Finally, LeBronapaloosa is over. After weeks of speculation, reports, Twitter blurbs, hand wringing, and a shameful 1 hour special, Mr. James is going to Miami to play with D. Wade and Chris Bosh. Good for him. Now we can let ESPN swing from Bret Favre’s nuts while he decided whether to play or not. But that’s another blog for someone else to write… Shortly after the announcement my brother shot me a text:
“So you gonna root for Miami again?”
The quick answer was ‘Not because of James, no’. But it did get me to thinking. At some point I was a pretty big Heat fan, and a lot of my people knew it. I could go back to rooting for the Heat, but that would look a lot like front running, which I can’t stand. Trying to go back to a team I stopped caring about (as much) would be hard to do. The problem is, I haven’t had a team to call my own in a while. This really got me thinking about the teams I rooted for in the past, why I stopped rooting for them, and where I could possibly go from here.
The sad truth is, I seem to be a fan that roots more for a particular player than for a particular team, with one exception that ties everything together (except one team, anyway). Once said player went to his team I pretty much was a staunch supporter of said team. But, when that run was over, so was my fandom. While I still check for them in the standings and hope they do well (mostly), I can’t in good faith call myself a fan anymore. So I decided to have a good long look at the players and teams I was once a fan of, starting in chronological order. Looking back, there were some fantastic times and some painful memories that make me want to kick my monitor thru the wall. This should be fun…
Now, before die hard sports fans start calling me out, please understand: the ‘home team’ for me is the Washington Bullets / Wizards. With all due respect to my man Chris Whitney (holla at me man!), there hasn’t been anything to really cheer about for the last 35 years. Blah blah blah Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, blah blah blah, Jordan, blah blah blah Gilbert, Jamison, Buther, blah blah blah. The truth of the matter is as long as I have been alive they have been LA Clipper level bad at worst, overachievers at best, and pretty much a non factor in the grand scheme of the NBA at the core. Other than saying they’re from my hometown there’s absolutely no reason for me to ever root or care about them. I will make no apologies for this. Even if they do get good I still don’t see me converting and rooting for them (though I wish them and John Wall the best). In the end, if they make it to the second round of the playoffs, that’s as good as they will ever be until something drastic happens to the Eastern Conference. End of story.
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