I am going to skip the obvious because that is dull.
Hate to love: Surprising, perhaps to everyone else, that would be the Minnesota Timberwolves. Even back when the Kings were really good, the one matchup that always seemed to go against the Kings was Garnett versus Webber. Those games would bring the best out of Webber, and Garnett, and you could tell the mutual admiration Kevin and Chris had for one another. But the games were always close and seemed to most often favor the Wolves.
A close second would be the Jazz, for many of the same reasons. Malone and Stockton, as much as you hated them, you also had to admire the Jazz. As the Kings progressively got better, it was the Jazz playoff games that we came to gauge our success against. Once we beat them, we knew we were good.
Love to hate: The Knicks are an easy choice, what with Isaah Thomas and his stupidity masked as smirky street savvies. Just go away. But the real piece of dreck are the Boston Celtics. First off, it is pronounced "KELTICS", not "SELTICS". What, are we supposed to be impressed with New England independence that you can create your own pronunciation for someone else's word? That is shear arrogance. Second, we know, your history is unsurpassed. Really, we get it. Russell, Bird, McHale, Parrish, Cousy, Aurabach, stinky victory cigars - oh, and that "parkey" floor. Sneakers still squeak annoyingly on it, donche know. Did the masters of Beantown also invent basketball and only allow the rest of the world visitation rights, for a fee?
Oh, and if only white players could play for Boston: wouldn't that be soooooo wonderful for the red, white, and blue Bostonian fans to dream about.
