15 May 2008

Bandwagon theory, clarified


A good friend of mine has requested that I answer for my apparent hypocrisy in decrying fair-weather fans while calling for Carlos Boozer to be traded.

I'm going to try and explain it by expanding on my "being a fan is like being a parent" analogy.

If the team represents the child, then in my opinion, unskilled and overpaid players are like problems the child goes through. As a Jazz fan, Greg Ostertag was like your bright and talented teenager skipping class and not ever studying. If you're a Blazers fan, Darius Miles is like your kid always talking back and not respecting authority.

Do these things make you turn on the kid? Kick him out of the house? Adopt a new child?

Nope.

You work with the child to help them get over these undesirable traits. And if your team has players who are weighing the team down, eventually it gets to the point that they need to be let go. I have no loyalty to the specific players who wear a Jazz uniform. If I did, I'd still be a Deshawn Stevenson fan.

That said, I will never boo a Jazz player. Watching Boozer makes me disappointed and sad, not spiteful. I'd love to see him succeed. I'd like to watch him learn how to play defense. But at this point it's clear that's not going to happen. The Jazz can't afford to have him and Okur play underneath. And in my judgment, Okur is more valuable to the team.

So that's it. My loyalty is to the team, not the players. Hope that clears things up.

4 comments:

Matt Gibb said...

You're exactly right. I mean, I have no loyalty to anybody who currently wears the Gibb name, just the name itself. So, if I've worked with my kids but they continue to do stuff I don't like, then I will just trade them to another family. As long as the name itself is being well represented, it doesn't matter about individuals. The next time Cayman makes noise in Sacrament Meeting, I'm looking on the free agent market.

Nicholas G. James said...

Hehe when I went to Game 6 of the Jazz-Lakers series, I booed Boozer. Hehe

Oh yeah, and when the Jazz fans booed at Fisher and Kobe, it just made them more confident.

Josh said...

hey Brandon, did you know that the Jazz fans started chanting " refs you suck" but I didn't say it

Nicholas G. James said...

We {the Laker fans and I} chanted "MVP" when KB was shooting Free Throws and then the stupid drunk Jazz fans started chanting "Kobe Sucks".

And Kobe sure doesn't suck. They just hate him.