Which city has the most obnoxious fans?

[Pawtucket Pat]

Until I see another fan base boo their own team in the conference finals, I'm going to have to go with Detroit.

LA fans are being obnoxious right now because they are driven by the media, and even worse, the coach and star player of their team.  BUT at least they are behind their guys and not down on them.  Jackson caused this...not the LA fans.

Are you serious? Didn't you watch the Western Finals? They booed their team when they got down by 20 to San Antonio. It was pathetic.

[fan33]

Experience with New Yorker sports fans from baseball to sailing, I must confess I always thought of them to be the most obnoxious, only now to be exceeded by Laker fans 

[Csfan4life]

University of North Carolina fans are the worst!  There is a sports station in Charlotte that talks about the Tarheels atleast 45 min out of every hour.  The UNC fans want to talk about Women's Swimming when their basketball team is not doing well.

[cuckroller]

Roy,

Well, it is pretty tough for me to reply to this having fenced us all in like this.

For me, there are fanatics, and then there are fans.  All cities have them.  From what I can see from most of the Laker blogs, the true fans pretty much keep to themselves, perhaps try and inject a little sense into the chaos, but all in all the blogs are dominated by the new converts to the faith, what I call the fanatics.  Most of these people have no real emotional investment in the team they root for.  They have no sense of the history or the traditions of the League, or of the various franchises.  All in all, I truly believe that every city, every fanbase, of every franchise has the capacity to be equally obnoxious.  I do not like it myself, but then I am a fan of old date.  As far as the "whiners", well, here I am on your side.  These sniveling babies are giving us all a bad name.  Unfortunately, it seems that the blogs right now are chock full of these people (I am speaking of the Laker blogs).

As for me, I don't whine, and I don't gloat - I just enjoy the competition and the sense of history as well the beauty of the game Basketball.  Do not make the mistake of judging all Los Angeles supporters as being represented by these jerks.

[TruthSerum]

The chants of "Boston sucks!" at the game last night should reveal just how creative Laker fans really are. They are responding, no doubt, to "Beat LA," which is a reasonable thing to chant. It states the Celtics agenda and spurs our team. But "Boston sucks!" ?? Are we supposed to get an inferiority complex? Is this one of their AFFIRMATIONS? They know they aren't the better team so they have to resort to verbal abuse. But at least they don't wave those awful un-recycleable white bats like the opposing fans in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

[ma11l]

It depends on the definition of obnoxious.


As a player I would love to be in Boston.  I have been very proud of our fans during this run.  Everyone cheered for Ray during his slump, as it got worse we cheered harder, encouraging him, not booing him like Detroit and LA fans would.

We were discouraged that we were in a Game 7 against Atlanta, but the place was rocking anyways.  A lot of fan bases would have turned on their teams at that point.


If you're looking at it from other fans across the country we are the most obnoxious.  We are brash, cocky, and arrogant.  It's the Yankees theory from the late 90's, if you're successful you are going to be hated.  We have been spoiled by our successful sports teams and other fans and the national media hate us for it.

[jay_jay54]

Last night,in the postgame interview,.Gorman stated,it looked like some Laker fans were ready to bail on them in the period,where it looked like the Celtics might win after all.So that statement alone,tells you something about them(Lakerfairweathered fans).

[radiodavidm]

The chants of "Boston sucks!" at the game last night should reveal just how creative Laker fans really are. They are responding, no doubt, to "Beat LA," which is a reasonable thing to chant. It states the Celtics agenda and spurs our team. But "Boston sucks!" ?? Are we supposed to get an inferiority complex? Is this one of their AFFIRMATIONS? They know they aren't the better team so they have to resort to verbal abuse. But at least they don't wave those awful un-recycleable white bats like the opposing fans in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

I agree that the "Boston Sucks" chant establishes a new low in fan oratory, but I am sad to let you know that there were plenty of those un-recyclable white bats at the Staples Center last night.  It is a point of great town pride for me that here in Boston we never wave silly white bats or those even sillier white rags. 

On the other hand, I have never heard the practice of verbally trashing an opposing player elevated to the art form found/heard in the Fenway bleachers, or in the old Garden.  Boston fans may not wave things to distract the visiting team, but we can come up with strings of invective that could offend the stoutest of sailors - both foul and highly creative at the same time.  Not always the best language to expose, say, your 11-year old kid to, but a great illustration of how "literary" we are here in New England, even when verbally abusing opposing players. 

[cdif911]

I think Boston fans are up there for being the worst, in part because of how quickly they will turn their allegiance away from a loser and how quickly they will adopt a winner and pretend they were there the whole time.  Listen to WEEI and all of a sudden everyone on there is a Celtics expert, whereas a year ago if you tried to get Celts talk in you were mocked.  Look at the Bruins making the playoffs this year and how quickly the bandwagon came a rolling in.  Look at all the green shirts around (though Red Sox nation still clearly dominates) - every Beat LA shirt I see on someone makes me think, this person is just here for the ride and will get off at the next stop, whatever it may be.  This group of Boston fans have become entitled spoiled brats.

Of course conversely are the oldtimers, the been through thick and thin, through the trenches.  They don't appreciate anything today, because in their day the athletes were hungrier and played harder and didn't wear helmets and weren't paid millions of dollars, etc. etc. etc.  I understand the history. I appreciate the history. But its the here and now, enjoy the ride, no need to be all grumpy.

One defining moment of my sportsfandom and disdain for the general Boston fandom came at the Fleetcenter maybe 6 or 7 years back.  Its the Celtics vs someone (I went to a lot of games back then) - and Walker misses his first 3 badly, and this guy is just getting all over him, booing, yelling trade him etc.  Walker goes on to have a terrific game, like a 20/10 leads a run towards a win, etc. The guy does a total 180, "OH I love Walker, he's the best, Walker! Walker!" - it was so obnoxious and telling....

PS - I like most of the fans on here, so this isn't aimed at anyone!

[cmoney]

philly, boston, NY.  Basically any fan base with a ravenous group of supporters is going to also have a huge # of obnoxious jerks.  Philly is probably the worst.

[Roy Hobbs]

The chants of "Boston sucks!" at the game last night should reveal just how creative Laker fans really are. They are responding, no doubt, to "Beat LA," which is a reasonable thing to chant. It states the Celtics agenda and spurs our team. But "Boston sucks!" ?? Are we supposed to get an inferiority complex? Is this one of their AFFIRMATIONS? They know they aren't the better team so they have to resort to verbal abuse. But at least they don't wave those awful un-recycleable white bats like the opposing fans in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Haha.  As part of a fan base that thinks "Yankees suck" is the most clever thing ever, I can't give the Lakers fans too much grief for this one.