Last night's Wizards game was as fun a game as I've seen at the Verizon Center. The house was packed, the Cleveland frontrunners were duly marginalized, and the Wizards got a semi-meaningful (but badly needed) win.
Because my vitriol for Cleveland frontrunners is severe, I couldn't shut up about it all night. Except that I never considered the company. I was there with a friend, JH, whose loyalties are decidedly fluid. While I deplore the kind of sports fan LeBron James is - he is a Chicago Bulls, New York Yankees, Dallas Cowboys fan - JH would say that successful teams should be rewarded with additional fans.
In this framework, loyal fans who keep supporting losing teams are enablers - complicit in their own misery by not abandoning the teams they love. I have a hard time seeing that, seeing as how I view sports fandom as a grim and desperate battle against the possibility of happiness, but I'm willing to believe that I'm just wrong.
JH, to wit, has an overarchingly difficult set of sports loyalties. I do think that the freedarko attitude is legit - the idea that for some watchers of the game - basketball in this case, but you could say the same for most American sports and for European soccer - the compelling drama has nothing to do with the team name on the jersey, and everything to do with the battle gifted athletic individuals are waging against themselves in an effort to express their personalities through sport. Everything about that freedark perspective is interesting to me, and in the age of free agency, it's hard to think in manichean team-or-nothing terms. There are some guys I just like. Donovan McNabb - I just like the guy. The three guys who formed the core of the 1990 Dutch world cup side - Van Basten, Rijkaard, and Gullit. Chris Paul. Reggie Wayne. The list goes on and on.
So, maybe JH is right. Your team doesn't torture you - they just get boring, and you go with someone else. Nick Hornby alluded to this during the 2002 World Cup - his son not getting that he was supposed to support England, and instead taking an interest i the fates of all the players who played for his favorite club side (Arsenal, right?) There's something cosmpolitan about that. But it also seems like trading your family in, or something.
The other interesting issue JH raised is whether a sport is better when the best team wins or not. He was happy about the Yankees winning the World Series - they were the best team all season, and the playoffs actually, for once, benefitted the best team in the league. This is of course the opposite of the "any given Sunday" ethic of the NFL, or the thrilling fact that soccer is cruel and unfair. I'm totally agnostic about the right answer here, but part of me thinks that if the point of a sport is to be predictable, then...well, I'm not sure there is a point then. That, as the sports bloviators love to say, is why you actually have to play the game: because the better team doesn't always win. Right?
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
19 November 2009
23 November 2008
Re-evaluating my season tickets
Having Wizards season tickets this year is like a bizarre from of punishment. It's excruciating and, of course, self-inflicted.
It's not so much the financial commitment - our beer guy Ron sees to it that I don't have to pay the usual $7 for a draft ale. And we usually eat cheaply beforehand or we save money elsewhere and make a night out of going to games. It's really the time commitment that's driving me nuts. 41 games? I can't imagine what it's like to have basbeall season tickets, where you talking 81 total, and where the games are much longer.
I love having an excuse to go down to the Penn Quarter a couple of times a week. I love going to the library beforehand, or eating a sandwich outside the National Portrait Gallery on an unseasonably warm day, and I even love taking the 42 back to the 'hood after the game is over. But the time commitment is significant. Even when I'm well behaved, I'm out till at least 10, if not later. Then you get home and the mail isn't sorted, the cats aren't fed, you have to change and think about the next day but you're still sort of wound up, and next thing you know, a Tuesday night game is setting you back on Wednesday morning.
And it's especially infuriating with a team this bad. Bad isn't the right word, because they're talented, and this is certainly similar to the team which overperformed last year. So I guess it's not surprising that we're seeing some statistical corrections, but man does it hurt. And there's not much that can be done, unfortunately. Fire Eddie Joran? That won't accomplish much. He's one of the longest-tenured guys in the league, so it would be a "statement," but would it make the team any better? Probably not. Trade someone? Well, anyone we'd want to part with is not going to draw any interest from other teams (that's right, Andray, no one wants your sorry-ass.) So, what's there to do?
I literally groan every time I realize we have a game. It feels ten times worse than being told by your parents to clean your room, because in this case, you've actually signed up to clean your room 41 times between now and April, voluntarily.
We probably weren't going to renew next season anyway, for a number of reasons, but this certainly makes it easier.
It's not so much the financial commitment - our beer guy Ron sees to it that I don't have to pay the usual $7 for a draft ale. And we usually eat cheaply beforehand or we save money elsewhere and make a night out of going to games. It's really the time commitment that's driving me nuts. 41 games? I can't imagine what it's like to have basbeall season tickets, where you talking 81 total, and where the games are much longer.
I love having an excuse to go down to the Penn Quarter a couple of times a week. I love going to the library beforehand, or eating a sandwich outside the National Portrait Gallery on an unseasonably warm day, and I even love taking the 42 back to the 'hood after the game is over. But the time commitment is significant. Even when I'm well behaved, I'm out till at least 10, if not later. Then you get home and the mail isn't sorted, the cats aren't fed, you have to change and think about the next day but you're still sort of wound up, and next thing you know, a Tuesday night game is setting you back on Wednesday morning.
And it's especially infuriating with a team this bad. Bad isn't the right word, because they're talented, and this is certainly similar to the team which overperformed last year. So I guess it's not surprising that we're seeing some statistical corrections, but man does it hurt. And there's not much that can be done, unfortunately. Fire Eddie Joran? That won't accomplish much. He's one of the longest-tenured guys in the league, so it would be a "statement," but would it make the team any better? Probably not. Trade someone? Well, anyone we'd want to part with is not going to draw any interest from other teams (that's right, Andray, no one wants your sorry-ass.) So, what's there to do?
I literally groan every time I realize we have a game. It feels ten times worse than being told by your parents to clean your room, because in this case, you've actually signed up to clean your room 41 times between now and April, voluntarily.
We probably weren't going to renew next season anyway, for a number of reasons, but this certainly makes it easier.
22 October 2008
ready for the men chasing the bouncing orange ball around the hardwood...
Indeed, just one week away from the Wizards' season opener.
There's a pretty insightful take on their prospects this season here, and I certainly don't think the outlook is rosy.
At best, the Wiz can hope to stay slightly below .500 till December, and hopefully finish the season strong and surprise a few people. Many if's - Andray Blatche will need to step up, JaVale McGee will have to have a huge rookie year, Nick Young will need to mature right quick and the big three will need to stay healthy once Gilbert comes back.
But I already look forward to being there and to relishing the occasional improbable win. I still don't believe all the doomsday scenarios for this team - I think they'll be able to compete in the improving East - but I am not without concerns.
One of my favorite moments as a Wizards fan was tivo'ing this game and watching it by myself the next morning, which was December 24th.
And for those who prefer their Washington hoops old-school:
There's a pretty insightful take on their prospects this season here, and I certainly don't think the outlook is rosy.
At best, the Wiz can hope to stay slightly below .500 till December, and hopefully finish the season strong and surprise a few people. Many if's - Andray Blatche will need to step up, JaVale McGee will have to have a huge rookie year, Nick Young will need to mature right quick and the big three will need to stay healthy once Gilbert comes back.
But I already look forward to being there and to relishing the occasional improbable win. I still don't believe all the doomsday scenarios for this team - I think they'll be able to compete in the improving East - but I am not without concerns.
One of my favorite moments as a Wizards fan was tivo'ing this game and watching it by myself the next morning, which was December 24th.
And for those who prefer their Washington hoops old-school:
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