the Man who came down from Gonzaga." We hate you for denying us that opportunity.

We hate you for Phil Jackson and for what he did to us as a Bull and as a Laker. We hate the thug Metta. We hate your elitist and smug Hollywood fan base. We hate your purple and your gold. In short, we hate everything about you for a wide variety of reasons.

Unfortunately, this hate is derived from pain and agony, from getting beat, eliminated, and embarrassed. All while watching you rise from the ashes of your burned down city only to win again.

Yes...we hate you. Get over it. You've got handfuls of championships, a dozen MVP awards, and a bright future. We've got the all time assists and steals leader and talking in the third person before TNT. That's it. So sorry that your success has to come with a little hardship. Stop winning and we will stop hating. Until then, grow a pair and stop pissing and moaning about being hated.

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It's not about politics, religion, or the economy. It's not about oil, water, global warming, pandemics, elections, sanctions, communism, socialism, or capitalism. War or peace. Love or hate. This is about the one month, every four years, when we all agree on one thing; 32 Nations. One world.