If somehow the Rams can pull off Back to Back …

ya know.  been thinking about this.  the lakers look headed for a long cold winter right now.  i don’t know how much longer lebron can be lebron, and when he leaves, a mediocre laker team could be even worse.

and while i still stand by this being ultimately a dodger town, every week the mlb stays in a lockout the rams stay relevant for one more week in the offseason.  if the rams can somehow pull off the impossible and keep the nucleus together, the rams could make some headway.  maybe not catch the dodgers but possibly leap ahead of the lakers?

I’m a long time LA fan and observer.

IMO, the Dodgers own LA. They draw even when they are terrible. There is something about the palm trees, and the beaches, and leisurely summer evenings that just loves baseball, and the Dodgers are unsinkable.

The Lakers have a strong tradition, several championships, and no team in the NBA has more championships than the Lakers. They are Showtime. But when they are bad, they don’t draw attention. But the franchise has a lot of goodwill, so much so that even if the Clippers ever won, they would still take a backseat to the Lakers.

The Rams just aren’t up there. Even USC has a greater following.

This Super Bowl helps, but the Dodgers, Lakers, and USC have multiple championships, and until the Rams have won 3 or more times, they just aren’t going to be on that level. I don’t even think that back-to-back will do it. It will damn well help. But it won’t do it. The Dodgers, the Lakers, and USC are in the upper echelons of their sports as elite franchises.

The Rams aren’t. They had a lot of really, really good teams in the 70s and 80s, but couldn’t get over the hump. Since then, they’ve largely sucked. They had a few good years in another city, including a championship, and a couple of good years since returning to LA, including one championship. But that just isn’t going to surpass the legacy of those other teams. It’s going to take more. A lot more.

joemad wrote:

BTW, have you seen the New HBO Series “Winning Time.. The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”  ???? only one episode thus far, but I love it….

I have not.

If you say it’s good, I might take a chance at it. I generally don’t like any sports re-enactments. I watched a lot of the 80s Lakers live, and they were amazing, and I loved it. But I love sports. I don’t care very much for what happens behind the scenes. I don’t watch sports for that. I’d usually rather watch a thoughtful documentary.

There was one I watched many years ago about Bird vs. Magic, and it traced their competition over the years, interspersed with interviews from each of them (and others), and clips from games. It was pretty good. But fictionalized shit is usually shitty. I’ll give it a shot, though, once I’m on vacation.

Well, the Lakers are headed to oblivion. How long they stay there is totally unknown. And it’s true that LeBron will never have LA’s heart the way Kobe and Magic do, and Shaq and Kareem, and Pau and others. LeBron won’t be identified as a Laker. LA is grateful he brought them another banner, but he isn’t going to be loved there, especially since his championship came in the bubble. Thanks, but…this isn’t up there with the dynasty years.

But the Lakers have placed numerous icons on that shelf, and if they get themselves another young star player, and some championship run, they are right back up there. They are going to slide, but they can afford to have some losing seasons and still own more of LA’s hearts than the Rams do, unless the Rams get out there and win another one or two Super Bowls in the McVay era.

Well…me, too. But you have to win in LA. The Angels and Clippers have been there decades, and nobody cares. I think the Angels even won the World Series once. So that’s where the Rams are. On the shelf next to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

For now…the Rams aren’t even the number one football team in LA, let alone up there competing with the Lakers.

USC has apparently hired a good coach, and they have lots of good will. If they get in the national championship mix, they have a reservoir of good will that will come alive.

The Rams have no reservoir.

It’s going to take time, but…nah.

They can be a flash, they can be a darling, they can be top of the charts for a bit, and shine really brightly. But two Emmy Awards is not gonna make you Lucille Ball.

I’ve always liked John C Reilly. He was good in the Start Trek thing, and in Chicago, and in other bits I’ve seen. I didn’t see the Stepbrothers movie which looked stupid and corny, but he’s pretty good.

I ‘ll watch the first episode, and see how that goes. The Lakers/Celtics rivalry in the 80s has to be one of sports’ greatest episodes. I don’t know what even compares to that decade in any sport. Between those two teams, one or the other of them won the championship in 8 out 9 years. And it might have been 9/10 if Magic and Byron Scott hadn’t blown up their legs during the 89 championship. That is some serious dominance over a long stretch of time by two teams.

wv wrote:

Zooey wrote:

The Lakers/Celtics rivalry in the 80s has to be one of sports’ greatest episodes. I don’t know what even compares to that decade in any sport..

===== Godzilla vs King Kong. Chris Evert vs Martina Navratilova. I could go on. w v

sorry.  that was the wrong eternal derby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_FUh2ZUCQY

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by InvaderRam.

Zooey wrote:

But..8/9 years? One of two sides won it all in 8/9 years. I don’t think anything matches that. You bring up individual sports, and there are probably more incidents of stretches of time dominated by a couple of individuals than there are in team sports, but I still doubt you would find 8/9 years.

ok. so i looked to the premier league to see any rivalries that could match that.

wenger vs ferguson. arsenal and manchester united. eight year stretch from 96 (wenger’s first season as manager of arsenal) to 04. sir alex ferguson won 5 premier league titles to arsene wenger’s 3. an extremely bitter rivalry. i don’t think it tops the lakers celtics mainly because traditionally manchester united’s most bitter rivalry will always be liverpool football club (that’s my club). but it was supposedly legendary (really before my time).

that stretch also included a season where arsenal went unbeaten. the only team in premier league history to do it.

but it lacks the added historical context that the lakers celtics rivalry brings.

Zooey wrote:

I’m a Liverpool backer, too.

cool!  yeah.  the jurgen pep rivalry is something else too.  i hope it can last a little longer.

but yeah.  bird vs magic.  you take it within the context of the greater celtic laker rivalry.  it’s hard to find a comparison.  maybe in a non-english speaking country somewhere that i  can’t readily access.