NBA and Fanaticism

Lets establish one thing: The NBA is not a team oriented league. It is a player oriented league. I think we can all agree on this. If you don't understand what this means, I will briefly explain.

If Kobe Bryant never played in LA, then nobody would care about the Lakers except for the few diehards there are.

If Lebron plays for the Knicks next year, then you can anticipate a slew of "diehard" Knicks fans that we unexplainably never cheered for them before.

There are several pros and cons with method of fanaticism.

Pro: If the Clippers miraculously convince Lebron to move to LA and play with them. Then the Clippers would become the most popular team in the League. All of a sudden you'd hear things like, "My Clippers have a shot at the title this year!" or "My Clippers are going to rock Kobe tonight." The blessing is that overnight a team can go from being forgotten and belittled, to the favorite team in the league.

Con: If Cleveland does lose its star, the Cleveland fans will disappear all over. I'd estimate that 90% of the so-called "fans" of Cleveland, would end up becoming fans of the Bulls, or Knicks, or whatever team lands Lebron this summer. Fans come and go. Jersey sales will skydive underground, and the league will never know what it means to have stability.

Pro: Thats why I don't necessarily have a favorite team. For the moment, I am cheering for the Suns, but not because I like the team, I just like Steve Nash, Lou Amundson, Channing Frye, and the rest of players. If Steve Nash was playing for the Lakers, then I'd be one of the annoying Laker fans that tweets about them nonstop.

Cons: Confusion. How do I react/cut ties with a team that I have been cheering for? Or how do I start liking a team that I used to cheer against? An example of this is when Ben Wallace went from Detroit to Chicago. I loved the Detroit team that won the title, with Wallace being my favorite player. Then he ended up in Chicago, and I found myself cheering against the Pistons.

Pros: Options! Lets imagine you have 10 players in the NBA that you love, and of the 10 players, 8 of them made the playoffs. You have 50/50 chance of one of them winning the title. The playoffs are interesting longer, and you always have something to keep you paying attention.

Cons: A player will overshadow a team effort, even if the star player has an off night. A few weeks ago. The Lakers were playing an overmatched OKC Thunder team. In the final game of the series, it went down to the wire. Kobe (aka the only reason people cheer for the Lakers) has the ball in the winding seconds. He throws shoots...................... and misses............. Pau Gasol gets the rebound and scores. LAKERS WIN! As basketball fan, I was thrilled. Buzzer beaters are always amazing. To my shock, dismay and disappointment. SEVERAL people sent me texts and tweets roughly stating: "Kobe does it again!" "Kobe is a beast" I shook my head, and realized the problems NBA has.

You make up your mind whether this a good thing or bad thing, but lets be real.... This will never change, and by the look of things......

Chicago and Lebron will be my favorite team next year....