The Drama

My best friend is a season ticket holder for our local big college women’s basketball team. He bought the tickets so he could take his niece to basketball games, the idea there being that he gets to spend quality time with his family, that the seats are cheap, that it’s a real sporting event, he loves basketball, and that his niece is going to be super tall!

Yesterday Avie and I were having dinner with him and I asked how his team were doing. They play in a very tough division and college sports in the USA is weird because you can’t just buy your way to a winning team, you have to recruit players to come to your program. But over the last two years, the local team has put together a competitive side and my friend thinks that they are on the verge of having a pretty good season. By which I mean, maybe win one or two games against big opponents.

And the signs are there. They have lost two very close games in a row against much better teams. And despite the lowered expectations that both carry for this team, it’s still somewhat of a letdown when you get right to the edge of doing something special and come up short. And he overheard his niece complaining about just that: how if they had just gotten a few more defensive rebounds, they might have won that game.

I laughed, “She’s become a real fan. I mean, are we even fans if we aren’t upset at our team?”

I know it’s popular among some supporters to say “supporters should support!” But the banality of such a sentiment is odd to me. Should we just blithely open our wallets and pour money into a team that’s struggling, all while wearing a giant smile and pretending that things aren’t bad? Like Baghdad Bob,”there are no bombs falling in Iraq”.

I remember basically being told to do exactly that toward the end of Unai Emery’s tenure. I was told that if I was a real supporter I would support Unai Emery’s football. That the real problem was that he and the team weren’t getting enough support.

This is such an obvious argument that I feel ridiculous even making it. But I think being a fan requires heartbreak. You have to be angry sometimes. Of course you don’t just want to spout bile all the time but neither is it realistic to be insanely positive. And I seriously doubt if the super positive supporters are actually 100% positive. They seem to direct most of their ire out toward other fans but I’d be willing to bet that in private they have their moments of anger and frustration with the club. If not, then they must be the Stepford Wives of supporters.

Sure, there will be people who are overly critical (and they may even have an agenda) or people who are overly positive (and they may even have an agenda) but for the vast majority of us, we love the huge range of emotions that football – any sport really – provokes. From the crystalline anger and frustration of Obafemi Martins winning the League Cup to the pure elation of Aaron Ramsey scoring the winner in the FA Cup Final we are all here for the drama of the game.

Qq

15 comments

  1. A qualifier to fans– on being angry at times (players, mistakes, tactics). Find it useful to watch a match twice or more. Usually allowing to see things more positively (OK– except #20. Everyone has their hot-button). Viewing it less-emotionally charged as when live. How players and managers/coaches make judgements, give ratings.

    Highlights are like clickbait IMO. No run-up or build-up context given. Watching two or multiple times. Something I’ve done since VCRs. Confirming what you saw– correcting otherwise, or being surprised by things you’ve missed.

    May– or may not help with anger– but know ‘the why’ part.

    1. Completely agree. Difficult for some folks to carve out 4 hours to watch a match but kudos to those who do.

  2. Kobe Bryant, man 😪 Whether you like basketball or not, pause a moment to remember and appreciate a truly exceptional baller.

    1. As a Rockets fan:
      Probably will— always despise Kobe’s Lakers.
      As an NBA fan:
      Never will— it ever be personal.

      Bless his children now.
      RIP #24

      1. Did a little bit of looking. Found the flight plan. 12-seat Sikorsky S-76B.
        A 25 min flight from Irvine north to Malibu-area. Appears to have circled for a few minutes over Pasadena. Landed maybe? Took on additional passengers? Some reports 4 passengers, some said 9 aboard.
        https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/article239662703.html
        Fog and low visibility in the area of the crash site at 10am.

        Live video of the coverage with wide-area shots of the terrain (helicopter or drone).
        https://www.ksby.com/news/national/plane-crash-reported-in-calabasas-california
        Looks like the pilot brought it to ground quickly. If it had slid on impact much further it was going over into a steep ravine.

        The location of the crash is almost a mile by trail on steep terrain– from closest roadway access.
        Matched that up with Google Maps terrain-wise. If you follow due east from the red map pin– to the point where there is ‘Y’ shape in the crest of the ridge– that’s the area.
        https://www.google.com/maps/place/Las+Virgenes+Rd+%26+Willow+Glen+St,+Calabasas,+CA+91302/@34.1365855,-118.6986678,1481m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x80e820ea001e48c1:0xff65259c569c50d3!8m2!3d34.1364612!4d-118.7022405

        Hope this comes across as factual curiosity as opposed to the morbid type.

