Do Kobe fans have LeBron hate in their veins?

[Lurker]

From ESPN...

So it's the Magic and Lakers tipping off Thursday night, which means we'll have no Kobe-LeBron showdown. Undoubtedly, the shoe companies and TV network are disappointed, as is the commissioner, despite his proclamations to the contrary.

However, for a big chunk of the fans in Staples Center on Thursday night, the battle rages on. And just because the Cavs aren't here doesn't change the fact that LeBron James has become Public Enemy No. 1 in Los Angeles.

It's a bit odd because it's become something of a one-way rivalry. Kobe versus LeBron isn't really a hot-button issue in Cleveland, where the Cavaliers are dealing with more pressing matters at the moment -- like how to get a better supporting cast and make sure LeBron doesn't bolt for New York a year from now.

But in L.A.? Kobe versus LeBron gets people talking.

I've noticed this all season during interactions with ESPN.com readers -- even the most innocuous comment about James (i.e., "LeBron had a good game last night") has been met with a torrent of e-mails and comments from Lakers fans perceiving a slight against their star.

The only thing I can even remotely compare it to is the fervor of Utah fans wanting people in the media to say Deron Williams is better than Chris Paul, but you expect that more from a small-market team like Utah. Jazz fans feel ignored by the media on both coasts and have a giant chip on their shoulder about it, so you can almost excuse them for wanting to compare a player with two top-five MVP finishes with one who has never been to the All-Star Game.

Lakers fans obviously can't claim to be overlooked, not when they're on national TV 81 times a year, but the cosmopolitan Angelenos are unusually provincial when it comes to Kobe versus LeBron, even e-mailing me conspiracy theories about plots by ESPN and the NBA to pump up LeBron -- which is ironic because fans in every other Western Conference city concoct the same theories to claim the league and networks are favoring the Lakers.

Despite all this buildup heading into the postseason, I was unprepared for what happened at the end of the conference finals, and it really drove home to me the importance of the Kobe-LeBron debate in the heart of Laker Nation.

To review, I had picked the Nuggets and Cavaliers to win the conference finals; obviously, things didn't work out that way. And, as I expected, I got the usual missives in my inbox from fans of the Magic and Lakers.

This is par for the course when anyone makes a prediction that doesn't come true. There were more of the messages, perhaps, because the Lakers have more fans than any other team, but otherwise it was situation normal.

Except with one twist: L.A. fans weren't e-mailing about the Lakers-Nuggets series.

They were e-mailing because Cleveland lost.

Moreover, it wasn't just that Cleveland lost, it was that LeBron lost -- the messages highlighted his failure, not his team's. Similarly, most of them didn't even mention the word "Denver," and those who did only referenced the Nuggets tangentially.

Basically, the e-mails from L.A. made it seem they were happier about LeBron's losing than about the Lakers' winning. Believe it or not, I got more e-mail from Lakers fans after Game 6 of the Cleveland-Orlando series than I did from Magic fans.

It's not just my inbox that's getting these messages, either. Go to the L.A. Times Laker blog, click on any random story, and do a search on "LeBron" in the comments section. (Or better yet, do a search on "LeBronz" or "Queen James.")

You're guaranteed to find several choice insults thrown his way, even in stories that have nothing to do with LeBron or Kobe. For instance, this story is about Pau Gasol ... and the first comment is a non sequitur insult of LeBron. Or take this innocuous story from Lakers practice the other day; the comments section almost exclusively features James insults, including two different fans' poems about the Lakers ... both of which conclude not with praise for L.A., but with potshots at LeBron.

Better yet, check out the comments on the ESPN.com story on LeBron's walking out on the media at the end of Cleveland's Game 6 loss to Orlando. The board was completely taken over by Lakers fans comparing him unfavorably to Kobe, and at the end of it we had 4,286 comments.

This would be freaky weird on almost any level, but what makes it even more bizarre is that the Cavs and Lakers have never played a game of any consequence. Oh, sure, there have been a couple regular-season battles that got a lot of hype, but the two have never met in the postseason and were never in a particularly important late-season game, either. The Lakers didn't have to get through LeBron to get here and won't have to beat him to win the title, and they didn't have to last year, either. It's strictly a long-distance rivalry.

John Hollinger writes for ESPN Insider. To e-mail him, click here.

[westkoast]

Yes and no.

Yes because the reverse is done to Laker fans about Kobe when it involves Lebron James.  Look no farther than places like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace where social groups have been based around bashing Kobe and using Lebron James as the 'face' of it because he is another talented player.  What has happened is you see the same thing happening to Lebron now.  People who are responding to the Kobe criticism by using what Lebron James did are doing the reverse.  They are riding people who dislike Kobe ang big time Lebron fans for what he hasn't done.  The difference is I don't think there are very many 'Lebron Haters' but they are A LOT of 'Kobe Haters'.  You could just as easily go to ESPN and look at comments for games Lakers lost to find people bashing Kobe and 'big upping' Lebron.  John Hollinger knows that but writing an article about a team and fans who are not in the finals will not quite get the attention one about the Lakers/Kobe would at this point, obviously.

No because the rivalry is not there.  At this point its marketing fabrication.  They've never played each other in a playoff game nor do they have a real team rivalry because their teams only play each other twice a year.  As oppose to teams like the Spurs or Nuggets they can see 8 to 15 times a year.

[WayOutWest]

I think most Kobe fans don't dislike LeBron himself, they hate the way he's treated vs the Kobe has been treated.

Check out this thread to see what I mean:
http://forums.phillyarena.com/index.php?topic=5646.0

I don't dislike LeBron at all, I think he's one of the greatest players that will ever play the game if he continues to progress the way he's been doing.  I was starting to agree with the people who said the LeBron was better than Kobe but his choke job in the EC Finals put me back into the Kobe camp.  While LeBron had great games and awesome stats, he failed at the FT in critical moments and he ran out of steam on defense.  LeBron is not as good as Kobe at reading the situation/flow of a game, he doesn't know when to be a facilitator or when to switch into offense mode. 

LeBron has never done anything to make me hate him, expecially on the court, but his amazing abilities have made me a fan of his game.  To date, Kobe's peak was/is better than LeBron's peak, but IMO LeBron will raise his peak in the near future, beyond Kobe and beyond MJ.

[Lurker]

IMO it isn't "Laker fans" that hate Lebron...and definately not knowledgable ones.  But the fanhome-type Kobe fans I can see acting as Hollinger describes.  I think they could best be described as ReaLakers fans.   

[westkoast]

IMO it isn't "Laker fans" that hate Lebron...and definately not knowledgable ones.  But the fanhome-type Kobe fans I can see acting as Hollinger describes.  I think they could best be described as ReaLakers fans.   

Yup, ReaLakers who quietly took down their Laker flags from the car during the Rockets series in fear of them losing only to hoist em back up faster than a pirate who took over a ship once they made it to the finals.  I heard there are a lot of ReaLakers in San Diego.