The better a player, the more likeable, partially true, the more likeable the more chance there is for people to dislike them as well since theres a larger spotlight on them-- i.e. ginoblio, kobe, etc.

Also im pretty sure you just told me i was alone in my sentiment that the spurs are ahted becuase they're boring. The mere fact that Barkley even said that spurs quote proves that a ton of people think the spurs are boring-- Im not saying im right/wrong for thinking they're boring, that is just not the type of basketball i want to watch. Whyt the **** do you think david stern would HATE to see the spurs in the finals? Because they play BORING basketball and have NO likeable people on their team aside from duncan, who even then is not so likeable because he has no ****ing personality.

This final 4 is very tough for me, it seems I have something against every team.

1. Detroit - hated the "bad boys," which is reinforced every time Isiah makes it into the news. Billups and Rip are great players, but their flopping (underrated imo) really got ridiculous during their title run, so meh.

2. Boston - great story, love their players generally and their team play, but there's a lot of leftover hatred from the 80's (I was a Laker fan back in the day), but not much.

3. Spurs! Grudging respect for their success and their unselfish team play, but they've overstayed their welcome, and their players' demeanors during games tilts me to no end.

4. Lakers! Mucho pain from just completed series and Kobe's 100 FT's. Hate the Laker bandwagoners too, and I know many of these types. However, they are the most fun of the teams to watch when they're on.


So... style of play + hatred factor + do I care =


I'm going Lakers, dschmeid notwithstanding. Hoping for Celtics to make it to finals.

Oh, absolutely. But that some dynasties aren't hated proves that merely winning a lot isn't enough to provoke hatred. People didn't hate Florida State when they finished in the top 5 for 14 consecutive years, but people hate Duke even when Duke doesn't win anything.


Oh, yeah, also obviously small groups of opposing teams fans hate every team. I hate the Pistons, but the nation as a whole doesn't.

My theory on Spurs hate:

The team culture still smacks of D-Rob's legacy, who (no offense) took his fundamentalist Christianity well past the limits of good taste, into that saccharine oh-please-you're-making-me-gag territory. (AFAIK Bowen is also pretty hard-core religious.)

I mean, I love all the Big Three, but still something about that team makes me .

lol

Started a quick google search to see if I could find some hated CFB teams and I found the top 3 most hated coaches first. (fanblogs.com)

1. Steve Spurrier
2. Bobby Bowden
3. Philip Fulmer

I can't really think of any reasons to hate Bowden other than winning so much. He's like the nicest guy you'll ever meet.

Also thought this was hysterical, one of the first comments by someone on that site

Mediocrity just isn't that interesting to talk about. :/

The Spurs are very good at guarding the 3pt line, and Sasha is only dangerous if he's open. When open, Sasha is like 80% from 3. Anything else and it's like 5%. The problem, though, is that the Lakers have so many weapons that, even with best effort, Sasha is probably going to still get his looks.

I don't think this series is really about the Spurs at all. They're fundamentally the same team as they've been for years. This is going to be the first defense, and by far the toughest overall challenge, the Lakers have faced in the playoffs, so the pressure is on them, imo, to show they can compete. Luckily for them, they're really ****ing good.

I was living in SA when Robinson entered the league, and he was my favorite player for a long time. Eventually I found out about all the religious stuff and puked in my mouth a little bit. But oh well, I don't want to have a beer (non-alcoholic) with him; I want to watch him play basketball.

Haha, I never really noticed 2+2 had a sports section until NBA season rolled around.

Def pretty funny that me and kbfc are Lakers/Spurs and Broncos fans.

Insert some joke about kbfc and jmill being gay soulmates together here.

.

It's not gay if you're pitching, amirite?

Ok whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Wait, people hate DRob a bit because he's religious?

Wow.

you have never heard of people not liking someone because they are religous?? It can be pretty anyoing sometimes imo.

I find born again proselytizers to be more annoying than crackheads. At least the crackheads aren't trying to talk you into smoking crack with them all the time, they just want money.

Lakers are favorites obv but not that big I don't think.

It will be close. But funny how in all the Spurs threads early on, there are lots of people saying the other team will win easily.

Spurs play so good as a team that every player on the floor, even those of suspect quality, will have a good percentage chance of succesfully fullfilling his role. On the offence part those percentages are lower but I do like the matchup compared to NO.

I'm really interested in seeing how we deal with Odom and Gasol.

Should be a great series.

home team going to win every game in this series. and it would be better if it was NO VS LA or even PHX VS la so the we all winners option in the poll doesn't apply and shouldn't be a option.

So David Robinson has tried to convert you? Please share this TR.

From the 2p2 poll results it appears the Lakers are huge favorites, much bigger than the line I got at -260.

Do you see why this logic is bad?

Edit: And -260 seems like an awful, awful line. *checks pinnacle* Yup.

I don't see why the logic is bad. Maybe there are a bunch of Laker homers on this board, but I dont know alot of people on the forum yet so my comment is just based on the poll results.


When I checked pinnacle the line was Lakers -260 so I felt fine taking that line on my sportsbook. Also, being in the USA I cant bet on pinnacle anyways.

Exaggerating that line part.

But the logic part has nothing to do with the amount of Lakers homers on the board.

Here's a question: What do you think would happen if you put up a poll saying, what's going to happen, someone being dealt a club, or someone being dealt a nine?

Well there are 13 clubs and 4 nines so I assume most people would vote for a club.

I really dont understand what you are getting at. Please spell it out for me.

Portland says hello.

No seriously though, I have no idea what he is getting at either.

Lakers in 5.

The simple idea is that most people here don't have a rooting interest and are going to vote for the better team.

Assume the Lakers are -150. You'd think that most people would vote for the Lakers, as they are now (and definitely more than 60%, even though they are 60% to win).

In the above example, there is a 4 in 52 chance that a nine will come up. While it is not likely that a 9 will come up, no one will vote for the nine coming up, because it is less likely.

Man, I'm explaining this poorly.

TLDR: in a poll such as this, the underdog will almost assuredly have less votes than their likelihood to win.