Things are getting ugly between the Los Angeles Lakers and their fans. Heading into the season, the Lakers and Brooklyn Nets were the two heavy betting favorites to win the 2022 NBA title.
Now LeBron James and the Lake Show are 27-34 overall and riding a three-game losing streak, while occupying the No. 9 spot in the Western Conference standings. In Sunday’s 123-95 blowout loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, LeBron and Trevor Ariza were caught chirping with Lakers fans who were booing.
In his latest episode of The Draymond Green Podcast (8:05 mark of the video below), Draymond said Lakers fans were out of line. He particularly took issue with some boos that rained down after LeBron turned the ball over trying to make a pass to Talen Horton-Tucker in the corner.
“I’ve seen him make several times and it is an amazing pass,” Green said. “Didn’t complete it yesterday and the boos rang out? I thought that was pathetic. I thought it was extremely pathetic. Like I said, it was very distasteful from a fanbase that has the most championships in the NBA. Like, let’s not be spoiled brats. Like, it’s OK to be spoiled. You can 100 percent be spoiled. We all get spoiled by things at times at one point in life or another. But let’s not be brats. And that was about as bratty as something that I’ve seen, considering that this team just won a championship not even a full two years ago. Now you’re booing? I thought that was utterly ridiculous.”
Never one to bite his tongue, Green’s take is sure to rub some Lakers fans the wrong way – no one likes to be called a spoiled brat. They might be able to share their feelings with him on Saturday when the Lakers host the Warriors.
Green (back disc) hasn’t played since making a ceremonial seven-second appearance with Klay Thompson on Jan. 9. He is currently traveling with the Warriors on their road trip and could be on the bench in street clothes to get an up-close look at the crowd.
“Quite frankly, most of the people in that arena don’t know how it feels to get booed,” Green said. “I guess I can cut a little slack in you not understanding how it feels to get booed by your own. For me, I actually like getting booed. Like when I come to Crypto[.com] Arena boo me all you want, that’s fun to me. The Cavs fans did it all weekend at All-Star weekend, like I enjoy it. … To get booed by your own fans, it’s very distasteful and disgraceful. I was shocked to see that.”
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While the Warriors are struggling with six losses in their past eight games, the Lakers have lost 10 of their past 13 and faded from the middle of the pack in the Western Conference.
“I’m actually looking forward to seeing where the Lakers go from here,” Green said. “Like, you can go one of two ways. You can use that to band together and say, ‘It’s us against the world.’ … and see if they can rally around that. Or do you continue to splinter and separate more? Because the reality is, when you’re losing at that rate, there’s going to be some splintering and there’s going to be some separating.”
