Jerry West says Warriors fans are 'much better' than Lakers fans
The former Lakers great loves his former home and the team that made him the Logo, but there's just no comparison with the fans at Oracle.
By
Matt Moore
•
2 min read
Golden State Warriors executive and former Lakers legend Jerry West is doing the rounds as part of a promotional tour for MyAFibRisk.com to raise awareness for stroke prevention. He stopped by The Jim Rome Show earlier this week. In the interview he touched on the experience of winning the title with the Warriors, glanced over the "luck" question about the Clippers, mostly by praising how good the Clippers along with the rest of the West and talked about the Lamar Odom situation.
Rome asked West whether Warriors fans were the same, different, or "frankly better" than the notoriously huge Lakers fan base, and West did not hesitate in the slightest to confirm that the Roaracle blows Staples away.
"Oh, much better than LA fans, OK? They don't ever leave the game," West said. "Once we moved into Staples Center, our fan base changed, I thought. It's a completely different kind of fan than Los Angeles. Los Angeles has a lot of corporate fans there, whole different people sat in different seats. You can go up to Oracle right now and you'll see the same fans in the same seats every night. The fans in Los Angeles are great, but I've never seen fans like this here."
The Lakers' fan base is massive, but that's also been built on the backs of championship contention for much of the past 40-plus years. The Warriors could be building a dynasty in a huge market, and they will unquestionably become one of the most popular teams not only in California, but across the country with their style of play and likable stars.
Staples Center is well known for being exceptionally empty early in games, something always chalked up to traffic issues. It's a celebrity hotspot, and as such the prices for tickets are always crazy. During the Conference Finals last year, I spoke with several lower-bowl season-ticket holders whose tickets had been in the family since the 70s. There are great Lakers fans, as you would expect with a team with that much success, and a lot of bandwagoners, again, as you would expect.
It'll be interesting to see how the atmosphere and fans at Warriors games changes when the team makes a similar move to San Francisco. You can see many long-term fans getting priced out or unable to make the trek across the Bay every night. For now, however, it's pretty clear that the Warriors enjoy the best fan experience in the league.
Check out the whole interview here.
