The disappointment of this season's failure of missing out on another postseason is a much harder pill to swallow for the Los Angeles Lakers faithful simply because of one man — LeBron James. However, while the purple and gold nation continue to scratch their collective head in disappointment, NBA superfan James Goldstein is absolutely loving every bit of the team's misery.
Goldstein is definitely a character. The 79-year-old millionaire is one of the league's most prominent supporters. He is an avid viewer of live games — even traveling from city to city just to catch the games in person (courtside, of course) — including roughly 95 percent of Los Angeles' home games.
However, what makes this narrative interesting is the fact that Goldstein absolutely hates them.
“I am a big Clippers fan and I have always been an anti-Lakers fan,” Goldstein told Arash Markazi of the Los Angeles Times. “I’m always rooting for the visiting team. Everywhere I go, all over the world, people walk up to me and say, ‘Go Lakers!’ I tell them, ‘I’m not a Lakers fan.' They look shocked. They say, ‘But you go to all the games?’ And I say, ‘Yes, to watch basketball, not to root for the Lakers.’ ”
When asked about how he feels about the the team's performance this season, Goldstein did not hold back.
“I have to chuckle over the Lakers’ problems, missing the playoffs six years in a row and not even finishing close to .500,” Goldstein said. “The Lakers fans deserve it.”
Now that's one legitimate hater. Such is the privilege of the uber rich — being able to spend millions of dollars on courtside seats over the decades just to be able to root against a team you abhor.
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