What keeps you rooting for the Wiz?

[Wiz99]

[serious]

I’m really interested: what motivates folks on this board to continue supporting the Wizards?

I’ve followed the Bullets/Zards since the mid-80s. Never rooted for any other NBA franchise.

But I’ve realized Leonsis is one of those owners who watches the value of his asset go up and up but seems unwilling to make serious moves to build a contender. He just doesn’t give a $hit about that.

Seriously, I need some fandom therapy. Why the hell do you guys keep watching? Pathological hopefulness? Masochism? Nothing better to do on cold winter nights? Fond memories? Why?

[queridiculo]

The eternal question of Wizards fandom.

Stockholm syndrome, sunk cost fallacy?

I know one thing, if this steady pursuit of mediocrity doesn’t change anytime soon I’ll just resign myself to box score watching eventually and ultimately probably full on apathy much like the way it’s been for me with Washington football.

[AFM]

Some sort of sick self flagellation except I’m getting no closer to God.

[JWizmentality]

Mental illness

[nate33]

sunk cost fallacy?

That's the reason for me.

[closg00]

The eternal question of Wizards fandom.

Stockholm syndrome, sunk cost fallacy?

I know one thing, if this steady pursuit of mediocrity doesn’t change anytime soon I’ll just resign myself to box score watching eventually and ultimately probably full on apathy much like the way it’s been for me with Washington football.

Exactly this, it’s a car crash that I have to slow-down and rubberneck every year, I wish I could escape.

[doclinkin]

This community. Really the sense of community at all, to have something in common with other hometeam fans. Sports as proxy for patriotism and war, nonlethal territorial battles. Hope, and the satisfaction of wins when hope plays out. Investment in the development and character of individual humans playing the game. Dastardly bloodymindedness because: Fxck Ted, it's my team, I was a fan before I ever knew his name. I joined when the team was a constant loser, understanding this to be the case. As a recovering Patrick Ewing era Knick fan it was liberating to have zero expectations of winning and enjoy the occasional moral victory.

Happy memories: The CWebb era was a thrill, the MJ era felt a bit dirty, rooting for my dire enemy, but the Hibachi era was exalting, and cleared the stain from my spirit. Swapping Kwame for UConn alum Tuff Juice more than redeemed any disappointment from losing Hughes. I liked the chemistry between John Wall and Gortat.

But mostly this thread and everything like it. I find it requires no character to be a bandwagon fan of a winning team. I can admire the heckoutta the Warriors, especially since forever they were Bullets West, losers every year with smart fans, then turned it around. I can envy the acquisition of Stef Curry who I knew since he was a freshman would be stellar. But this is my hometown team. More so even than the Nats/Stolen Expos, or the Caps (the hell do I know about Hockey?), and any fandom I had for the Redslurs was long ago pissed away by the hateful little punk who bought them. Fans who stick with a losing team for a long time tend to be interesting thoughtful people, if damaged and conflicted in various ways, and the folks on this board tend to be bright and insightful and worth bantering with.

The point of fandom is to share it. To wear the same color. To care about at least ONE thing that unites you with your neighbors or even your virtual neighbors. If I'm going to follow basketball, I am going to do so with this team, and be a home town partisan, against all possible rational reason. Because frankly even if you have a winning team, this is still an entirely purposeless exercise: to take vicarious thrill in the improbable physical actions of a collection of lanky mesomorphs running around in shortpant costumes. And to somehow feel like we have any influence in it beyond the cost of a ticket/ eyes on advertising/ or occasionally the inspiration of a loud crowd that inspires a player to do better.

So. I picked this team. This is my crew. Yeah losses are disappointing, but victory is fleeting even for the best teams. Every year wipes the whiteboard free. Every lottery has a chance we get lucky. Every draft adds a new personality to the squad. It remains interesting even when the results are ultimately predictable. Because hey, If I am fan long enough, you never know, a million monkeys might type at least a sonnet, if not a comedic masterpiece. And won't it be that much more satisfying when eventually we win? I am going to lord that moral victory over all the carpetbaggers and bandwagoners, that I was here since the hopeless mopes were coached by Jimmy freakin Lynam. And cheered for Chris Whitney playing on torn ligaments because Rod Strickland didn't feel like barfing up his pregame hot dogs and chose to sit out with a booboo that year.

