Sunday, February 1, 2009

Blackout in Seattle

I've never understood how people can root for a team that they have no emotional connection to. For example, when living in Montreal, I met tons of people who were "die hard" fans of random teams. These "fans" try to come off as hardcore when really they are just loyal bandwagoners. How can you legitimately be an Indianapolis Colts fan if you have never been to the Midwest, let alone Indiana?

Now, I don't watch baseball (except in the playoffs. I'm only human). I'm not one of those "baseball is boring" guys. In fact, it used to be that, after basketball, baseball was my sport. Then Major League Baseball broke my heart.

I was a Montreal Expos fan. People outside of Montreal like to blame the fans for their move to Washington. I don't really want to get into why that is totally offensive and makes me want to cry, but it is what it is.

Bill Simmons has a great column about rules for being a sports fan in which he says that if your team moves away, you are known as a sports widow. But while I am bitter about the Expos leaving, that isn't the reason I don't follow them. It's just tough to watch for me to watch a sport without being invested in a team.

So today, in the battle for Blake Griffin, don't expect to see any high ratings in the Seattle region. And that is what the NBA and other leagues don't understand. Not only are the Sonics fans not going to root for the "Thunder," they aren't going to watch any basketball. Basketball, until another team goes there, is dead in the Northeast. With the Grizzlies and the Sonics gone, why would anyone want to watch the sport?

4 comments:

  1. *northwest

    still love you mang. keep up the good work!

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  2. See, the Sonics leave and I forget the name of a whole region of the US. Don't blame me. Blame Clay Bennett.

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  3. I'm sorry, but this post is just dumb. Saying you can't like a team that you've never lived near is like saying you can't like Starbucks because you don't live in Seattle.

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  4. I didn't say that. I said you need an emotional connection to a team. And the most common reason for that would be geographic location. By not having a team north of Portland, you alienate a lot of people. Try arbitrarily rooting for a team. It's pretty damn hard.

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