Cities and their Teams

[impulsenine]

I've often wrestled with the fact that people seem to get pretty inexplicably arrogant, defensive, obsessed, and generally entirely too emotionally invested in the success or failure of their team - especially since the reason they follow the team is often only because the team plays half its games in the same city.

This seems especially odd since even in college teams, the odds that a player is actually from his team's city are pretty slim.

Now, I'm from Phoenix, and I myself am pretty emotionally invested in my team. How do I justify that? Well, I've been following the team since I was a kid (around 1988, when KJ joined), and I've noticed that the team has always been full of stand-up guys. People like Dumas didn't last, and half of Barkley's notoriety came from the fact that he was such a departure from the norm.

A.C. Green even helped me chase down a thief in downtown Phoenix once.

So I like the Suns because I think they actively seek outstanding people who happen to be outstanding athletes. I also love their style of play that has long emphasized the point guard (KJ, Kidd, Marbury, Nash) rather than the center.

This is, by the way, a reason that the Shaq trade is working.

---

I think that the city of Phoenix (and Arizona, generally) has the kind of laid-back personality that respects that sort of thing, so it's no big surprise that not only people in Arizona, but a lot of international fans, really like the Suns.

So here's a question for you guys, since I don't follow other teams all that much. Can an argument be made that one reason for fanatic fandom is that fans in any particular city like their teams is because the team and its management share the same mind-set?

I think the guys on the Knicks remind me of New Yorkers. LA certainly has its hyper-talented drama queens (Kobe), slightly insane but awesome energy people (Turiaf), and even the token snowboarder (Radmanovic).

[Biff]

I wonder if the Suns are full of bad drivers.

[rsavaj]

I've often wrestled with the fact that people seem to get pretty inexplicably arrogant, defensive, obsessed, and generally entirely too emotionally invested in the success or failure of their team - especially since the reason they follow the team is often only because the team plays half its games in the same city.

This seems especially odd since even in college teams, the odds that a player is actually from his team's city are pretty slim.

Now, I'm from Phoenix, and I myself am pretty emotionally invested in my team. How do I justify that? Well, I've been following the team since I was a kid (around 1988, when KJ joined), and I've noticed that the team has always been full of stand-up guys. People like Dumas didn't last, and half of Barkley's notoriety came from the fact that he was such a departure from the norm.

A.C. Green even helped me chase down a thief in downtown Phoenix once.

So I like the Suns because I think they actively seek outstanding people who happen to be outstanding athletes. I also love their style of play that has long emphasized the point guard (KJ, Kidd, Marbury, Nash) rather than the center.

This is, by the way, a reason that the Shaq trade is working.

---

I think that the city of Phoenix (and Arizona, generally) has the kind of laid-back personality that respects that sort of thing, so it's no big surprise that not only people in Arizona, but a lot of international fans, really like the Suns.

So here's a question for you guys, since I don't follow other teams all that much. Can an argument be made that one reason for fanatic fandom is that fans in any particular city like their teams is because the team and its management share the same mind-set?

I think the guys on the Knicks remind me of New Yorkers. LA certainly has its hyper-talented drama queens (Kobe), slightly insane but awesome energy people (Turiaf), and even the token snowboarder (Radmanovic).

...tell us more

[JustMoe]

-= original quote snipped =-



...tell us more

*with a veery deep voice* He never touched a woman, but that day he touched a man's heart

Oh, and yeah - Me, Grimlock, also want to hear more about impulse's funny war story

[impulsenine]

I wonder if the Suns are full of bad drivers.

The thing about Phoenix is that its roads are uncommonly well-kept (of course, the flipside to that is they're always under construction).

So people don't notice when they're driving 90 (literally, or more) down the freeway. In other cities, if you go that fast, you will leave your suspension behind you.

Of course, for some reason everyone in Phoenix gets the idea that since they drive 90 MPH all the time, then obviously they're as skilled as any NASCAR racer -- and try to drive like one.

...


Unfortunately, all the above also applies to Leandro Barbosa in the lane.

[-SDU-]

@ moe bwahahahahahhahahaha LMMFAO!

nice post

[-SDU-]

think that the city of Phoenix (and Arizona, generally) has the kind of laid-back personality that respects that sort of thing, so it's no big surprise that not only people in Arizona, but a lot of international fans, really like the Suns.

So here's a question for you guys, since I don't follow other teams all that much. Can an argument be made that one reason for fanatic fandom is that fans in any particular city like their teams is because the team and its management share the same mind-set?

