The Fickleness of my Sports fandom

“You love the Red Sox, but have they ever loved you back?” – Fever Pitch

 

I never believed in being loyal to a sports franchise, just because it is a local team. My belief is that you should be loyal to a franchise as far as it is loyal to its fans. I’ve been a Yankee fan for as long as I’ve understood sports. Yes, they’re the Yankees, of the 200 million dollar payroll. Yes, I grew in Queens, New York, where the Mets play. But the Yankees always ensure that they have a good product on the field. They utilize the uncapped nature of the baseball financial system and make sure that the team is worth rooting for. The Dallas Cowboys, despite an erratic history of success since I’ve been alive are another team I root for solidly. They continue to try to win every year.  They also do a great job of catering to the fans.

 

The Knicks are on the other side of the equation. On my 13th birthday they traded my favorite player on the team, Marcus Camby to the Denver Nuggets. That was the beginning of the end of rooting for the Knicks. It wasn’t a crazy trade at the time. They brought back Antonio McDyess, who at the time was a star player who put up better numbers than Camby. Camby was also injured, and spent a large portion of the first Nuggets season hurt. Of course, Camby went on to lead the league in blocks for years and won a Defensive Player of the Year award, and McDyess went on to be terrible for the Knicks and better for other teams. The Knicks also have a terrible owner in Dolan, and have had all types of off the court issues. Why should I ever be loyal to that organization?

 

Sports loyalty can be like dating or like marriage. As long as your honest about what your loyalty level is, I’m not going to judge. My basketball rooting interests have nothing to do with loyalty, and more to do with interesting storylines (See ‘08-‘09 Rockets). Will T-Mac get to play in the second round? Will Ron Artest ever recieve redemption? Will Shane Battier get the respect he deserves? Those are the types of things that make sports great. It also means that when teams make boneheaded decisions, I can leave at will with no hard feelings. When the other option is remaining loyal to a poorly run organization, its much better than simply rooting for the laundry.