No fan base is angrier than the Los Angeles Lakers fan base right now.
Over the previous weekend, many Lakers devotees lined up outside of the Staples Center, picketed and protested the trajectory of the franchise.
And Kobe Bryant sent Jeanie Buss a ridiculous meme a couple of years ago of a hit television show that inadvertently evolved the Lakers franchise into what they are now.
The Los Angeles Lakers haven’t been good in eight years, which was coincidentally the year Kobe Bryant led his team to a championship victory.
But since then, the Lakers franchise and its fans have been full of false hope and plagued by player injuries.
In 2012, then-general manager put together a squad that was an instant contender when they signed coveted free agents Steve Nash and Dwight Howard. Nash was hurt for most of the season. It was Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard, and Steve Nash.
But Nash was always hurt, Kobe Bryant began showing his age and Howard turned out to be toxic in the locker room, which would later lead Bryant to call him “soft,” later when he left the Lakers (not in the same season) to play for the Houston Rockets.
The front office was bizarre as well. Jim Buss was the executive vice president of basketball operations and Mitch Kupchak was general manager in 2017 when controlling owner – Jeanie Buss, and younger sister of Jim – fired both of them.
Before she made her decision Kobe Bryant sent her a meme of Khaleesi aka Queen Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) from “Game of Thrones,” encouraging her to see things through by firing both of them.
Bryant told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols and host of “The Jump,” “I sent her a meme from ‘Game of Thrones’ of Khaleesi riding on the ship, going to her homeland with the ships behind her. I said, ‘Sometimes the mother of dragons has just got to be the mother of dragons.’ And Jeanie went full Khaleesi.”
It’s important to note the distinction that “Khaleesi” was a Dothraki title referring to the wife of Khal. A khaleesi‘s status varies greatly from khalasar to khalasar. She could be very influential, riding beside her husband as he leads, or she could be worth practically less than the khal‘s horse; the khal‘sbloodriders will sometimes share the khaleesi, but would never be allowed to ride the khal‘s horse.
It is Dothraki tradition that when a khal dies, his surviving khaleesi must retire to join the crones that rule Vaes Dothrak, known as the dosh khaleen. Daenerys Targaryen, however refused this and instead declared herself a Khaleesi in her own right, forming her own khalasar from what few of Drogo’s people hadn’t abandoned her.
And she did. She fired them both and hired Magic Johnson to be president of basketball operations, Luke Walton as head coach and super agent Rob Pelinka to be general manager.
Today only Rob Pelinka remains. Magic Johnson abruptly quit on April 9th and Luke Walton was fired on April 12th.
And just like in “The Bells” episode of “Game of Thrones” when Daenerys Targaryen became The Mad Queen and had the soldiers of Winterfell questioning her position and power.
The truth remains; Lakers fans are in serious doubt Jeanie Buss has any idea what she’s doing.