I think the guys on the Knicks remind me of New Yorkers. LA certainly has its hyper-talented drama queens (Kobe), slightly insane but awesome energy people (Turiaf), and even the token snowboarder (Radmanovic).

i think the argument can be made for sure, BUT i also think the argument can be taken a little further to suggest the type of players who are attracted to a that city have the same mindset as that area

ie marbury new york, nash phoenix, kobe LA etc. I also think there could be an argument that the city actually moulds the players into who they are. I think if amare was drafted by new york and developed his game there, he would be a different player / person..... anyone agree or am i way off?

[-SDU-]

i can say for sure that i like the suns regardless of what the management was like, but despite that I am still proud that they are a good natured group who stays out of trouble

if that changed, i would still support them though

[JustMoe]

@ moe bwahahahahahhahahaha LMMFAO!

nice post

Grimlock is da ish, bro, I'm tellin ya Dinobots definitely are one of the best parts about the original series and the REAL Transformers movie, and I saw that one about a billion times already

Seriously though, impulse - you owe as a story, man! Can't tease us by just mentioning that AC and you once beat up some criminal and then leave it that way. I WANT SOME DETAILS!!!

[-SDU-]

ive got grimlock on my desk here next to the computer

swoop and Kup too

[JustMoe]

ive got grimlock on my desk here next to the computer

swoop and Kup too

Still got a box full of Transformers somewhere in the basement, so i guess I threated them less well than you did Grimlock, Sludge and Snarl are among them, though.

[BurningHeart]

I definitely agree about liking the Suns even more than I normally would because of the way they conduct business. I'm lucky, all three of my favorite teams (Suns, Braves, Texans) follow that same sort of model of not bringing in cancers, not putting up with BS, etc.

And it's great because that's my personality in real life, too.

[-SDU-]

^ same here too in that my favourite teams tend to be controversy free and good community people

(and when there is controversy, its extremely frowned upon and dealt with harshly - in the case of my AFL team)

[impulsenine]

I like telling stories a lot more than I like writing them - you can say a lot with a pregnant pause, and no story suffers from having a tipsy audience* - but unless all you Aussies (and OK the German) all plan on going to the same Suns game and I happen to be there, it's unlikely I'll get the chance.

*Thankfully, SDU is probably tipsy anyway.

So, here's my story, which has a lot of backstory, but tough ish. Reading is good for you, and it all comes into play.

I went to grade school at a tiny inner-city hole that was in a neighborhood rife with gangbangers, dropouts, drug dealers and other fun people. The school, though, was an oasis within that place, because the parents didn't want the kids in the school to end up like the kids outside the school.

So it was a bit of a culture shock when I went to high school at Brophy College Preparatory. It's a Catholic, all-boys prep school whose tuition was significantly more costly than the college I went to afterwards (U of A). Despite the fact that there were a lot of rich kids there (and no girls), it was a good school in which we got to say "f--k" in a high school play, because private schools can do that sort of thing. We did have to wear a collared shirt and dockers, though.

There was also a Catholic all-girls' high school next door (hiked-up plaid skirts and everything), and my attempt to sneak over there resulted in my first high school suspension. I don't regret it.

Since Brophy was (and is) populated entirely by teenage boys, the lockers suffered quite a bit. The locker I got my sophomore year happened to have suffered more than others, and about a month into the school year, the door fell off. Actually, I pulled it off. The feeling was very much like when you pick up an empty container that you think is full: for just a second you feel really strong. Then I dropped the large, heavy metal object onto my foot, because painful and embarrassing situations are what you do when you're 14 years old. That's why I joined cross country running: nothing makes you feel like a dork like 3-inch bright-red shorts.

The trouble with the locker was that I was attending a damn tough school. I had three or four books for each of my six classes, and each one weighed roughly the same as a Volkswagen Beetle. And Brophy was a nice school, but not so nice that a lower-classman can just leave his stuff hanging out there for a week. So I packed my backpack tighter than those cross-country pants of mine, walked around campus like Quasimodo for my classes, and lurched my way to the bus stop after classes. From the side, I looked like a capital "P".

Of course, like a proper delinquent, instead of spending lunch money on food, and actually going home directly, I went to the used music store after school. I went to Zia's on Indian School, (which used to be on 7th Ave. but is now on 19th) where you weren't allowed to be an employee unless you had at least six piercings.

My obsession with music was pretty unhealthy. I won't go into the details, but I'll just say my friends knew better than to turn off the radio when one of my favorite bands was playing. I must've been obsessed to lurch my way there with the backpack I was wearing.

