LeBron James and the Miami Heat won an NBA title last night, and since then, all forms of media have turned into a sermon on how fans are no longer allowed to dislike them.
We’re being lectured on how other athletes have done infinitely worse things, how he was never given the proper help in Cleveland, and how he’s gotten the point about past mistakes. The general themes have been “get over it” and “give credit where credit is due”, with prominent use of the word “hate” to describe the feelings of anyone who didn’t want to see that team win a title.
I count myself among those people, as do many other fans I know. Does this mean we’re misguided and irrational? Perhaps. But we’re fans, misguided and irrational is what we do. Frankly it’s kind of what makes sports fun in the first place, hyperbole and bombast removed from the calculating nature required in most of life. It’s tiresome to continuously be told by media types how we need to view players, teams, etc. You can present all the sound logic in the world, but if you want to take that logic a step further, then what are we all doing wasting our time watching a bunch of grown men playing children’s games in the first place? Professional sports is an irrational activity by its nature, a bizzaro world in which very few rules of everyday life apply…and thank God for that.
Many people who cover sports for a living that like to lecture the most always fall all over themselves trying to prove how far above the fray they are. “Fan” is a four-letter word, a bunch of rubes who go whichever way the wind blows and need to be reprimanded when they don’t hold the proper opinion. But it’s that very reactionary nature, the peaks and valleys, that fills talk radio hours and column inches. I understand it can make the group of us look as a whole (some of the Twitter reactions to the Percy Harvin situation made me embarrassed to count myself a Vikings fan) but for chrissakes Dad, lighten up with the finger-waving and let me have some fun.
Even those who didn’t want him to win can appreciate what LeBron James does on a basketball court. He’s an unbelievable player who will go down as one of the greats in history, no one is delusional enough to disagree with his talent. Does that mean I’m obligated to be happy about him winning? Not a chance. You can tell me to get over “The Decision” as much as you want, but the reality is that was the sh*ttiest thing I’ve ever seen done to a group of fans by a player. It wasn’t just an ‘Eff you’ to a single fanbase, but to everyone who ever invested themselves into a sports team. Like a team leaving town, it made it clear once again how little our allegiances mean in the scheme of things. A fans, we hate those moments, because it points out what fools we are for caring. Every time I’m close to getting over it, I put my shoes in the fan of some Cavs diehard who went through it, and have to wonder how I’d feel in their place.
Once again, the punditry is confusing “sports hate” with really hate, when the former is about a 1% dilution of the latter. Nobody thinks LBJ is a truly terrible person, or nobody wishes suffering upon him. (Well, at least nobody outside of Cleveland) Just about all of us are aware enough to see the bigger picture and realize that this is small potatoes in the scheme of things. If you put a real-world litmus test to it, like people you’d want living next door, then he’s probably way up the list in terms of the general population, not just pro athletes.
Did that stop me from hoping the Heat never win a title? Absolutely not, because on the other side of the equation will always be an opponent, who’s worked just as hard to get to that point and doesn’t have the baggage that Miami brings. The history here is just a deciding factor, a tipping point, that’s all. In a series between two teams with no rooting interest, the little things sway you. When you have the team built through the draft on one side and the collection of stars united through free agency on the other, I will always opt for the former. If it had been the Celtics representing the East, I would’ve probably rooted for them, due to the whole “Stolen Sonics” vibe, you never know how things will shake out until you’re there.
But as far as the “you’re an idiot if you still dislike LeBron James” lectures go, just stop. All the pundits out there go out of their way to tell us they aren’t fans all the time, and that we just don’t get it. In this case, they’re the ones who don’t get it. You can present your case, and it may be a sound one, but as fans, we reserve the right to collectively tell you to get bent.
Mock us for holding a grudge, but realize that what you’re truly mocking is caring deeply about sports in the first place, and without that, what are we doing here in the first place? If we’re guilty about something, it’s being delusional about the big picture of a fan’s role in sports, not our opinions on a single player. Accepting the underlying premise, while challenging the particulars of its execution is harping on the splinter in the finger, while ignoring the spear through the chest.
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