You can be as dubious as you like, I still know dick about the Lakers.
Shaq was so famous he had a Mortal Kombat style computer game released when I was a teenager. Kobe Bryant is one of those names that pops up here and there in greatest ever threads. Them I know.
Look, I have no doubt that the Lakers are a hugely successful team, one of the biggest in their field. I just also have little doubt that worldwide, they simply arent on many peoples radar. Carmady says most of China watched Lakers games because Ming was playing them. The thing is, they would have been watching for Ming, not for the Lakers. You cant claim to be one of the most famous teams in the world because you were once the opposition when a few billion people were watching for a member of the other team.
Millions of Asian people watch every game Man Utd play, not just the ones were Zhi Zheng is playing against them.
“One of the great curiosities in modern sports is the Chinese people’s lavish affection for Kobe Bryant. During last year’s Beijing Olympics, he was greeted with a rapturous reception and mobbed everywhere he went. He appears in commercials and on billboards, has a popular Web site and had a reality show on Chinese television. He sells more NBA jerseys there than Yao Ming.”
They got to know the Lakers because of Yao Ming, but it has gone way past that now.
I am willing to be proven wrong, but do they know the Lakers, or do they know Kobe Bryant?
Maybe a strange question, but I had heard of Kobe, while knowing little about the Lakers. Is Kobe Bryant a version of David Beckham, where he is the brand, not the team he currently plays for?
Definitely, from a Euro POV, the Chicago Bulls are certainly more famous. I doubt that more than 5 per cent of random people in the street would even know what the Lakers are (except “they must be an American team for an American sport or something”).
To expand on the whole “I know Kobe, I don’t know the Lakers thing”:
I’m not a big fan of basketball. Unless the Bulls make the finals, I doubt I will watch one full game this season. But I know who Blake Griffin is. I know he’s the rookie of the year. I know he dunked over a car. I know his teammates made him wear a Dora the Explorer backpack.
I have no idea what team Blake plays for. And I even watched him on Conan a few days ago.
To put it simply, nowadays, the really big stars usually overshadow their team.
Well, in my case, I first heard it spoken of by the character Spike in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Later on, I’d hear a passing reference to the name, and key in on it because of the earlier association.
The 1980 US Olympic hockey team? If an established team like the Canadiens or the Red Wings can’t even hope to make this top-5 list, the 1980 US Olympic hockey team is barely a blip on the radar.
Unless you’re basing this on the movie? But then you might as well list the Anaheim Mighty Ducks! Which…actually…begins to scare me. I don’t think I want either of these on the list! :eek:
I was about to reply to this and ask what was particularly famous about them. Then I recalled a mention of “miracle on ice” and googled to make sure. (I still don’t know what the “Sioux” reference means)
Point being that I’m not ignorant about sports around the world but I’m not a bad yardstick and if it doesn’t ping my radar it likely isn’t a famous team. Again this is probably a very narrow view of “world famous”.
It is the equivalent of me including the 1966 England team. (and if you have to ask or google you’ve proved my point)
That’s exactly why I had it in my list. When they started showing American Football in the 80s on Channel 4 in the UK the only team I knew was the Cowboys because of that shot. So I became a Cowboys fan. I imagine many did similar.
In other news, I have seen the error of my ways. I’ve done what you can only get away with if you weren’t born in to the environment, I changed my allegience. One of my best friends is from Philadelphia, so I’m now an Eagles/Phillies/Flyers fan. Sod Basketball though, that’s the one US sport I can’t get to grips with.
Speaking for Sweden, the NHL is huge news here, especially for any team that has a Swede. There’s no surprise that Sweden (along with the Czech Republic) was where they started their seemingly now regular playing games outside of North America for the first day of the season a few years back (and I was there for the first one at the Globe Arena in Stockholm - Penguins vs Senators. First game I have ever been to with three national anthems; US, Canada and Sweden) - although that wasn’t the first time they had played regular season games outside North America.
Presumably, a reference to the University of North Dakota hockey team. Even knowing this, it remains somewhat confusing, since the Sioux placed all of one person on the Olympic team that year. (As opposed to eight Gophers. Ski U Mah! :D)
D’oh! I suppose that firms up my original point though. Difficult to claim a team is world famous when it has taken 3 goes and the might of Wikipedia to nail down who the heck they are.
This is a good question that I can’t really answer, except that I heard of Manchester United long before I ever heard of David Beckham.
Honestly, the first news I recall about soccer were stories about riots, mass death due to panicking crowds, and English soccer soccer hooligans. They were supposedly causing trouble all over Europe by showing up at games everywhere and rioting. And (I think) attached to many of these stories was the Man U name. Not to say that their fans wee hooligans, but that hooligan fans of a team would show up in great numbers whenever Man U played against their team.
This thread was an interesting read for me, as it gives a wider perspective than one of my own.
I’m wondering if someone can clear something up for me here. Why does saying someone is “delusional” rate as an insult and calling someone ignorant does not? For me, I don’t rate either as an insult, because everybody is blinded by their own hopes sometimes and sometimes not knowing is nothing to be ashamed of.
However, I’m surprised that the first is deemed an insult, while the second is not, particularly in the context of “you are ignorant ALL THE TIME”. Now, that seems like a true insult, and yet one was called out, and one wasn’t. From an outsider’s viewpoint, it appears that if you have ‘Charter Member’ in your title, you can do no wrong, and if you disagree with same, you are “insulting”.
