The comment from Claremont hoops legend Henry Albrecht -- 89% of the Seattle Supersonic fans root against their former team -- brought to mind Jerry Seinfeld's comment about rooting for the local team, which is rarely comprised of players from that town:
“So you’re rooting for a shirt. We’re cheering for laundry.”
One minute all those Sonic fans were rooting for the players on the team -- the next, they want them to lose every game. Cavs fans lived and died with Lebron -- and now passionately want Lebron to fail, along with every other member of the Miami Heat. I always liked Duke, and former Duke star Shane Battier. Now he is playing with Lebron, and to support my friends from Cleveland, and because I didn't like the hubris of the Wade, Bosh, Lebron coupling, I root against the Heat too, along with much of America. In last year's Finals, everyone outside of South Florida rooted for a team from Texas owned by Mark Cuban whose star is from Germany against a team whose stars all represented the USA in the last Olympics.
Most disgustedly, last night I was rooting for the damn Celtics. I felt like I needed to take a shower after last night's game to get the Celtic Green off my soul. Luckily, it hadn't soaked in and was easily removed -- and will be long gone if the Celtics are in the Finals. I will feel much better about myself as a person when I get back to hoping all the Celtics foul out in the first quarter of each game against either Western Conference team.
How do we do decide who we want to win? A lot is passed down from family. I have been a Dodger and Laker fan forever, and was a Rams fan until they left town for St. Louis (though I never switched to rooting against the Rams for doing so). Sometimes I root for the "overall happiness" result. Best example -- USA vs. Canada gold medal game in hockey in the last Winter Olympics. Because the average USA fan would be fairly pleased with the team getting a Silver Medal, and Canada would have imploded (or frozen over) if they didn't get the Gold, I was perfectly happy with the result (Canada won). And Canadians are such nice people. Of course, when the USA beat Russia in the Miracle on Ice, I was of course rooting for that result -- maybe the last time I cared much about a hockey game.
Sometimes people start rooting for a team because they like a particular player. I think Vince Young's brilliance in college caused many people to root for Texas, including my son, young super broker Pablo -- but I bet not many people have been faithful enough to Vince to root for each of the various NFL teams he has (barely) played for since. Does anyone even know which team he is on now? Even so, Pablo continues to root for Texas, and not just because he looks good in that strange burnt orange Longhorn color.
I root for the Spurs because of the Popovich factor, which led to an appreciation of how well they play the game -- and an appreciation of my man Manu and how damn hard he competes. Even in the loss of critical Game 5, everyone watching must have respected his passion. Frankly, both teams played really really hard -- they passed my "do they care" test on defense virtually every possession, even though both teams were still good offensively.
Watching that game, it was clear to me that the Lakers could not have beaten either of them playing at this level. The Thunder, perhaps because they knew they were underdogs, have raised their game to a new level in this series, knocking the Spurs back on their heels. (Has any team ever won 20 in a row, then lost 3, or 4, in a row?) Surprisingly, it is the Spurs bench, a strength all season long, that is letting them down. With Duncan on the floor in Game 5, the Spurs were +17, with Manu + 13. With Stephen Jackson on the floor, the Spurs were -15 in his 30 minutes, -17 with Gary Neal for 15 minutes, -12 with Tiaggo Splitter in 10 minutes, and -10 with Blair in 7 minutes. Yikes.
If OKC wins one of the next two, I would be very surprised if either Boston or Miami could keep up with them in the Finals. Celtics won last night with Pierce going 6 for 19, Ray Allen 2 for 9, and Rondo 3 for 15 (last time he played in Miami, he scored 44!). That type of production may beat the offensively lopsided Heat. It won't beat the Thunder.
It also won't beat the Spurs, who are still alive -- especially if they can avoid the turnovers that lead to dunks at the other end, shots on which the Thunder shoot 100%. Mis-leading stat of the day is "points on turnovers". The only turnovers that leaddirectly to points are "live turnovers'' that the defense can immediately convert to points. A steal is a "live turnover", often leading to a dunk or other easy basket. A 3-second call, an offensive foul, a travel, even a ball thrown into the seats, do not lead to anything except the defense getting to take the ball out of bounds while the offense sets its defense at the other end -- it is a chance to run a half-court offense. While all turnovers are bad -- they deny the offense a chance to score and/or get a foul on the other team, the "live turnovers" are the killers. And the Thunder are great at converting these types of turnovers into hoops.
With OKC's youth and talent, and with how they have improved and grown up in this series, and if they beat the Spurs, would a victory in the Finals be the first of several crowns? If so, their Big 3 will need to start getting some nicknames.
I would start by giving James Harden a nickname other than Ginobili 2.0. How about James "the Dictator" Harden?
James Harden, The Dictator
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