Not having a N.B.A. level team in town gives one certain liberty to "root" for different teams over the years. Don't discount my allegiance to the Idaho Stampede for the past 12 years. The last four years, the Idaho Stampede have been a Development League team for the N.B.A. and I would rather watch Development League teams play than the regular N.B.A. More hunger, more intensity, more wanting. (I have many tickets to Stampede games whenever anyone wants to use them, family only). Nonetheless, that is a recent "development". Pun intended.
I have always admired the teams that played "team" ball. Unselfish passing, shooting, and rebounding. Iconic coaches who bring out the best in the players. Players who won with the combined will of the team but perhaps with individual wills being situational asserted.
The first team I really identified with was the New York Knicks in the early seventies. Walt Frazier, Bill Debusschere, Bill Bradley, Earl Monroe, Phil Jackson, Jerry Lucas, Cazzie Russel and Willis Reed. Red Holzman was the coach who united them. Team work personified.
Late 70's and 80's, it was the Boston Celtics starting with John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White, and Paul Silas. (I still like to think I play like Dave Cowens.) Red Auerbach leading the way. That team melded into the Celtics who battled the arch enemy Los Angeles Lakers: Larry Bird, Dennis Johnson, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish and Cornbread Maxwell. The coach was K. C. Jones. I met him a couple of years ago at a Pre-Draft Camp in Atlanta. A very nice gentleman who dotes on his grandchildren.
Then in 1985, Michael Jordan hit the scene and I became a fan of the shoes that Nike named after him. I began to follow the Bulls but still loved the Celtics. But then a TEAM emerged from the brain of Phil Jackson and the elements of teamwork being developed by the Chicago Bulls drew my passion and interest. As my Celtics collectively waned and retired, I began to love the Bulls.
Bill Cartwright, John Paxson, Horace Grant, Scotty Pippen and Michael Jordan. After Michael Jordan's first retirement, he joined up with Scotty Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, Ron Harper (very underrated), Luc Longley and Tony Kukoc. I loved watching the Bulls beat the Jazz. I didn't dislike the Jazz players so much but I dislike their fans in the Jazz arena. (I have a theory about why they are so bad. Another blog.)
Now I am back with the Celtics. Ray Allen is my favorite active player and one of the last of the pure shooters and great gentleman. Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace, Kendrick Perkins (love to watch him the most), Paul Pierce and I even welcome Nate Robinson, albeit grudgingly. Doc Rivers is the right coach for this team right now.
It is cathartic to enjoy and work one's mind about something that is not life and death. It is okay to follow a "team" and not just a franchise. Especially when you are blessed to live in Idaho.
But my basketball soul lives and dies with the Idaho Stampede. It helps that my "job" with the N.B.A. pays me to attend all the home games and even the All Star Games, Summer Leagues, Draft camps and the like. I get paid to watch basketball on the most intense level of the League...!?!?
Pinch me.
I've been a Houston Rockets fan since the days of Hakeem Olajuwon. I've hated the Jazz for about as long because after the Rockets' two championships the Jazz would always beat them in the playoffs and then lay down for the Bulls in the Finals. Looking back at the history books that's not exactly how it happened every time, but that's how I remember it.
ReplyDeleteI always liked Horace Grant. I think it was a combination of the goggles and his blue-collar work ethic. He seemed like a team player.
Horace was underrated and a fierce competitor. Worked his butt off.
ReplyDeleteDitto. Funny how you read my mind about the teams we have loved and then wrote it better than I could have. The Jazz/Bulls games still stand out as some of the best Finals I ever witnessed. (Now I barely enjoy watching the "home" team on television and find the arena pretty boring compared to the NCAA court less than a mile from my house.)
ReplyDeleteInterviewing Danny Ainge while Rondo practiced his shooting in the Celtics practice court a couple years ago was one of those "pinch me" moments for me.
I don't have the depth of affinity for the Stampede that you do but I do love the intensity and potential of the D-League players. The night I came up and sat courtside was a highlight of my spectating career. I'm wearing my NBA Futurecast T-shirt as I write this ... very comfortable. :) When the Stampede gets to the Finals again, I plan on being in Boise for at least a game.
And be sure to reserve that Saturday morning as "little brother" will be bringing his "big game" to town.
I hope we win the Finals again soon. I need a second ring to match the one I was given after the Stampede won the 2008 Championships. Balance, you know.
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