Throw Your (Lakers) Flag Up!!!

Its mid-May, more years than not in the last decade that's meant the return of an L.A. tradition; Lakers flags on cars celebrating the current Lakers playoff run. The car flag was widely used at the beginning of the decade by fans of many contending teams along the way, but no place used it as widely (and some would say obnoxiously) as Lakers fans have. We're a car town, and we're a town full of exhibitionist, what do you expect from us? We're also a town full of folks that have early childhood memories of Magic, Kareem, Riley and the rest of the "Showtime" Lakers dominating the 80's, so when the Lakers returned to greatness in 2000, we got in touch with our 80's selves by throwing a little piece of our childhoods on the cars that we were starting to get; you know the post-"first cars" that you wouldn't mind being spotted in anymore?

So we Lakers fans have our flags, the question is, when do we throw them up? During those mediocre years in the middle of the decade when Kobe was surrounded by guys named "Smush" and "Kwame" you had to get the flags up early and celebrate the playoff appearance, because an appearance was all that those teams were likely to make. But during the Shaq-Kobe era, and now as the Kobe-Pau era unfolds, the timing is much trickier.

Throw it up too early, and you have a flag on your car for nearly 3 months if all goes well. Premature flag-raising seems to be just a little bit anxious for a fan base that's been to this rodeo (or is that Ro-day-o?) before. Let the JV teams (Clippers anyone?) get excited about April playoff basketball.

Waiting too long to get the flag up makes you seem like another fair-weather fan hitching a ride on the bandwagon, causing your actual real-deal Lakers love to be questioned. It's a tricky balancing act, but one I navigate nearly every year with these principles…

-Throw it up when your boys are in trouble: When the Lake Show's in dire straits is when our fandom must shine the brightest. In a playoff series "in trouble" is when…

    -A) The Lakers have homecourt and they get behind at all in the series. If the Lakers would have lost Game 5 to Oklahoma City in the first round to go down 3 games to 2, my flag would have been up from Game 6 on.

    -B) The Lakers do not have homecourt and get behind by 2 games in the series and/or loses at home without the series lead. If the Lakers had opened the series against the Jazz on the road and lost Game 1, I wouldn't put the flag up. If they had lost Games 1 and 2?! I'm going to the rear window of my Accent immediately!

    -C) Facing elimination. The boys are down 3-2, or we're at Game 7? Time to wave the flag!

-If the playoffs don't bring any of the above bumps in the road (like this year), the Western Conference Finals seems like the right time. Waiting until the finals feels a little bandwagon-ish, but I don't just throw it up once the WCF begin. I wait until they….

    -A) Have lost a game at any point in the series. The other team showing that they can win at all makes the series competitive enough to warrant the flag being raised.

    -B) Are on the verge of eliminating their adversary. The flag is being raised to let the next opponent know (this year the Celtics, can't wait to see us get revenge on their punk-ass…let me get back on topic) that we're coming for them.

Needless to say that my flag is going up after tonight's game, and hopefully isn't coming down until a week after a parade down Figueroa!!!