Miami Heat Fans Are the Worst, and Lakers Fans Can Rejoice

Commentary by YahooSports's Michael C. Jones

Basketball is about winners and losers, and in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals, no single group lost more on Tuesday night in South Florida more than Miami Heat fans.

It was late in the fourth quarter, and the defending champs were down by two points when people who supposedly call themselves the Heat faithful started leaving in droves because they thought Heat would lose as Kawhi Leonard stepped to the free throw line to potentially put the game out of reach -- that weekday Miami traffic after midnight is a beast.

It's as if the best player on the planet in LeBron James or the best three-point shooter in the history of basketball weren't on the floor.

The most incredible thing about it, though, was for 47.5 minutes, the game was already an instant classic and literally broke Twitter on numerous occasions. The best player on the planet was in headband-less form and the Heat defense was swarming all over the court in desperation.

Somehow, that wasn't enough to convince "Heat fan" that he should hang out to see what unfolded next. Great job, Heat fan. You are amazing in so many ways.

But it gets better. More of those same "fans" tried to get back into the game after Leonard missed 1-of-2 free throws and Ray Allen hit a miracle 3-pointer and sent the game into overtime. It's sweet justice that after several minutes of pounding on the doors, begging and pleading to be let in, the police never allowed them back in the building. What a great use of tax dollars!

They deserved not to see the final five minutes of what will go down as one of the greatest games in NBA history.

Lakers fans = winning

If Heat fans are losers, then the city of Los Angeles won in a big way that night.

Los Angeles Lakers fans, often chastised for the same type of behavior, are off the hook for the foreseeable future. They can wallow in the despair of Heat fans who are now unequivocally the worst in the NBA and now have to fake their way through water cooler talk that assumes they stayed. That title of "Worst Fans Ever" doesn't come easy -- it's earned. They did so in grandiose fashion on Tuesday.

Celebrities? L.A. has better ones. Jack Nicholson would destroy Justin Bieber in a fan cage match -- wait, Bieber's a Heat fan? But he was sitting courtside at Staple Center just a few months... oh, forget it. Celebrities make real fans look bad in any city with their stoicism and refusal to cheer or wear free T-shirts (I'm talking to you MC Hammer).

Except for Nicholson, he's cool.

SB Nation's NBA top dog Tom Ziller wrote a highly-entertaining piece on 50 reasons to hate the Lakers -- an outstanding read to be sure, even for the purple-and-gold faithful who aren't so uptight that they can be self-deprecating. Of course, we're talking about Southern California, so most are.

But he absolutely crushes L.A. fans with some relatively sound reasoning. Some examples of such are their delusions about the status of Kobe Bryant as the No. 1 player in the league right now (ironically, that's James), disrespecting old glory in Sacramento and hating fun.

But there's nothing as egregious as what went down last night in Miami with respect to their own supposed supporters. It was embarrassing and fantastic, regrettable and glorious all at the same time.

Bravo, Miami. I hope the overpriced drinks and smell of cologne and perfume were all worth missing out on the experience of a lifetime. You are incredible.

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For more on the NBA, catch up with Michael C. Jones on Twitter @MikeJonesTweets