I will say this much: The Lakers have surprisingly good fans, better than I ever expected. They know when to cheer, they know how to affect games and they're definitely not Jumbotron Robots like four-fifths of the fan bases in the league. My theory here is simple: With almost every NBA team, the real fans have been priced out, replaced by pseudo-fans who have no idea what to do and how to act, and they don't really care, anyway. This never happened in Los Angeles because the tickets were always expensive and the fans were too rich to be priced out; hence, either the same people are coming to these games that caught Showtime in the '80s, or it's the children of those people. Regardless, it's a lively, knowledgable crowd that loves Kobe more than any other NBA city loves its signature player. I can say that with complete confidence. They love him. For years and years, they stood by him, defended him, made excuses for him and kept cheering him, and now he's nearly finished vindicating the entire rollercoaster ride of an experience for them.