Why are you a fan of your team?

[Cactus Jack]

Never understood the city thing...if the Cavs moved across country I'd still be a fan. Probably a product of my favorite sports team being in a different state. But if my team got the Supersonics treatment, I'd draw the line there....couldn't be a fan at that point.

Sadly, I lived through that. The Sonic's were my first love. A fan for more than 20 years. But, I could never root for the Thunder. I still get a sick feeling whenever I see their games on t.v. (which I try to avoid). Similar to how Cleveland fans feel towards Baltimore, I would guess. I don't think the bitterness will really ever go away.

Thankfully, KD decided to jump ship.

[Teko]

Grew up in MTL, VC was huge in Canada, then started to follow VC around.

Once he retires, I will follow Kawhi Leonard.

[KidPistol]

Steph

[ChuckyFE]

I've been a Knicks fan ever since I laid my eyes on NBA basketball in the early 90's.

The first and foremost reason was because there seemed to be something magical about watching a game at MSG compared to all the other arenas, at least it felt like that for me. From the crowd, the arena music, the announcing.... just all of it. Secondary reason being that they were just so damn tough and I enjoyed the grinding style of play. And I've stayed loyal to that team for well over 20 years. If the Knicks hadn't had those rivalries with the Pacers, Bulls and maybe even the Heat later on, who knows... but all of those solidified my love for that franchise to the point where I can never jump to another team.

Even though the Knicks were my favourite team, I grew up loving Larry Johnson as an individual player when he was with the Hornets. So as you can imagine, I blew my wad when I later found out my favourite player was being traded to my favourite team.

[Daddy 801]

I'm a fan of teams where I grew up....Bulls, Dallas, Boston. Also a fan of Warriors cause that's area my parents grew up and being born in St. Louis they were sorta default because I had no one to root for. I was so little though that I don't feel a super strong connection to that team. I feel more connected the Oakland A's as I was playing more baseball at that age. Mostly just a basketball fan now though. My dad is a basketball fan. He refs church ball. And he watches a ton of college basketball. It's in my blood.

Having lived in Utah the longest now I would consider myself mainly a Jazz guy now. My son will be raised a Jazz guy.

The Jazz organization does a ton of community outreach. Makes it even easier to root for them.

[qm22]

Pistons because I saw the remnants of the Bad Boys growing up in Michigan when I was very young. But I wouldn't like any Detroit team. Besides liking Barry Sanders, the Lions organization was too frustrating to align myself with.

The Bad Boys presented themselves very well to the community. They did a lot of outreach, they were the opposite of full of themselves and seemed to have pride in representing the area and the mutual support they had with the culture they built. Isiah was the face of it, he was a superstar with overabundant good will. He was very generous, sincerely caring, talented, and often a teacher. And whatever he was doing, he communicated well and made it interesting and full of good spirit. Dumars was really cool with the community too. Although I wouldn't like Laimbeer if I was another player, he was a good personality and good guy off the court, as a broadcaster during the Ben Wallace era.

I went to a few games after the owner died and the widow was selling the team while restricting any salary additions, and the awful years when the new owner bought into Lawrence ****ing Frank and his Kyle Singler man-crush and his do-nothing approach to coaching.

When Detroit declined I supported the teams of my favorite players, just because I liked their ability and/or style, character. That is, I enjoyed watching my favorite players and wanted them to succeed. I liked TMac and Yao. But mostly it was the Amar'e Stoudemire teams and the Dwayne Wade Heat. As a Pistons fan in their run of ECF appearances, no player was more scary than Wade, so I really appreciated his game when it wasn't vs. Detroit. For STAT I loved his creativity in offense and artistry in finishing, and loved how he came back from so many career-ending type injuries with his crazy work ethic.

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

I voted for a particular player, but its a bit deeper than that.

I was playing one of those super old NBA games and the Pacers had 3 guys (Reggie Miller, Chuck Person, Michael Williams) who could all shoot the 3 like crazy. As a kid I loved it and have just been rooting for them ever since.

[3Diamantidis]

Alice In Chains. Queensryche. Nirvana. Metal Church. Pearl Jam. Nevermore. And Shawn Kemp.

