LOS ANGELES – The arena scoreboard displayed one of this city’s biggest stars.

That moment should have prompted legions of fans to welcome Clippers newcomer Kawhi Leonard as he attended a recent NFL game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Rams. Instead, he was booed.

“I didn’t really notice it at first. I thought it was just Buccaneers fans,” Leonard told USA TODAY Sports. “There were a lot of Buccaneers fans.”

There were a lot of Lakers fans, too. Since the vast majority of fans here root for the Lakers, they welcomed Leonard with jeers instead of cheers. Not only did those fans become upset at Leonard for declining the Lakers’ free-agent pitches last summer, they expressed displeasure that Leonard left the reigning NBA champion Toronto Raptors for the Clippers instead.

“It’s not new to me. It’s like second nature,” said Leonard, who professed to be a Clippers fan as a child living in Moreno Valley. “I grew up in a household full of Lakers fans.”

Leonard plans to host a handful of family members for every Clippers game. That begins with the season opener Tuesday against the Lakers at Staples Center (10:30 p.m. ET, TNT) .

While Staples Center probably will be a boo-free zone, away from the arena the Clippers are used to hearing taunts. Perhaps that heightens with the Lakers and Clippers considered NBA championship contenders. That might depend on how the Lakers and Clippers fare in a possible playoff matchup.

“Every time I post something on Instagram, I get a comment saying “‘Lakers in 4!’” Clippers center JaMychal Green said. “Sometimes I go back and forth with them. But the majority of the time, I just delete the comments. I don’t want to deal with them.”

And why would they? As Lakers coach Frank Vogel said, “the Lakers fanbase is like a religion around here.”

Two different Hollywood stories

The Lakers have built a global following for three reasons: they won a combined 16 NBA championships; they brought in the “Showtime Era” - an exciting run-and-gun style; they became a destination for superstars, including Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Gail Goodrich, Elgin Baylor, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

The Clippers do not have the same championship equity.

They once became a laughingstock because embattled owner Donald Sterling remained more obsessed with his profit margins than hiring and retaining quality coaches and players. Their fortunes changed when they drafted Blake Griffin at No. 1 in the 2010 draft and then when they acquired Chris Paul from New Orleans in 2011 after the NBA rejected the original deal to the Lakers. When the NBA removed Sterling as owner in 2014 for making racist comments on a leaked audio tape, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer eventually bought the team. While the Lakers missed six consecutive playoff appearances, though, the Clippers failed to advance past the second round.

Story continues below video:

This season could be very different. The Lakers and Clippers might have actual bragging rights at stake.

While the Lakers have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Clippers have two stars that rejected the Lakers. Along with Leonard, the Clippers acquired Paul George from Oklahoma City a year after he rejected the Lakers’ free-agent pitches. Paul, who grew up in nearby Palmdale, received boos last season when the Thunder played the Lakers in Los Angeles.

“You want to prove you’re the better team in the city,” said Clippers center Ivica Zubac, who played with the Lakers from 2016 to 2018. “We would always get instructions from the front office and coaches: ‘Please beat the Clippers; we don’t like them.’ That’s how it used to be. Now it’s the other way around.”

Said Lakers forward Avery Bradley, who played for the Clippers last season: “There’s nothing better than having a rivalry in the same city. With the teams they’ve been able to put together, I think it’s great for the city and for the fans. It’s going to be great for us to go out there and compete against them. It's some of the best players in the NBA.”

Still, the Lakers and Clippers stress they are making little of this story line.As Bradley said, “the goal is to win a championship, not worry about the Clippers.”

That will not stop Lakers fans from trolling the Clippers. They booed Paul when he threw out a first pitch at Dodger Stadium in the 2013-14 season. They jeered George last month when he attended a Bellator mixed martial arts event at the Forum. Guard Jerome Robinson recalled a Lakers fan booed him after learning he played for the Clippers when the two crossed paths at his apartment complex.

“It happens all the time,” Clippers guard Terance Mann said, with a laugh. “People say they’re kind of mean and all that. But they’re not that mean. They just say a few things about LeBron and stuff like that.”

'Hype is building'

When coach Doc Rivers arrived with the Clippers in 2014, he met conflicted responses. He had coached the hated Boston Celtics, which included splitting an NBA Finals with the Lakers (2008, 2010). So Rivers said that Lakers fans often greeted him differently.

Some said, “it’s tough to like you; you’re from Boston.” Others expressed appreciation Rivers at least left the Celtics. Others confessed to Rivers, “I’m a Lakers fan, but I’m from L.A. and respect the Clippers.”

They become relatively more friendly toward Zubac, whom the Lakers dealt before last season’s trade deadline for Mike Muscala. So after Lakers fans take a picture with Zubac, he said they often lament, “I wish they never traded you.” Zubac added others have conceded, “you’re the first Clipper player that I like.”

Clippers players say most of the interactions take place on social media. As guard Lou Williams mused, "nobody has the heart to walk up to me and say some of the things that they say online.”

“It's exciting for the fans; for us it's just another game,” said Williams, who also played for the Lakers from 2015 to 2017. “Obviously the hype is building up and it's all of this hoopla about this game. But it's just opening night for both teams. I don't think either team will put extra emphasis on it.”

Follow USA TODAY NBA writer Mark Medina on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.