HOBOKEN, N.J. — For those of you who know me — and for those of you who don’t (@ShotDrJr) — I am a Milwaukee Bucks fan. I always have been and until the economics of the NBA force them to move to Kansas City, Seattle or Las Vegas, I probably always will be. Thanks to my dad being a basketball coach (nurture) and the Bucks being my hometown team (nature), the Bucks are in my blood.
My Bucks bone fides are more solid than most. First, how many people admit they are Bucks fans? Admitting you’re a committed fan of small market team is the first step to realizing how Quixotic and exotic your fandom is. Second, I have a pair of Bucks practice shorts made by Champion. Do you know when Champion stopped making NBA gear? 1995.
And finally, a person close to me once worked for the Bucks. One day in August of 2003, I received the call he had been let go. It was a sad day, not only because of a job lost, but it felt as if we had been kicked out of the family. I vowed not to root for them. For how long, I had no idea, but it would take a while before I could say, “Go Bucks.”
It took only until December. But first, I felt I need to get permission. I made the call.
“Uh … This is hard for me to ask, but …” I stumbled.
“What is it?” he said.
It was as if I was asking for a loan I knew I couldn’t repay.
“Would it be OK if I, uh, pulled for the Bucks?”
A pause. A long one. “Sure. You can. I’m not going to, but you can.”
So, you can see, I’m no bandwagon jumper. Yet, despite that long and somewhat tortured history with my favorite NBA five, I found myself drifting away from them this season. I didn’t watch every game as I once did. Tough losses didn’t kill me as they had in the past. Their late-season playoff “push” didn’t thrill me.
Maybe the extreme disappointment was caused by heightened expectations. But if one looked at the Bucks’ moves before the 2010-11 season with clear eyes instead of through rose-colored glasses, one could see trouble on the horizon. When you sign Drew Gooden, Keyon Dooling and trade for Corey Maggette’s contract, you should know what you’re going to get: injuries, inconsistency and a locker room chemistry so toxic that you need to slip into a Hazmat suit just to read the box score.
For me, my disassociation the Bucks was more than just their disappointing season. My eye had started to wander and for a while, I was ashamed to admit my wanderlust. But now that my new “favorite” team has made the playoffs for the first time since 2004, I feel I can come clean.
Go Knicks.
After 12 years of living in the greater New York area, including six in Manhattan and six in the dateline city, I believe I can let my Knicks flag fly. Yes, rooting for the Knicks, and by extension, owner James Dolan, goes against my small market roots, but I have found myself liking them. I loved Mike D’Antoni for years. Amar’e Stoudemire had the guts to do what other free agents wouldn’t, namely come to New York and deal with the pressure of expectations. As a student of the shooting form, I find Carmelo Anthony’s stroke to be the NBA’s finest. Chauncey Billups, though old and slow, is an old and slow that can survive in the NBA, meaning that he is smart.
Then there are the fans. At times they may be delusional in regard to the Knicks history of success, but they’re rabid, their enthusiasm is infectious. And though it smells as if the beer has never been mopped up, Madison Square Garden is the best place to watch an NBA game.
For whatever reason, I’ve found myself drawn to these Knicks. Maybe it’s proximity. Maybe it’s empathy (the Bucks only title came in 1971, the Knicks last was in 1973) for a long-suffering fan base. Maybe I just like rooting for the one team that brings all New Yorkers, native and émigrés, together.
As a bandwagon fan, I understand this one isn’t built to last. The Knicks get the Celtics in the first round and the ride through the playoffs may be over before it starts. But that’s the great thing about being a bandwagon fan: I can jump off whenever I please. Losses will just be losses. There will be more basketball to watch after the Knicks season ends.
That, and in my heart, I know where my devotions lie. This Knicks thing. It’s a quickie.
So, that’s my story for these playoffs. If you’re a fan of one of the 14 teams who have already gone fishin’, and you feel the need to root for someone, I’ve compiled a list of reasons as to why you should (or shouldn’t) jump on a playoff team’s bandwagon.
So, saddle up, jump on and grab hold.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
CHICAGO — Back in the day, I would have never considered jumping on the Bulls bandwagon. As a Bucks fan, I hated — HATED — the Jordan Bulls and more than that, Bulls fans. They invaded the Bradley Center and cheered as if they had been cheering for the Bulls for years. That’s Bulls… Jordan made them fans, not the franchise. Worse yet, they won. All the time. I still fume about it. But it’s hard not to admire Derrick Rose and Tom Thibideau, the Bulls head coach, video junkie and career grinder. Thibideau treats every regular season as if it were his last. Imagine how tight he’s going to be during the postseason? It should make for some compelling viewing.