These are my guys. The DC area is packed with fans who know basketball, so someday when the team is good, it is going to be crazy around here. And I will enjoy it all the more that I stuck it out with you guys. Because y'all deserve the joy. You do, you have good moral character for not giving up on your guys. And until then, I feel like Wizards fandom is like that quote about Brazil: "Brazil is the country of the future, and always will be". Meaning, hell, some day, maybe, we will win a whole bunch, and for now I will enjoy daydreaming about someday maybe.

[9 and 20]

Grew up in the DC area. Wiz are horrible and embarrassing but at least they're kind of lovable in their ineptness. Always make the same dumb mistakes. How many 'so Wiz' running gags are there? When you mention Trevor Ariza, every Wiz fan knows basically what you mean - the hapless Wiz are at it again.

The Wiz have been losers but they haven't driven me away like the Redskins/Commanders. The football team has been embarrassing too but in more of an 'I hate you' kind of way. I actively root against them now even though I grew up rooting for them.

[GoneShammGone]

...

<lots of good stuff snipped>

...

I find it requires no character to be a bandwagon fan of a winning team. I can admire the heckoutta the Warriors, especially since forever they were Bullets West, losers every year with smart fans, then turned it around. I can envy the acquisition of Stef Curry who I knew since he was a freshman would be stellar. But this is my hometown team. More so even than the Nats/Stolen Expos, or the Caps (the hell do I know about Hockey?), and any fandom I had for the Redslurs was long ago pissed away by the hateful little punk who bought them. Fans who stick with a losing team for a long time tend to be interesting thoughtful people, if damaged and conflicted in various ways, and the folks on this board tend to be bright and insightful and worth bantering with.

Doc nails it. Being a Wizards fan is part of my identity. An embarrassing part you could argue... but still it's part of what makes me, me. Lots of times I feel like throwing down the burden of Wizard's fandom and rooting for a competent franchise, but if I did that, would I still respect myself? Like a marriage, in sickness and in health, and if its all sickness, well it doesn't really matter, you still stick with it.

[gesa2]

Doc’s post should be required reading for new posters on the board. I’m with him all the way back to the Ewing Knicks, I switched because as a Syracuse fan from upstate NY it always felt dirty to root for Ewing anyways, even tho Riley is from my hometown. Lived in VA from 83-99 if you count my college years, went to games in the 90s cause I lived in NoVa and they were cheap. Eventually Darrell Walker and the rest of the try hard losers won me over.
But it really is this board that keeps me now. I live in Delaware now, could/should go with the super smart GM just North of me in Philly and I do follow them as my #2. It would be personally #sowizards for us to get good as soon as I turn away, so I can’t.

[Wiz99]

sunk cost fallacy?

That's the reason for me.

One thing that keeps rattling around my brain: “You’ve rooted for this team through thick and mostly thin, it’s going to be so sweet when someday, sometime, somehow the Wizards, or whatever they’re called in the far future, win a new championship.”

[Wiz99]

This community. Really the sense of community at all, to have something in common with other hometeam fans. Sports as proxy for patriotism and war, nonlethal territorial battles. Hope, and the satisfaction of wins when hope plays out. Investment in the development and character of individual humans playing the game. Dastardly bloodymindedness because: Fxck Ted, it's my team, I was a fan before I ever knew his name. I joined when the team was a constant loser, understanding this to be the case. As a recovering Patrick Ewing era Knick fan it was liberating to have zero expectations of winning and enjoy the occasional moral victory.

Happy memories: The CWebb era was a thrill, the MJ era felt a bit dirty, rooting for my dire enemy, but the Hibachi era was exalting, and cleared the stain from my spirit. Swapping Kwame for UConn alum Tuff Juice more than redeemed any disappointment from losing Hughes. I liked the chemistry between John Wall and Gortat.

But mostly this thread and everything like it. I find it requires no character to be a bandwagon fan of a winning team. I can admire the heckoutta the Warriors, especially since forever they were Bullets West, losers every year with smart fans, then turned it around. I can envy the acquisition of Stef Curry who I knew since he was a freshman would be stellar. But this is my hometown team. More so even than the Nats/Stolen Expos, or the Caps (the hell do I know about Hockey?), and any fandom I had for the Redslurs was long ago pissed away by the hateful little punk who bought them. Fans who stick with a losing team for a long time tend to be interesting thoughtful people, if damaged and conflicted in various ways, and the folks on this board tend to be bright and insightful and worth bantering with.

