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<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>by Samr</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>
SpursCentral.com<br>
January 1, 2004<br>
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Two hard dribbles, a backspin of the ball to simulate a pass. Taylor catches the ball around the top of his driveway key and begins his drive to the hoop, swerving around invisible opponents. He counts to himself: "3....2...." Taylor stops a few feet shy if the basket and a little to the right. "....1...." Taylor cocks his wrist, fades back, and lets it fly. "...BBZZZ!!!" He watches helplessly as the ball bounces around the rim, glancing off the backboard, and drops perfectly in. "He shoots! He scores!!! The Chicago Bulls have won the championship!!!!"<br>
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Taylor is one of thousands of young basketball fans who, realizing that their goal of playing for the home town team is aiming just a bit too high, reenact the closing seconds of a game time and time again on driveways, blacktops, playgrounds, and gyms all across the country. The feeling of winning the game, even if it is played on a mental screen only you can see, is empowering. Thanks to modern technology, such as television, radio, and the internet, one no longer has to use his imagination quite as much in the closing seconds. Turning to the local station to watch your team play, or tuning into ESPN to follow their game of the week creates just as much excitement, as many emotional highs and lows, as kids such as Taylor would ever experience playing their level of competitive basketball.<br>
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But the question still remains, why do we follow sports? Why to we, as a people, devote so much time, effort, and money into something that, ultimately, gives us no tangible rewards? Why do we go running for autographs of our favorite athlete? Why do claim the team as a part of us, and use the term “we” when referring to the team? And why do we, the true fans, live and die with our team?<br>
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The first aspect of this complicated answer lies somewhere in our basic psyche. Everyone craves to be something more than what they are. When you are a kid, you want to be bigger. When you are a teenager, you want to be free of your parents. When you are an adult, you want to be a kid again. No one becomes truly satisfied with what or who they are. To compensate for this, they adopt a personality. They adopt a lifestyle and claim it as their own.<br>
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Parents will often live vicariously through their kids-- buying them all the sporting equipment they need, going to all their games, and, often times, over-doing it. They know they can’t be what their kids are. They want to be younger; they want to have the potential to be great. They want to have the relative freedom that their kids have, and they want to be obligated to having fun. <br>
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The same can be said of fans. For the average, middle aged, slightly balding Joe sitting on his couch watching an NBA game, he has no hopes of ever playing professional basketball. But he yearns for what he isn’t. He yearns for that kind of lifestyle. He craves being able to have anything he wants, only being tied to a game he loves. Watching Lebron James come out of high school and into a lucrative shoe contract, then an NBA career gave hope to young people across the nation. It showed them that such a large leap was possible, and that such a lifestyle was attainable. While what Lebron did was nothing short of a miracle, and not a path that others should bank on following, it did give hope, and it brought fantasy life of the NBA down to a much more real level. <br>
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The second aspect is that of ownership and pride. I will often catch myself saying that “If the Spurs can force the Suns to play their tempo, we will win.” After Derek Fisher’s (in)famous .4 second shot, I walked out of the arena to watch a Spurs and Lakers fan get into a fist fight over the game. The cops were immediately summoned, but everyone watching the fight would have loved for the chance to beat that Lakers fan to the ground. The hatred I still harbor for Derek Fisher is as powerful as it is real. It is also not that uncommon. Red Sox fans would have liked to get a piece, any piece of Bill Buckner. And no one can blame them. The theory behind Buckner’s missed catch and the related curse on the team is just as unrealistic as the conspiracy theory on Derek Fisher’s shot. But Boston fans will swear by it, just as I will swear by the conspiracy behind Fisher. <br>
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The reality of the situation goes back to pride. Everyone wants something to take pride in. There are few greater feelings in the world than being able to say “I am better than you” and have it be undisputed. The final score of a game is solid, and eventually historical proof that, on the given night, one team is indisputably better than the other. People follow a team so that they can experience the emotional highs that go along with winning. So that they can say that they are better than some other populace. To claim ownership of something only ups the ante. Fans risk the pains of losing so that they may be able to experience the joys of winning. They plan their days around games, the cancel family events to attend ones in person, and they follow whatever superstitions they deem necessary to guarantee their team a victory. They, the fans, feel that they’ve earned every right to claim a piece of the team as their own. They’ve dedicated just as much time following them as the players have dedicated to winning.<br>
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The third, and final, aspect is that of drama. Everyone loves a good sitcom. Everyone wants to be entertained. Watching a racecar crash, watching destruction, is one of the most primal forms of entertainment. Watching a train wreck is sad, but it is also strangely appealing. Mark Cuban was right on target when he said that Kobe’s court case would be good for the NBA. Although it was not his place, being an NBA owner, to say such a thing, it was very truthful. Watching the breakup of the Lakers brings in fans. For those fans who are loosely following basketball, and are sitting on the fence about investing the before mentioned time, effort, and money into it, is draws them in. Without the sexual assault case, there wouldn’t be as large an audience or quite as big a market for the L.A. games. Without the breakup of the Lakers dynasty, there would be no national audience interested in the Lakers/Heat games. Without the Malice at the Palace (brawl in Detroit), the Pistons/Pacers rivalry would not have been as heated, nor nearly as watched. And without the last two circumstances listed, Christmas day would have been nothing more than Christmas. Fans love a train wreck. They love drama. And they love watching a good guy fight a bad guy.<br>
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What professional sports bring to society cannot be measured. The love for them cannot even be clearly defined. What is clear, however, is that they are a multi billion dollar industry. There is no solid reason for this. There is no one correct theory. But as for me, well, I’m just doing my best to point a finger in the general direction. <br>
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