Nothing wrong with being a fan of a player.I take back everything i ever said.

[Im so nba'd out]

When you think about it its kind of weird being loyal to a piece of cloth aka a jersey If you are not from the same state.If i am a knicks fan and i live in Cowtown, Kentucky thats weird.Just because your parents rooted for teams don't mean you have to thats what makes our generation so great.We think outside the box.So if you want to be a lebron fan fk everyone else just please dont claim your a cavs fan because thats what makes everyone mad.Don't have the cavs logo as your avatar just have lebron.

[GreatHILL]

too bad a fan of player cant understan or feel the passion of a fan that loves his team

[Im so nba'd out]

too bad a fan of player cant understan or feel the passion of a fan that loves his team
Pretty sure its the same i was a fan of mike vick @ one point I wanted him to win just as bad as i wanted the sixers to win

[JohnMax]

most cities dont have nba team and the nba lacks parity. there are only a few teams that are title contenders.

[GimmeThat]

well, there's nothing wrong with it.

I just don't know if you'll really ever get to learn about basketball that way.



which, I also believe there's nothing wrong with being a fan of a player outside of basketball reasons.

they are elite stars who are public figures after all.

[LBJFTW]

Wait, so a guy that lives in say Europe or in Texas that is a fan of LeBron James who use to wear a Heat jersey but is now wearing a Cavs jersey has the same say as a born and raised Clevelander, enduring the shitty city of Cleveland who is a fan and spent their hard earned money actually buying tickets and going to games? :lol :lol :lol

Anyone can sit in a place like sunny orange county California pool side with their laptop and claim to be a fan of Lebron James......what exactly are they contributing?

There's a pecking order to this shit and it's time people started respecting it. Simply put, some fans opinions have more weight and value than other fans depending on who they are a fan of, for how long, and where they reside.

[Sakkreth]

Die hard fan of my city team, which happens to be legendary euroleague team (currently typing from it's home arena). I don't care what players play for it I always root for it, there is no way I'll stop rooting cause of roster change or something silly like that.

But when it comes to nba it's not that easy to decide which team to support if you have no connection to any of them whatsoever. But you are still basketball fan who is interested in the league of top level play. And when you watch it, you automatically root for one team or another. There is no home team, you root for a team because you like it's players better than the other team's or because of other reasons such as a team being underdogs, small market, prideful history(even in this case non locals cheer for the team because of it's past stars, eg rooting for today's bulls because of Jordan) etc. So you might say that it's not necessary to root for players, but it's possible to pick team chosen on other criteria which I mentioned before. But let's say you choose to root for the team because they are small market, underdogs, and you like their legend that played in the past. To make it more understandable let's say that team is bucks, and player is The Big O. So how long it will keep your interest to follow this team and act like a true fan when there are other small market teams and underdogs in the league, and you don't even like current organisation and it's players, Big O doesn't play today. So it's normal for non local fan to have multiple teams that he supports on similar level and to do not have clear favorite. It's a mixture of things why you like one or another team, and one of the biggest reasons for rooting for exact team like it or not is it's current players.

My own reasoning for rooting for different nba teams mostly consists of players too, that being first of all Lithuanian players. I also like teams that didn't had too much success in their history but have good, passionate fanbase preferably small market too.

So let's see which exact teams I root for and reasoning behind it. Let's start with Toronto Raptors. Lots of international players and most importantly Lithuanian connection, Rautins, Lithuanian players used to be Kleiza, currently JV. Passionate fanbase despite poor history of the team, and the only non american team. On top of that current roster is cool guys who give their best and is a real team, makes it easy to continue rooting for them hard. Now about Cavaliers, I rooted for them pre LeBron era when Big Z played there, and yes it's mainly because of him, but organisation never dumped him when they could of because of his injuries and believed in him, so even though it was hard times it's organisation that was loyal and deserved respect. Then they drafted LeBron, and he turned cavs into winning team while being a great friend of Big Z. He was also spectacular to watch. Under such circumstances how I couldn't like him ? Ofcourse I didn't like that the player that I like left organisation that I like, well atleast he took Big Z with himself to give him a chance at a ring. Was hard to follow cavs as much as I used to when both most liked players on the roster left the same year. I still liked cavs, just not as much. Never liked Miami as a team, the first year of big three still rooted for them quite hard, wanted Big Z to retire with a ring and LeBron win one at the same time. In 2012 it was just LeBron, friend of Big Z. I started to hate LeBron's decision(not himself) more and more. Obviously now that LeBron is back, back to the organisation which Big Z is a part of, organisation that is respectful and loyal, and on top of that has exciting roster (fan of Kyrie too) and future it's hard not to root for them. And I don't see a reason why I shouldn't. I like to root for some other teams too, just not as much, such as Portland, because of Sabonis and the fact that they are damn unlucky with injuries. Also used to like Roy a lot, but yeah injuries and Portland...

