Jerry West Comments on Differences Between Warriors, Lakers Fans

Los Angeles Lakers legend Jerry West stated this week that Golden State Warriors fans are "much better" than the current group of supporters that cheer on his former organization at Staples Center.

Matt Moore of CBS Sports passed along comments that West, who currently serves as an executive board member for the Warriors, made during an appearance on the Jim Rome Show. He made a point to highlight the differences between the fanbases:

"

Oh, much better than LA fans, OK? They don't ever leave the game. Once we moved into Staples Center, our fan base changed, I thought. It's a completely different kind of fan than Los Angeles. Los Angeles has a lot of corporate fans there, whole different people sat in different seats. You can go up to Oracle right now and you'll see the same fans in the same seats every night. The fans in Los Angeles are great, but I've never seen fans like this here.

"

Staples Center opened in 1999 and replaced the Forum, which is where the Lakers played for more than three decades, including the second half of West's career. Clearly he doesn't think the move had a positive impact on fan involvement.

Of course, another factor in the discussion is the direction of the two teams.

The Warriors are coming off their first championship season since 1975 and have been trending in the right direction for the past three years. They also have a tremendous young core of players, led by reigning MVP Stephen Curry.

On the flip side, the Lakers are coming off two straight playoff-less seasons and haven't advanced beyond the conference semifinals since the 2009-10 season. That's a tough pill to swallow for a fanbase that's so used to contending for titles after raising 16 championship banners.

Kobe Bryant has also missed significant time over the past two seasons due to injuries. Without him, the roster doesn't feature much star power for the fans to get excited about.

That said, West isn't the only person who thinks highly of the Warriors fans. An overwhelming majority of the league's general managers (65.5 percent) voted that Golden State has the best home-court advantage in a 2015-16 preseason survey, according to John Schuhmann of NBA.com.

Once the Lakers are able to turn things around and get back into the championship conversation, the fanbase should become more involved again. Quite frankly, there really hasn't been much to cheer about for the past couple of years.

Things have been a lot more fun in the Bay Area, and Warriors fans have certainly responded in a major way.