The point of fandom is to share it. To wear the same color. To care about at least ONE thing that unites you with your neighbors or even your virtual neighbors. If I'm going to follow basketball, I am going to do so with this team, and be a home town partisan, against all possible rational reason. Because frankly even if you have a winning team, this is still an entirely purposeless exercise: to take vicarious thrill in the improbable physical actions of a collection of lanky mesomorphs running around in shortpant costumes. And to somehow feel like we have any influence in it beyond the cost of a ticket/ eyes on advertising/ or occasionally the inspiration of a loud crowd that inspires a player to do better.

So. I picked this team. This is my crew. Yeah losses are disappointing, but victory is fleeting even for the best teams. Every year wipes the whiteboard free. Every lottery has a chance we get lucky. Every draft adds a new personality to the squad. It remains interesting even when the results are ultimately predictable. Because hey, If I am fan long enough, you never know, a million monkeys might type at least a sonnet, if not a comedic masterpiece. And won't it be that much more satisfying when eventually we win? I am going to lord that moral victory over all the carpetbaggers and bandwagoners, that I was here since the hopeless mopes were coached by Jimmy freakin Lynam. And cheered for Chris Whitney playing on torn ligaments because Rod Strickland didn't feel like barfing up his pregame hot dogs and chose to sit out with a booboo that year.

These are my guys. The DC area is packed with fans who know basketball, so someday when the team is good, it is going to be crazy around here. And I will enjoy it all the more that I stuck it out with you guys. Because y'all deserve the joy. You do, you have good moral character for not giving up on your guys. And until then, I feel like Wizards fandom is like that quote about Brazil: "Brazil is the country of the future, and always will be". Meaning, hell, some day, maybe, we will win a whole bunch, and for now I will enjoy daydreaming about someday maybe.

Epic, Doc. Thanks!

[penbeast0]

Childhood. I don't go to games or even watch as much basketball as I used to but in my formative years, I went to Bullets games and some games of that one season Rick Barry was here with the Capitols. Unlike Barry, the Bullets players I met gave autographs and didn't diss Virginia where I was born. Met Wes, Gus Johnson, and Jack Marin at different games and all three were nothing but gracious. Later taught with Phil Chenier's son and met Phil when he was working with HCC programs as well.

I live in Heat country now but there isn't that history and I'm not particularly a Heat fan though they seem to be a class organization. Still a Redskin and Penn State football fan for similar reasons, even though I don't follow football anymore.

[ozthegap]

When they finally Win a championship in 50 years, We can say we were the diehard fans from the days the franchise was putting its hopes in Kwame Brown and make fun of all the bandwagoners.

[montestewart]

Childhood. I don't go to games or even watch as much basketball as I used to but in my formative years, I went to Bullets games and some games of that one season Rick Barry was here with the Capitols. Unlike Barry, the Bullets players I met gave autographs and didn't diss Virginia where I was born. Met Wes, Gus Johnson, and Jack Marin at different games and all three were nothing but gracious. Later taught with Phil Chenier's son and met Phil when he was working with HCC programs as well.

I live in Heat country now but there isn't that history and I'm not particularly a Heat fan though they seem to be a class organization. Still a Redskin and Penn State football fan for similar reasons, even though I don't follow football anymore.

Similar to my own experience, including one Caps game with Rick Barry. Initially my teams were my grandfathers New York and Philadelphia teams. Didn’t care enough about football to follow Redskins, loved baseball but the Senators were pretty bad and then we’re gone, loved soccer but there was no winning tradition in DC, barely followed hockey and then DC got a hockey team that was bad for a long time. The Terps were the top sports program in town.

That describes approximately the scene when the Bullets moved to DC in 1973. I already liked Wes Unseld and followed Monroe, Johnson, and then they acquired Elvin Hayes. They became my team in 73-74 (even though I lived in NJ at the time), made the finals in the second year and several more times in the 70s, including a title in 78.

The mid to late 70s Bullets were a shot of coke (*will confirm with PIF), and what followed has been a really, really long crash.

PS: Doc’s fandom Magna Carta should be HOF, if not already there. Give me an amen somebody.

[payitforward]

sunk cost fallacy?

That's the reason for me.

Ditto.

Possibly with a slight admixture of masochism!