    2. Not to pick a fight with Claude you but Kobe’s been retired for a while now.
      I feel more sad for his young daughter who had her entire life ahead of her and now it’s over.

      I understand why very successful and busy people of business commute in these death traps( I flew a handful of times and would never bring my kids on board).
      And yes, I’m aware of car death statistics but still……..

      1. Yeah, I’d be willing to bet helicopter/small plane stats are much worse per amount of time spent travelling.
        But in any case RIP Kobe. Having grown up in LA in the Kareem/Magic years, I I never really caught on with later Lakers teams. But by all accounts, after some initial stumbles, he turned into a pretty upstanding guy in addition to a great player.

    3. Terrible news. He was a scoring machine and had an amazing will to win. Watched him evolve from being an arrogant kid to a more humble family man. Just last week a news channel was showing clips of his daughter playing basketball for her school and tearing it up. Such a tragedy. Hard to accept.

  3. I love this blog site. I just found it recently. There are so many knowledgeable posters. It’s very enjoyable to read Tim’s pieces and all the comments.

    About being a fan. I believe a fan first foremost cheers for his/her team. It’s the love for your team that defines whether you are a fan or not. If one only sees the flaws in the team, I have a hard time considering the person a fan. So I believe it isn’t a problem a fan should feel frustrated at the shortcomings of his/her team, and show the frustration. But the feeling should be communicated through constructive criticism, fact based opinions, never personal attack. Not saying anybody here did that. It’s just a general comment. Show your love to the team you support is the only way to demonstrate your being a fan. Just my 2 cents.

    By the way, I am a Jayhawk, and a Arsenal fan since Julie Fleeting was a gunner.

  4. I can’t remember who, but a commenter on here the other day was asking if anyone knew what was up with A Cultured Left Foot, as Yogi’s Warrior hadn’t posted anything since late December. I’ve just read on Le Grove that sadly it seems Yogi’s Warrior passed 3 weeks ago, which seems like it’s our second Arsenal blogosphere loss in a short time following the passing of Goonerholic.

    ACLF was the first Arsenal blog that I started reading over a decade ago, starting the process by which I’d waste a good amount of my morning (or afternoon in your case Tim, as I live in the UK and your posts always arrive just on time to kill the last hour or so of time in the office!) clicking straight through to my favourites without having to rely on Newsnow for the heads up. I don’t know any details, or much about Yogi’s Warrior apart from the fact he had a wife and two teenage (or thereabouts) sons, but he always came across as a thoroughly decent person, honest, fair, and put out posts of the highest standard day in, day out, for 14 years.

    RIP YW, you will be sorely missed.

    1. Thank you for this information Jabberwocky. I knew both Gooneraholic and YW were not well. It’s very sad to have lost them both and then hear yesterday of the loss of Kobe Bryant and daughter as well. Sad times.

      Over at Gunners Town, JH has leaked we’re in for Pablo Mari. Don’t know much about the player other than he was at City. Mikel obviously knows him and thinks he can do a job. Heard he doesn’t have much pace and that’s the one thing we actually need. An athletic defender in the mould of Toure, Campbell.

  5. With regard fandom, the big difference is the internet. Fans have always been critical of certain players, or even the team as a whole. I remember as a kid standing on the North Bank and my ears would literally be burning from the abuse coming down the terraces. It was almost part and parcel of being a supporter. For years I sat next to a guy, who couldn’t stand Sylvain Wiltord. “Couldn’t trap a bag of cement”. Moaned about him continually. In some ways, it was obviously a release from the various frustrations during the week. Therapy.

    The thing was after the match, you go down the pub and discuss the game, go home and forget about it. The idea that you can sit with an iPad on your lap and spout forth to other fans from all other parts of the world at 3 am, would have seemed mad at the time. In some respects, it probably still is.

    Even if you’re being critical, often unfairly so, they’re still your team. That bit you can’t control. They may be idiots, but they’re our idiots.

  6. I’m also really sad to hear about YWs demise. Didn’t know him but I somehow knew the man after reading his post for 7 years and felt very strongly upon hearing about his passing away.

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