If you’re a fan of one of the other 29 NBA teams, you spend a good portion of your time rooting against the Lakers. In every way: losses, personnel decisions, roster moves. Even if your team is eliminated — or in our case, spent a quarter-century out of contention — you could always root against the Lakers. It is the great unifier for the rest of us.
To some Lakers fans, this is just bitter envy. Classic “we rule, you suck” high school shit. But other Lakers fans find it confusing. Why wouldn’t you root for the Lakers? They’re the Lakers.
I’m often reminded about this post (forget which message board this originated on) that is a perfect encapsulation of how non-Laker fans feel about the Lakers: “Lakers fans absolutely hate the idea that there are other teams having good players or fans of those teams enjoying seeing those players playing against the Lakers. They are basketball totalitarians. To the average Lakers fan, the only point of basketball is for the Lakers to win and everyone else to be sad about it. They don’t understand why there are fans of other teams. If every other team in the league was contracted [and] the entire NBA just became 15 guys in Lakers jerseys dribbling around in a circle, Lakers fans would just smile and say ‘Lakers’ to themselves over and over and they’d never get bored.”
Media row^
The Bunt Team at the Bunt Jam presented by Vans and The Bunt Podcast (refereed by homies of The Bunt) was in “danger” of becoming this understanding of The Lakers — at least to fans of the other seven Bunt Jam skater-basketball teams. They won in year one and in year two.
To be honest, the first round was a blur. In Thrasher v.s. Violet’s match-up, Elissa Steamer blocked Troy Gipson’s jumper — someone half her age — and the crowd erupted. It should be on a Slam cover, and it should be a Thrasher cover. Violet ultimately beat Thrasher, but Elissa’s basketball chops are now on her already iron-clad list of goat credentials.
The second round is when the contenders went to work. Andrew v.s. Dime was a bar fight.
Sharpshooter Erik Fisher played like a Newfoundland Luka Doncic while Jake Johnson rained shots behind the arc, Big Sexy bruised his way into rebounds, and Cory was In Da House. Andrew’s Rezza Honarvar ran into a bit of a cold streak this year after being Andrew’s leading scorer in 2023’s tournament, but newcomers Nate Carricarte and eventual MVP Daniel Scales made it known they wanted to bring the trophy back to Club LIV this year, while Dan Elyamen’s veteran leadership was the secret ingredient. The big-money roster moves were working.
Dime fell in the end, sending Andrew to the finals, but it was the other second round game that ironically saved The Bunt from itself.
The famous Wayne Gretzky quote goes something like: “you can’t win your own skateboard podcast basketball tournament three years in a row.” And alas, The Bunt was no match for the sheer heroics of Violet’s big three: Mike Ward, Kris Brown and Troy Gipson, who went #viral for playing in denim. Though Cephas Benson and Donovan Jones were down their star Bunt player from last year (Leslie Solorzano), the hobbled roster is likely what saved their own competition from turning into the Laker fan skater-basketball totalitarian fever dream it could have become with a three-peat.
The finals were set: Andrew v.s. Violet.
If Dime and Andrew’s match-up was a bar fight, this one was a bar fight in a burning cabin sliding off the side of a cliff.
The intensity was palpable, as Violet clawed back after an early Andrew barrage lead by Scales.
And it was with that very same hot hand that Andrew would rout Violet in an 12-10 victory — ushering in a new champion, a new rivalry, and a very 2023 OKC Thunder-feeling Violet team that will be the one to watch out for next year.
And above all, with evidence of The Bunt’s mortality, the conspiracy theorists receded into the shadows.
This feels like the year The Bunt Jam became A Thing™. Everyone on the court was invested. Spectators in the stands were making bets. Cameras flickered constantly. We are excited to see the off-season roster moves, and wondering who’s going to have cap space to fork over the big bucks for Elissa’s much overdue max contract.
Previously: Losing The Bunt Jam — A Court-Level Perspective