You’re yelling, you’re throwing fist pumps left and right, and you couldn’t be more excited. The Golden State Warriors have beaten the Memphis Grizzlies in their last game of the regular season and have attained the best ever regular season record in NBA history. What a year it has been, to watch a young a talented California team, led by God-driven sharpshooter Stephen Curry, ascend to basketball greatness.
You’ve got your number 30 jersey on, and as you strut around the living room, your roommate, who literally gets sick every time he sees Curry turn and trot down the court before the impossible 3-pointer he just put up even falls in, mutters something under his breath. “Oh I’m sorry, did the pouter wish to say something?” As you turn and kneel down to your overly emotional comrade, he looks up at you and repeats himself. “You hopped on the bandwagon just like everyone else”.
Taken aback, you begin to defend yourself with facts about supporting players on the team, and give recounts of games of seasons past, in hopes that you can convince him that you’re more than just a fair weather fan. Why? Why do you have to defend your fandom, your appreciation of a good team, to the guy who’s been a Utah Jazz fan since he was “in diapers”? Well, you don’t.
No matter what sport you watch or choose to engage yourself in, there’s going to be controversy. There will be a disagreement about a bad call, there will be a war of words over a certain player getting traded. You even might even have a falling out with your best buds because of what a radio personality may or may not have said about a specific player or performance.
One aspect that will always be apart of being an avid follower of professional sports, is that no matter who you decide to root for, there will always be that one individual, that piercing thorn in your side, that will always question your loyalties about the team you choose to follow.
We all know this person. When everyone is watching the game, they’re sitting in the back, watching you with a ghoulish little smirk on their face. As you cheer on Klay Thompson’s 20 point run in the 3rd quarter, they’re silently judging you, while remembering the video they watched of Tim Hardaway on YouTube when he played for Golden State. While you stand up and emulate Cam Newton’s dab in the end zone, they watch you silently in your Carolina Panthers jersey.
They’re waiting for you to say something remotely over the top about your favorite player or team, so that they can stand up and make it known to everyone how 3 months ago you couldn’t name five players on the team, and how last year your favorite team was on the other side of the country. Yeah, that’s what they want to do. They want to put you in your place because in the sporting world you’re what’s known as a bandwagon fan. There’s a hot team on top right now, and their star player is at the tip of everyone’s tongue, including yours.
You’ve got a team t-shirt, a sporty hat with their logo on it, and you might even have an authentic jersey that you bought online. However, you purchased all of that within the last 3 months, therefore, it doesn’t count. According to them, you can’t like the team with the best record in the NHL because the team you were cheering for last year is struggling. Where were you when Golden State was barely an afterthought? Were you rooting for Cam and the Panthers before their amazing run to the Super Bowl? Didn’t think so. Yeah, they really put you in your place you filthy bandwagon fan you.
You see, what the “diehard fans” don’t understand, is that it doesn’t actually matter how long you’ve been cheering for a particular team or player. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been cheering for the Cleveland Cavaliers for 4 years or their last 4 games. There is no rule on what qualifies you to be a fan of a certain team.
By definition, a fan is a person who has a strong interest in or admiration for a particular person or thing. Therefore, if you like watching the Dallas Stars play, you’re a Dallas Stars fan. If last year Kevin Durant was your guy, and now you’re all about Kyrie Irving, congratulations, you are now a Kyrie Irving fan. Don’t worry, there’s no requirements, just start cheering. What “true fans” fail to realize is that nobody cares that you’ve been a Milwaukee Bucks fan since you were in 8th grade, even during their drought. Pat yourself on the back because you’ve been supporting a losing team for quite some time now, and while you think that your loyalty makes you that much better than the brand new Toronto Raptors fans emerging during this year’s NBA playoffs, it doesn’t.
It simply means you like watching games that aren’t broadcasted on primetime television. So to all of you “real fans” that have been down with your team since “day one”, give yourself a round of applause. I’m sure the players on that team will mention your name during the award ceremony, you know when they thank the fans as the collective of people who supported them, regardless of what episode they came in on.
It’s alright, we the group of people who watch sports for fun and cheer for whoever we want to, understand. You’ve been a fan since before they were winning, so before you begin to list off all of the stats, facts, and favorite foods of the players on the team that you found on Wikipedia (God bless the internet), remember that it’s just a game.
P.S. It’s not like I like the Golden State Warriors or anything, they’re just, you know, relevant.
