It’s a little more obvious why many of us root for teams, but during this last week of the NBA Finals I got to pondering what makes us root for individual players. What makes me bring up the topic is this: ever since the Cleveland series, since even before that epic mano-a-mano Game 7, I’ve been mentally cheering hard for Paul Pierce. And I’m not a Celtics fan. In fact, I pretty much hate Boston teams. I know why I love the Hornets– that one’s easy. I live in New Orleans, and I went to forty-five games this year. P Squared, though, has got me thinking.
It could have been the moment-y stuff, like 41 points to close out the Cavs, or stepping out of the tunnel to thunderous applause after going down with a knee injury. It could have been how, at the Celtics’ lowest moments, it seemed like he was going to put the team on his shoulders and drag them to a championship, Kobe Bryant be damned. It could be that he was the one Celtic to whom wearing green meant the most.
To me, though, none of those things quite explained it.
The truth that maybe we don’t want to see is, most of us aren’t a Kobe, living in an opaque bubble in which we are wholly convinced of our own excellence. Most of us aren’t a KG; we can’t find it within ourselves to bring that level of intensity every day. Oh, we’d like to be. And maybe, for some of us, watching is enough. We can pretend for just those 48 precious minutes. But it’s not who I am, and I know it’s not. And it’s why, because I’m first and foremost a New Orleans Hornets blogger, I deeply appreciate the excellence of Chris Paul, but I also know he’ll never be my favorite player. That’s reserved for the David Wests, the Tyson Chandlers of the team. The dark horses.
The reality of it is that most of us weren’t, aren’t, and will never be the golden kid, the anointed one. The reality of it is that talent on its own isn’t always transcendent. There are always going to be the ones whose glow hasn’t always seemed quite strong enough.
But most of us have had doubts about whether we were wasting our talent, whether the problem might be that we were simply in the wrong place. Most of us have said stupid shit, and gotten fat in the offseason, and been a little bit whiny, and maybe been accused of partying too much. Most of us have holes in us that make us less than perfect. And we’ve made mistakes. I myself live in such a constant state of disarray that I realized this morning I’ve been driving around without proof of insurance (still in the envelope under a stack of mail six inches high), driver’s license (expired– who knew?), or registration (on my office desk). And I quit law school after my first year. And, going back even further, I still sort of regret that I don’t have “with honors” on my college diploma (despite spending my entire senior year compiling a 90 page honors project) because at the last minute I got in a disagreement with one of my advisors, said “%#@* this,” and went to Canada to drink and get thrown out of hotels. If you don’t have stuff like this in your past, you’re lying. Or maybe you are a Kobe. And, I guess, props to you if you are.
But I’m not. If you’re not, either, then you know a little bit about why it’s been great to watch Paul Pierce in these playoffs.
And, well. I don’t know. Maybe some of us want to watch invincible heroes. Maybe anything else ruins our sense of escapism. Maybe we don’t want to see ourselves in our idols. And if that’s how you feel, I can understand. And I’ll respect your right to feel that way about sports.
If that’s why you watched this season, I hope it was everything you wanted it to be. We all watch for different reasons. It’s amazing when you think about it, isn’t it? We all construct different truths out of a shared experience. If you’re a blogger, you certainly learn about that firsthand the first time you visit an opposing team’s blog and read an account of the same game from the flipside. What meaning do you pull out of it, that makes it worth watching, for you?
And the thing is, standing here at the end of the season, I realize I don’t need to know what you saw in your heroes, what made them great to you. I don’t need to know. It is what it is for you. And it’s not required that we have that in common. It’s not necessary. What you see won’t be what I see.
Why did you watch? I can’t say. It’s up for interpretation. It’s up to you. Me, I know why I watched.
You savor that cigar and that trophy, Truth. And thanks.
I’m actually quite the opposite. I can’t see myself rooting for a particular player, and this is evident with my lovefest with the Hornets (and less of a degree with the Mavericks). I loved Kendall Gill, Glen Rice, Vlade Divac, Too Easy, Dan Dickau, etc. during their tenure, but promptly relinquished my fandom after they left the team for various reasons. Why this is has always baffled me too, but I guess this is what alienates me as an illogical diehard fan of the Hornets.
The closest thing to a favourite player would be Arvydas Sabonis (Sabas). Who is Sabonis, you ask? Exactly. I’m a fan of under-the-radar players who do their job night in and night out and don’t necessarily need the media to fuel their ego. So I’m with you at least with rooting for certain qualities in players (DX, Ceiling Fan).
And I think we need to create a power generator sustained by thoughts of self-satisfaction. Kobe would generate an unlimited potential of energy powering the world and win the Nobel Award for Omnipotence. I’m calling it.
And I think while writing these ramblings I was also trying to pinpoint what makes me incapable of appreciating Kobe… self-satisfaction is exactly it. Also that I feel he’s SO big they’re (media, PR machine, whatever) always trying to feed us some version of Kobe that isn’t necessarily the real him. What it paints is a picture of a guy who’s never had a doubt in his life. I’m sure that’s not true, but that’s the image, and it’s not very relatable.
I don’t suppose Kobe’s rape case helped with his bandwagon. And I really like people who shout ‘ad hominem!!’ when I bring that case up too. Because quite frankly, I could care less about separating church and state, figuratively speaking. Despite what ‘Red Rover, Red Rover’ taught you in grade school, neither bandwagon is going to yield to the other.
But glad to hear you enjoyed the Finals (as opposed to maybe mW). At least the Stern Button worked in your favour ever so slightly. Next season unofficially starts next week with the draft (when Knickerbocker fans inevitably boo whomever they select).
After reading Hornets247’s recent post, I’m now hoping the Hornets pull the trigger on something on draft night.
On a personal note I would like to add that I am in slightly less of a state of disarray, having gotten a driver’s license today and possibly gotten a job as well. Maybe next year I can be an inspirational story. No?
There are just teams I respect and teams I don’t, I personally don’t think phil jackson is one of the best coaches ever because he would only coach good teams, signed up for the star packed bulls and then the star packed lakers, let phil take a team from the bottom and lift them to the top. I watched the celtics because they were at the same spot the hornets were last year, I respect other players don’t get me wrong if they played the hornets I’d say “screw you pierce” but I wouldn’t dislike him as a player, he is a respectable guy and reminds me a lot of CP3 in his unselfish play and love of the game. When players play like they love it it’s better then when they just play for money, that takes the life right out of the game.
If it had been the Hornets instead of the Lakers, I’m slightly ashamed to say my opinion would be, “Too bad, you’re OLD.” But as it was, I was free to appreciate other players. This year.