What has happened to sports fans? Loyalties seem to be diminishing and hatred is at an all-time high. This though, is part of sport, but what is out of the ordinary in today's fans is the unbalanced not so objective approach to how we view athletes and teams.
During the Eastern Conference finals match up between the Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat this point was exemplified. Sure, it is normal to hate the defending champs, the evil empire, but to find reasons to make them look like bad guys when it doesn't make sense is embarrassing. I am a Chicago Bulls fan, so I don't like either of these teams and have a particular disdain for the Indiana Pacers. I understand the Heat have been the bigger threat lately and Chicago fans have grown a strong hate for them, but I can't make sense of it.
The hate usually starts and ends with one, LeBron James. Listen, I remember sitting there waiting for "The Decision" and talking to many a Bulls fan with their fingers crossed that he will take his talents to Chicago. I remember thinking what it would be like to have The King in a Bulls jersey and how he would live up to the bill. This was all a mirage. It wasn't happening. He took his talents to South Beach and that started the negativity towards LeBron James as if he just insulted the city and slept with every Chicagoans mama. Same can be said for the rest of the league that didn't win the high prized free agent. It was a free agent decision, it's not that deep.
Fast forward a few years and now everyone calls LeBron "whiny", a "bitch", a "flopper", and many say he doesn't deserve to win another championship. First of all, to all Lakers and Bulls fans, does Kobe not constantly complain to the refs, did Michael Jordan not expect every call? Objectively speaking, those guys got more calls than LeBron gets and he has done no more or no less than these two guys have on the court in terms of facial expressions and his reaction to the refs.
Throughout this past series I kept hearing that the Heat are a bunch of floppers and play dirty. Well, the Pacers had more fines than anyone in the NBA due to flopping. The Pacers all-time great Reggie Miller was the king of flopping. Pacers flop more, but don't get criticized for it, the Heat flop and they are a bunch of acting wussies.
The Bulls tried to beat the Heat by playing as dirty as possible. When Nazr Mohammed shoved LeBron there were a plethora of "This is Chicago" memes and cheering going on (me included), but when Birdman does the exact thing to Hansborough, he's viewed as a dirty, scumbag basketball player by those same fans. This is also a series where Roy Hibbert said some pretty insensitive comments in a press conference seemingly forgetting millions were watching. Imagine if LeBron or Wade said what Hibbert said. They would be considered the biggest dirtballs on the planet, but no, it got ignored by those cheering against the Heat because the Heat weren't the team doing it.
The LeBron conversation is ongoing and will never end, but I will leave you with another example. I have lived my life dealing with Chicago White Sox fans who hate the Cubs and their fans. I am a Cubs fan from the Southside and I understand why this happens. It's all in the fun of the rivalry. Yet, this provides another perfect example of the subjective approach of many sports fans these days.
Cubs fans apparently are raucous drunks who only go to the game to drink and party. So, I guess White Sox fans don't drink at baseball games? As a matter of fact, they pride themselves on their ability to tailgate before games (which is awesome by the way) and I have seen many posts with pictures of Sox fans playing beer pong in the parking lot, doing beer bongs and having many drinks. A good friend of mine goes and gets hammered every time. Why is this ignored by them but they want to criticize Cubs fans for it. Maybe "drinking at games" isn't the best argument you can make. Especially when the far southside of the city prides itself off of the amount of Irish pubs that line Western Ave. To be fair, Cubs fans aren't immune to this point I am trying to make either. I myself like to criticize the fans for not going out and supporting their team, win or lose, like Cubs fans, when the numbers show that the Cubs attendance is significantly lower after losses than after wins. So it works both ways. It is part of our culture these days where hate on another team or teams fans trumps personal fandom.
Disliking a team or a player is just fine, even if you don't have a good reason, but to turn everything they do into a negative and to search to find more ways to criticize leads you to sound silly and quite honestly a pretty obnoxious, poor sports fan. I hate the Heat. You may not think that after reading this diatribe, but that's my point. I want the Bulls to be where the Heat are. I want the Bulls to kick their ass, but I am not about to attack a guy like LeBron who has done everything right except an hour long special announcing his decision. If he said "I am taking my talents to Chicago" or "I am taking my talents to Brooklyn", those very fans would love him and find him the best player in the league all while being a class act.
