For a long time, I was bothered by the qualification of being called a sports fan. The average sports fan roots for the home team, or one affiliated through some form of history predicated geographically at some point in time. Other more casual fans often rooted for specific players, which would be fine in sports like tennis or golf, but it maybe difficult to root for a good player stuck on a bad team. In fact, having lived in New York City for the entirety of the Scott Layden regime as well as the even more infamous Isiah Thomas era, I have formed an understanding that rooting for a team seems more and more like rooting for a front office to be competent.
The whole concept of cheering for a team seems blind and in some cases, predicated on the concept of ignorance is bliss. It's become more and more obvious that the teams that fans worship are businesses. Almost all businesses are organized from the top-down, and it's stupid to think that rooting for a team is really about rooting for the name in the front of the jersey, rather than for the business decisions that end up affecting the resulting product. Take the Clippers of the NBA. Donald Sterling for a long time ran the Clippers like a business, more intent on making money than having a competitive team. It was obvious that he was more intent on taking advantage of players in their rookie contracts, fielding a marketable team, rather than keeping a core of veterans that can win. It's obvious that ownership dictates the makeup of the team. It's obvious that big market teams, like the Yankees or the Red Sox, are more likely to field a good team, simply because they can afford to. Teams are reflections of business decisions made by their owner and front office. One would be blindly ignorant if one didn't see that the Yankees or the Knicks are reflected by the attitudes of George Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman or James Dolan and Isiah Thomas. Rooting for a team and one might as well be rooting for a business to stay competitive.
It may be different in an older era, but not now. Up until a decade ago, it was very difficult to follow a team that wasn't from one's hometown. People could only follow their home team loyally because it was really the only team that they could consistently watch. Other than nationally televised games, people couldn't really watch anything else. Sure, one might be able to follow a team from box scores, but the essence of the game is lost. Now, there's League Pass, Sunday Ticket, and Extra Inning available on cable, satellite, and the Internet. It’s no longer impossible to follow other players and other teams.
Therefore, I propose a different model. For anyone who's a fan of a sport, I think it's hypocritical to cheer for one team, rather than for the progression of the sport. In this day and age, people get to know individual prospects way before they get into professional leagues. Exposure comes early, especially in a sport like basketball, where LeBron James became an All American in his sophomore year of high school, and O.J. Mayo had a Reebok endorsement since the 8th grade. If one becomes a fan of individual players before they enter the league, it would be a conflict of interest if that player ended up on a rival team to the fan's team. Similarly, if a fan dislikes a player since his youth, it’ll be tough to tolerate the team signing that player.
To correct that, I think it makes more sense to follow players, as fans can more readily identify with them. Also, and more importantly, fans should follow the progression of a sport. Writers like Michael Lewis have followed the evolution of the progression within sports, and it’s a much more refreshing and a better angle than following a team. That said, there has to be a concession that the most popular and marketable of these sports are team sports, and as such the team concept will always be put over the individual. However, I feel that to be a pure fan of a sport, it’s more important to follow an individual’s impact on the team, in the game, and the said player’s contribution to the progression of the sport, rather than to follow a team, which in many ways seems more like the following of a company, and its ability as management, to recognize value and talent.
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