So yes, all in all I root for some of the nba teams, and level of my liking of them might change slightly overtime. It's never gonna be like "LeBron joined Houston so I am Houston fan now only because of that".But roster changes can, should and will swing in favor of liking some teams more or less especially for non local fans.

[hahaitme]

Jordan has more fans than any other NBA player in the world, but you'd have to guess what 5-10% of them are from actually from Chicago?

Don't know why being a fan of a player only started becoming an issue since Kobe & LeBron. Might have been the internet I guess, but I really don't see a problem with it.

[GimmeThat]

Jordan has more fans than any other NBA player in the world, but you'd have to guess what 5-10% of them are from actually from Chicago?

Don't know why being a fan of a player only started becoming an issue since Kobe & LeBron. Might have been the internet I guess, but I really don't see a problem with it.

right, I guess you can learn all about the iso moves and the highlights.
and think that his team didn't win rings, it was Jordan himself that did it.

but of course, we can agree to disagree they simply gave the team the benefit of the doubt, since you can't remove the team logo when you purchase a player's jersey.

[I<3NBA]

i never really understood this whole "there is only one right way of being a fan" shtick. people who try to impose their own views on others are *****.

[LBJ 23]

Jordan has more fans than any other NBA player in the world, but you'd have to guess what 5-10% of them are from actually from Chicago?

Don't know why being a fan of a player only started becoming an issue since Kobe & LeBron. Might have been the internet I guess, but I really don't see a problem with it.


Yea it's mostly because of Kobe fans propaganda. They know that Kobe compared to Jordan as a player falls short, they know that Kobe compared to Lebron as a player falls short, so they have to come up with new standards like changing teams makes you less of a player, losing in the Finals makes you less of a player, saying stupid things to the media makes you a worse player etc...

[jrong]

When you think about it its kind of weird being loyal to a piece of cloth aka a jersey If you are not from the same state.If i am a knicks fan and i live in Cowtown, Kentucky thats weird.Just because your parents rooted for teams don't mean you have to thats what makes our generation so great.We think outside the box.So if you want to be a lebron fan fk everyone else just please dont claim your a cavs fan because thats what makes everyone mad.Don't have the cavs logo as your avatar just have lebron.

Not only that, but players are all hired guns who, for the most part, aren't from the cities of their teams.

I could understand the whole team fans rule/ player fans suck mentality if players had to play for their home team.

If you're from Chicago, and the Bulls had all homegrown players, and you're still a player fan of somebody from another team over your team, then yes, you suck.

But, that's not how it works. Certain players become identified with with a team for portions of their career. So, when those players leave, it's not the same team anymore, and it's natural to transfer allegiances.

If you wanna blame somebody for it, blame the NBA and corporate sponsors for marketing individuals instead of teams.

[OnFire]

Nothing wrong with being a fan of a player but its just your thing.

I can be interested and follow players, root for them even. But, if I don't have a team I can't be as interested in the sport. I won't support a loser owner and front office if they refuse to try though. I won't root for Marlins and never would root for 76ers. If Marlins sold to new owner i might.

To lead up to world cup i started following the Ft Lauderdale Strikers and Tampa Bay Rowdies of the NASL just to have some kind of rooting interest in the sport i was trying to learn at the time :)

[GimmeThat]

Nothing wrong with being a fan of a player but its just your thing.

I can be interested and follow players, root for them even. But, if I don't have a team I can't be as interested in the sport. I won't support a loser owner and front office if they refuse to try though. I won't root for Marlins and never would root for 76ers. If Marlins sold to new owner i might.

To lead up to world cup i started following the Ft Lauderdale Strikers and Tampa Bay Rowdies of the NASL just to have some kind of rooting interest in the sport i was trying to learn at the time :)

I know,

but can you understand the burden and the pressure of being called a traitor once you get to learn more about other teams and find other teams having a philosophy that aligns with you more?

[Sakkreth]

So everyone agrees on that seems like. What about rooting for a team for multiple reasons and one of the main reasons being ur favorite player playing for that team?

[Im so nba'd out]

I was a falcons fan til Vick went to jail and i wanted him to win just as bad as the 76ers.So anyone who think fans of players are not as passionate as team fans are crazy.When LeBron loses in the finals hurts just as bad to lbj fans as Portland fans felt losing in the playoffs