[barelyawake]

Years of acid, x, pot, cigarettes, alcohol, dc water and lack of sleep.

[JAR69]

HOF post by Doc. Perfection.

One more point. The genuine feeling that people on this board could do a better job managing the team than the actual front office. That we could propose a realistic trade that would make the team better. Halfway between empowering and depressing.

[montestewart]

This community. Really the sense of community at all, to have something in common with other hometeam fans. Sports as proxy for patriotism and war, nonlethal territorial battles. Hope, and the satisfaction of wins when hope plays out. Investment in the development and character of individual humans playing the game. Dastardly bloodymindedness because: Fxck Ted, it's my team, I was a fan before I ever knew his name. I joined when the team was a constant loser, understanding this to be the case. As a recovering Patrick Ewing era Knick fan it was liberating to have zero expectations of winning and enjoy the occasional moral victory.

Happy memories: The CWebb era was a thrill, the MJ era felt a bit dirty, rooting for my dire enemy, but the Hibachi era was exalting, and cleared the stain from my spirit. Swapping Kwame for UConn alum Tuff Juice more than redeemed any disappointment from losing Hughes. I liked the chemistry between John Wall and Gortat.

But mostly this thread and everything like it. I find it requires no character to be a bandwagon fan of a winning team. I can admire the heckoutta the Warriors, especially since forever they were Bullets West, losers every year with smart fans, then turned it around. I can envy the acquisition of Stef Curry who I knew since he was a freshman would be stellar. But this is my hometown team. More so even than the Nats/Stolen Expos, or the Caps (the hell do I know about Hockey?), and any fandom I had for the Redslurs was long ago pissed away by the hateful little punk who bought them. Fans who stick with a losing team for a long time tend to be interesting thoughtful people, if damaged and conflicted in various ways, and the folks on this board tend to be bright and insightful and worth bantering with.

The point of fandom is to share it. To wear the same color. To care about at least ONE thing that unites you with your neighbors or even your virtual neighbors. If I'm going to follow basketball, I am going to do so with this team, and be a home town partisan, against all possible rational reason. Because frankly even if you have a winning team, this is still an entirely purposeless exercise: to take vicarious thrill in the improbable physical actions of a collection of lanky mesomorphs running around in shortpant costumes. And to somehow feel like we have any influence in it beyond the cost of a ticket/ eyes on advertising/ or occasionally the inspiration of a loud crowd that inspires a player to do better.

So. I picked this team. This is my crew. Yeah losses are disappointing, but victory is fleeting even for the best teams. Every year wipes the whiteboard free. Every lottery has a chance we get lucky. Every draft adds a new personality to the squad. It remains interesting even when the results are ultimately predictable. Because hey, If I am fan long enough, you never know, a million monkeys might type at least a sonnet, if not a comedic masterpiece. And won't it be that much more satisfying when eventually we win? I am going to lord that moral victory over all the carpetbaggers and bandwagoners, that I was here since the hopeless mopes were coached by Jimmy freakin Lynam. And cheered for Chris Whitney playing on torn ligaments because Rod Strickland didn't feel like barfing up his pregame hot dogs and chose to sit out with a booboo that year.

These are my guys. The DC area is packed with fans who know basketball, so someday when the team is good, it is going to be crazy around here. And I will enjoy it all the more that I stuck it out with you guys. Because y'all deserve the joy. You do, you have good moral character for not giving up on your guys. And until then, I feel like Wizards fandom is like that quote about Brazil: "Brazil is the country of the future, and always will be". Meaning, hell, some day, maybe, we will win a whole bunch, and for now I will enjoy daydreaming about someday maybe.

Nominated, seconded, bunch of bureaucratic nonsense, doclinkin enshrined again. Pete Rose? He was seen rifling through dumpsters behind the hall.

Induction ceremony can be viewed here

[80sballboy]

I would and could never root for another franchise unless Baltimore added a team (never happen). So I'm stuck with them. It's like an old GF you keep going back to and then you realize why you broke up in the first place. Remember the good times? NBA title with Wes and Big E, CWebb and Juwan, Gilbert, Caron and Jamison, Wall and Beal. There's always a bit of hope each year kind of like Cubs' and Red Sox fans before they finally won or maybe Cleveland Browns/Guardians, who haven't won since the 50s and 60s. But we aren't really loveable losers.

Then reality hits you in the face. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.