So one day I am walking/lurching down Central, crossing the light at Indian School to walk to Zia's. I am carrying my portable CD player and listening to my headphones, trying to think about the girls' school, what music I'm going to buy, and anything but how my spine is being bent into unnatural shapes.

Up comes this Mexican boy, about my age but shorter, who asks what I'm listening to. Having gone to that inner-city grade school, and generally being as ignorant of how the world works as Paris Hilton, I don't think twice about telling him, or wondering why he wants to listen to my headphones.

Naturally, he tells me, "I think I'll keep these." I look at him. He looks at me. He bolts.

Aw, hell no.

Keep in mind: Quasimodo.

He runs across the street, and I turn on cross-country runner mode, grab my backpack with both hands behind my back, and run right on after him. He's a quick bastard, but I'm obsessed: I don't care about the $3 headphones, really, but I'll be damned if I have to wait to listen to the CD I buy until I get home. By the time I've got my hands on my backpack, and have figured out how to run with it, he's a solid fifty feet ahead of me, and crossing the street just as traffic starts to come my way.

To paint a better picture of this, let's review: the skinny white kid in the collared shirt, with the backpack that weighs at least as much as he does, is in the middle of downtown Phoenix and is about to run into the middle of oncoming traffic.

There is a certain, overworked guardian angel whose job is to protect teenagers. That angel is probably a chain smoker.

I run into traffic, full-steam ahead, and am vaguely surprised to be alive when I touch the sidewalk on the other side. The kid I'm chasing has lost most of his lead on me because he wasn't looking to see if I had crossed. He turns around, sees me a lot closer than he expected, and gives me his "holy s--t that white boy crazy!" look, turns South towards downtown and gets running down Central Avenue again.

A few seconds later, I've almost caught him. He turns around again and once again gives me the "holy s--t that white boy crazy!" look, and realizes that it'd be a lot easier to lose me by ducking into buildings and lots, rather than a straight sprint which, inexplicably, white Igor is winning.

He runs into a roofed but open-air hand car wash, and starts circling it. I'm vaguely aware that, to my benefit, he ran into an open area with a few people in it. I am trying to gasp something along the lines of "heythatkidstolemyheadphones [GASP] cansomebodystophim?!? [WHEEZE]" There's a reason they don't combine weightlifting and running.

The kid swings back around from behind the building back into the car wash, after having found that the back alley was a dead end -- and out of nowhere a wall stands up in front of him.

Actually, no, that wasn't a wall, that was a huge black dude. Somewhere a voice says, "You got something of his?"

The kid is too occupied by the fact that he's talking to someone twice his height to answer. He throws the headphones at me and runs away.

I turn to the guy, and, finding it rude to look at someone's chest, look up to where his face is about 18" further up. I'm coming out of "been robbed, must kill thief" mode (if you've ever been robbed or scammed, you know what I mean), and start processing information like a normal human again.

"You're A.C. Green, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Cool. "Thanks"

"No problem."

And I went to the record store, and thanks to A.C. Green, I could listen to it on the way home.

[-SDU-]

noice! hahaha

[rsavaj]

I'm saving that to my HD.

Wow.

And lol@you being suspended for sneaking into Xavier.

[rsavaj]

I'm saving that to my HD.

Wow.

And lol@you being suspended for sneaking into Xavier.

[JustMoe]

I'm saving that to my HD.

Wow.

And l...never mind

I like telling stories a lot more than I like writing them - you can say a lot with a pregnant pause, and no story suffers from having a tipsy audience* - but unless all you Aussies (and OK the German) all plan on going to the same Suns game and I happen to be there, it's unlikely I'll get the chance.

Yeah, thanks AMERICAN, I like you too

Seriously though - I really enjoyed reading your story, impulse, you definitely know how to gain your readers' attention...oh, and the whole story is hilarious, of course

[Phoenix1977]

That story could have been so much better...like actually getting into Xavier. There were some fine chicks rolling out of that school. I used to work at a grocery store close to there...and they came through in full skirt mode. It's hard to ring people up with half a chub.

[impulsenine]

That story could have been so much better...like actually getting into Xavier. There were some fine chicks rolling out of that school. I used to work at a grocery store close to there...and they came through in full skirt mode. It's hard to ring people up with half a chub.

Well, I was trying to edit the story so that it was at least mostly about A.C. Green.

Also, I didn't even get all the way there. I got busted halfway to the school. So I joined drama and got to hang out with them every day after school.

Honestly, a lot of people tell me it must've been terrible going to an all-guys school but I think it was a lot better than the alternative. It was hard enough to concentrate in Calculus without girls. I can't imagine how impossible that would've been with them.

And yes, it was pretty awesome.