Last few seasons Bucks. Giannis.

[HeartBreakKid]

I am from NY and I became a fan of Boston because of Paul Pierce.

Really enjoyed watching how good Pierce was, and I felt like because no one else talked about him he was "my guy".

After a while I became to realize that I wanted the Celtics to win more than the Knicks even if it was just due to Pierce.

When I got the payoff of Garnett and Allen coming through, it was pretty easy pretty easy to realize how much I liked the Celtics franchise, as Garnett was one of my favorites also, then Rondo started to blow up.

I did question how much of a fan I'd of Pierce if he were to ever retire or leave, but by the time Pierce and Garnett were traded I had liked a lot about the franchise already. They had hired Brad Stevens, who was my favorite college coach, and Butler was the only college team I ever cared to root for, so I was a huge fan already.

The org is handled very well and they tend to put together teams that I enjoy, so I will likely be a life time Celtic, it's already been well over a decade and I already survived two "bad eras" of being a Celtic.

[Flannerz]

Shaq and Penny.

[yoyoboy]

Grew up without any pro teams in my state, my family cheers for KC but for some reason I started cheering for the Browns and then chose the Cavs cause KC didn't have a pro basketball team

You poor soul.

[JellosJigglin]

Magic Johnson and Showtime. Geography played a role, but Magic Johnson is the reason I started watching basketball. Still to this day the greatest player I've ever seen in my lifetime. I know we like to compare all passing big men to Magic, and I get it for people that have only watched him in highlights, but there hasn't been anyone like Magic. Not as a player, showman, and leader all in one. He was simply amazing. And of course I was in my backyard practicing the skyhook on my nerf hoop. Showtime baby.

[BackseatBoss]

Vincent Carter decided to make me suffer through years of terrible basketball, but we're finally good, so yay!

[Yankeeknickfan]

8 yr old me was bored one day and decided to put MSG

[Zukkoyaki]

I'm from the middle of Missouri so we don't have a team. A lot of folks root for the Bulls or Thunder but I adopted the Grizzlies because of my love of the city of Memphis (which also isn't that far away, only like 5-6 hours). I remember a family vacation down there about the time they relocated and going to a game. Been a fan ever since.

[Ugly0598]

Bandwagon pick? I grew up watching Shaq and/then Kobe dominate over the Spurs, Kings, Celtics, AI, etc. No particular order. Shaq's dominance was fun to watch.

Real actual homer heart to heart pick? Probably the Jazz.

[Prokorov]

im from NJ and am not someone who just roots for whomever is winning at the time

[kamaze]

I grew up in NY a Knicks fan moved to Jersey so going to the games was cheap & easy I watched both teams. Once they got Kidd I was all in.

[JB1089]

Originally from the Bronx in the 90s, but I remember watching a lot of Knicks games and my dad buying me Knicks stuff, but it didn't click for me until Allan Houston. I was also a huge Jordan fan, of course, and would cheer for him even over the Knicks. The same situation developed with Kobe after I saw him going at Jordan in the 98 ASG. This year, other than the Knicks, I watched a ton of Lakers, Wolves, Sixers and Clippers games specifically for Kobe, Wiggins, Okafor, and Chris Paul (who's now my favorite player in the league with Kobe retired).

Really, across all sports, outside of local teams, I'm drawn to individuals, whether they be a player or coach, more than teams. I was a Bayern fan, but I'll be following City now that Pep Guardiola is coaching them. When NYCFC was announced, I didn't care. Then they signed David Villa, and I did. I was drawn to FSU by Bobby Bowden. My love of the Yankees was very wrapped up in Derek Jeter, and most of the games I watch now are the ones where Tanaka or Sabbathia are starting. On other days I'm more likely to have on whatever the best pitching matchup is for that day. And I watch EVERY Jose Fernandez start; and turn the game off as soon as he comes out.

Unless you have some sort of local pride invested in a team, I don't really get "rooting for the laundry."

[Dajadeed]

Born into it. Entire family is die hard Raiders and Lakers.