Rebel INS wrote:I used to wonder why so many people here waste so much of their lives following a bad basketball team they so apparently dislike. I've spent a little time thinking about it and I think the only rational reason why a huge segment of the realgm fanbase keeps religiously posting is that they enjoy the losing. They enjoy it because watching basketball games is not the primary motivation in being a raptors fan
They like the firebc fan petitions and being able to log on here and critique bad trades and signings. They like revisiting past mistakes and of imagining alternate fantasy scenerios of how this team could've ended up if a better GM was in charge...that better gm invariably being themselves. I think more than anything, they like the role playing aspect of being a "real gm". I think the general structure of this forum, the hyperattention to cap details and hypothetical trades supports that idea (as an aside, is there anything more ridiculous than coming up with fake "trades"? Why guys? What is the endgame here? LOL)
The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to think that the devoted "real gm's" here are engaging in something distinctly different from following a sports team. Maybe something more akin to a sports themed role playing game. Like dungeons and dragons with advanced statistics.
Good post, and it goes back to what a lot of people in this thread have been saying, and is more or less what the original poster said in starting the thread.
The problem is that you and all the others are "wondering" and worrying and thinking about OTHER posters and analyzing them and so on and so forth. Just let it go. Let people come on here and write whatever they want to, including complaining and criticizing. Without you and the others coming in to complain and criticize them, and wonder they're so idiotic and irrational and schizo, i.e., the exact opposite of what you guys are.
We've got people, including ex Mods, coming here and laying down the ten commandments and what is and what isn't, and who is and who isn't a fan. How ridiculous is that? You have something to say, say it. You don't like what people write, don't read it. Or rebut them with your ideas. Why the hell are so many people worried about what makes people write what they write?
As to the bigger picture, when you call into question other people's "fan-ness", try this: I and certainly many others have been Raptor fans for 15 years or more. Please note the phrase, Raptor fans. Not fans of Colangelo, who by the way has been a Raptor fan for about 10 years less than a lot of people here. And who, when he finally gets replaced, will no longer be a Raptor fan. While we go on being Raptor fans for 20 or 30 or 40 more years. And we'll pick up the pieces of whatever shambles Colangelo leaves the team in, and go on cheering for the team, and criticizing any roster that isn't as good and doesn't have as much success as we'd like. The problem is that, unlike Colangelo, we have no say in what roster moves are made. We have no say in the makeup of the team we've cheered for for at least 10 years more than Colangelo has. That's frustrating. To say the least. Though obviously it's part of being a fan of any team. I don't like most of the moves Colangelo has made and I don't like the current roster as much as I'd like a better roster. When I complain I complain about Colangelo's moves that have made the roster less strong than it could be. I complain about the state of the team's present and future, given that we are not very successful in the present (and we have not been successful in the recent past), and the prospects for greater success in the future are less than ideal, due directly to the moves that Colangelo has made up to this point in time.
I'm all for firing Colangelo and getting a "fresh start". That's pretty generic, but to me it means bringing in a guy who comes from a "winning culture" (OKC, San Antonio, etc.) and, more importantly, can look at the current roster with fresh eyes and a new perspective, which might enable him to more objectively assess strengths and weaknesses. I don't think Colangelo is the best man for that job.