BOSTON – Despite their fans’ arrogant sense of entitlement, I can root for the C’s. I have always admired Ray Allen for the way he carries himself on and off the court and, for the first time ever, I Doc Rivers is one of the most engaging personalities in the NBA. Sure, KG is a supreme jerk. But unlike Kobe Bryant, another supreme jerk, at least KG once had a sense of humor.
MIAMI – I’m not supposed to root for the Hated Heat, but if you tell me you wouldn’t want to see LeBron and Wade take on the Lakers in the Finals, I may just call you a liar to your face. Worse yet, you’d be lying to yourself. Miami in The Finals would be the most fascinating championship series since A.I. led a horribly untalented Sixers team to it in ’01. Guaranteed.
ORLANDO — This is a team I should like. They shoot threes whenever they want. They have one of the best players and best personalities in the league in center Dwight Howard. Stan Van Gundy may frustrate the beat writers with his semi-condescending interview style, but he leaves me in stitches. I should root for them, but I just can’t because in the end, I know they’ll break my heart. I’ve had enough of that.
ATLANTA — See the the Magic graf? Same thing, except they’re not nearly as compelling as Orlando on any level.
PHILADELPHIA — Sorry, Sixers fans. I haven’t liked them since the early ’80s when they regularly dispatched the Bucks from the postseason, and the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals made it worse. I’m sure this year’s team is full of swell guys you want to see do well, but I just can’t jump on that bandwagon.
INDIANA – Plenty of room (and probably tickets) still available. If you do hop on this bandwagon, it’s more than likely to be a short ride.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
L.A. LAKERS — You could jump on it, but you’ll hate yourself in the morning. That walk of shame will be longer than you think.
OKLAHOMA CITY – After last year’s playoff series against the Lakers, the Thunder were the hot choice. With Kevin Durant’s awesome World Championship performance, the Thunder were hotter than Oklahoma asphalt in August. But thanks to the heat generated by Miami and Rose’s rise in Chicago, KD and Co. slipped from the forefront. The Kendrick Perkins — and Sam Presti’s prescience — deal got people talking about the Thunder again. They still could be talking into June. The only negative about rooting for the Thunder: this team should still be the Sonics.
SAN ANTONIO — Here’s another team everyone should root for. You shouldn’t care that Tim Duncan doesn’t exude exuberance and sounds as if he were the voice of HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey” or that Manu Ginobili has flopped so much that he’s worn a bald spot onto the crown of his head or that Tony Parker was married to, and probably now dates impossibly beautiful women and that coach Gregg Popovich is the man you should want to be: spy, wit, raconteur, patriot, oenophile. If he looked like and were as good a self-promoter as Pat Riley, Popovich would be a star. But he — and the Spurs — doesn’t care what you think, which makes Pop even cooler.
DENVER — Now, here’s the bandwagon I should be on. They have the loveably irascible — not to mention courageous — George Karl as coach. Since trading Melo to the Knicks, the Nuggets went 18-7 and played the type of team ball that even NBA-haters would love. Yet … because I’ve jumped on the Knicks bandwagon, it feels that if I pull for the Nuggets, I’d be admitting their trading Melo was the right move and that the Knicks got the short end. But as a “Knicks” fan, I have trouble admitting it. Weird.
DALLAS — You could be down with Dallas. Who wouldn’t want to see Dirk and J-Kidd grab the brass ring? It’s like watching your aging uncles try to win their last game of touch football on Thanksgiving morning against their bitter, neighborhood rivals.
PORTLAND — I should feel a kinship with Blazers fans. After all, the Blazers are to Portland like the Packers are to Green Bay. They don’t need anyone to jump on the bandwagon. They are smothered in love.
NEW ORLEANS — You could hop on the Hornets’ bandwagon for the sole reason that you love Chris Paul’s grit. You could hop on because you hate the Lakers. Yet without David West, the Hornets, who didn’t have much of a shot with West, have no shot against the Lakers.
MEMPHIS — They may steal a game (the franchise’s first playoff win!), maybe two, against the Spurs, but like the Pacers, the ride will be short. Could be a nice ride though.