Los Angeles Lakers Guard Hits Back At Critics: 'You're Just Bandwagon Fans'

Los Angeles Lakers starting guard Danny Green broke his silence on the harsh bashing he received during his cold shooting stretch in their first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers.

In the recent episode of his podcast, “Inside The Green Room," the 33-year-old recognized that having to deal with criticisms will always be a part of being a professional athlete, saying they are paid huge amounts of money to be mentally tough on a platform where public scrutiny is inevitable.

“I try to see everything from all perspectives. I understand not just the situation I’m in, but the situation everybody is in,” he said. “There’s a huge focus on what we’re doing and how we’re playing. So a lot of people are tense inside the house, so they take it out on us half the time."

After dropping their first game of the Playoffs, the Lakers shifted to a higher gear to win their next four games and finish off the Blazers. And as they continue their bid for a deep playoff run, Green is hoping that his team could get even better as they look to dismiss the “outside noise.”

“We haven’t played great basketball for a while, we had a couple of good games in the first round, but hopefully we can build a rhythm, play better, block out the outside noise, continue to push forward, push through, encourage each other and have fun with it, and not focus on the negative.”

But despite his vow to just use the flak as motivation in his game, the two-time NBA champion could not help but hit back at his critics, particularly the ones who also root for the purple and gold, and label them as “bandwagon fans.”

“Shout out to the real fans that stuck with us when we were down 0-1. Shout out to the real friends, whether we’re playing good or not, (that) are still by our side. Because those are the real ones,” he said.

“For the bandwagoners: You’re not real fans. You’re just bandwagon fans. You’re only fans when things are going (well). Those aren’t true fans.”

The Lakers will be back in action on Friday for Game 1 of their second-round series against the winner of the Rockets-Thunder series.