Like the Lakers, I come from Minnesota.
Growing up in the 1980’s, there was no NBA team in town, so I rooted for Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. But then the NBA expanded prior to the 1989-90 season, and Minnesota was given the Timberwolves, whose first truly elite season didn’t come until many years later, 2003-04, my senior year in college, when Kevin Garnett finally got some help in the form of Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell.
Meanwhile, the Lakers had dominated my first three years of school, threepeating as Kobe and Shaq established themselves as the most dominant duo in NBA history – or at least the one that could win a good argument with Magic and Kareem, or Michael and Scottie.