If you missed it, GQ Magazine named Lakers fans the 15th worst in American sports. Because their little blurb on the purple and gold faithful contains a word best not associated with a family website, you'll have to find the link yourself.
Suffice to say, the logic of the writer's argument is based more on stereotypes than actual knowledge of Lakers loyalists- my inbox, along with a zillion straight sellouts, ubiquitous car flags, etc. attests to their collective passion- and aspects of the Staples Center experience, admittedly less raucous on a typical Tuesday night than some buildings around the NBA. (Though, it should be noted, much more raucous- and more importantly, much more filled- than others.) Still, insofar as the celebrity culture is concerned, Lakers fans have a well-earned high brow rep, one Ron Artest wasn't afraid to tease a little this afternoon in El Segundo.
"Our season ticket holders, they come to the game with Grey Poupon. Slice of bread, and some silverware. It's good. It's a different type of thing. They're eating caviar. They've got manicures on the floor. You can get [a] manicure, pedicure. How many arenas can you get a pedicure and watch the game?"
It's certainly true Lakers fans, in or out of the arena, are hard to impress.
"They've seen winning all the time, so they want to see something more exciting... If I moonwalk after I get a rebound, that's exciting," Artest explained. "If [Andrew Bynum] does, like, a cartwheel, take his shirt off, and [puts] electrical shocks on his nipples and starts doing the Electric Slide, that's exciting."
Exciting, indeed! And painful, and hard to do in the context of regular game play. But unquestionably exciting. In the meantime, it's a reminder those who, over the course of the last year-plus, have become desensitized to the Ron Artest Quote Machine might want to keep one ear open.