Why Are You So Obsessed With Me?
Yeah baby we're starting off articles with MEAN GIRLS quotes now.
Maybe it’s just that I’m following the wrong people on Twitter, but I feel like policing the Spurs fandom is at an all-time high. My stance, as it is on most things, is for everyone to chill the fuck out and let people enjoy their entertainment the way they want to. As long as you’re not antagonizing other people with your fandom, I don’t really care what you do.
To cite a specific example, if you’re shouting “MVP” at Dejounte Murray during a Spurs game, hell yeah! That’s cool as hell, keep it up as long as you want. It’s fun to chant, he’s fun to watch, and as Drew Carey once said, “everything is made up and the points don’t matter!”
The only bad fans are ones who belittle other fans for not being a fan the right way. Or for not being a fan for as long as them. Cheering for a team makes you a fan, full stop. I know it’s a little cheesy, but I kind of want to celebrate that, especially in another down year for our beloved Spurs.
I thought it would be fun to talk about why any of us care about this basketball team in the first place. I’m fascinated by how people decide to become fans, especially for a franchise with as much international appreciation as San Antonio.
I’ll start. I live in Germany now, but I grew up in the vast wasteland east of San Antonio. Or Seguin, to be specific. I keep up with the Spurs via NBA League Pass, watching most games the morning after they’re played and I already know the score.1
Despite growing up in Seguin, I’m not a Texan. I spent the first five years of my life in the California Bay Area. Probably the only reason I’m not a Warriors fan is that in the late 80s and early 90s, nobody was. I don’t remember a single person in my family ever talking about basketball at that age. The sports chatter at family gatherings was always focused on the 49ers2 and sometimes the San Francisco Giants.
In first grade I won a competition in P.E. class. My prize was a poster pack featuring San Antonio Spurs players, most notably David Robinson. I had no idea who these guys were, whether or not they were any good, nothing. I was so unaware of anything in the NBA, if you’d asked me to name two basketball players I would have said Michael Jordan twice and hoped that there were two guys in the league named Michael Jordan.3
What happened after I won that poster pack changed everything, if you’ll allow me to be hyperbolic.
One of my classmates spent the entire rest of the day begging me for the David Robsinson poster. Eventually I got sick of it and told him that David Robinson was my favorite basketball player of all-time and I would never give up that poster. It didn’t stop him from asking, but it did spark something in me. There had to be a reason this kid was so persistent about getting his hands on my poster, and the only way to find out was to become a Spurs fan.
I’ve only been to seven Spurs games, and they are a miserable 2-54 when I show up in person, so maybe it’s better that I’ve never been a regular attendee, but I have nothing but fond memories of watching the playoffs on the couch with my dad.5
So anyway, thanks Steven (I think that was his name) for being so annoying that I developed a lifelong addiction to the best sport on Earth!
How’d you become a Spurs fan? Drop a comment or let’s get the party going on Twitter and share some stories.
Thanks for reading, please be kind to each other out there.
I will not even pretend I watch every game. Sometimes I see the final score and I can’t will myself to spend 90 minutes on it.
Being a 49ers fan born in 1988 is probably a lot like being a Spurs fan born in 2010. You’ve seen the highest of highs before you turned five, and have only experienced pain ever since.
There is another Michael Jordan, but he was drafted long before THE Michael Jordan and… I can’t find any evidence that he actually played an NBA game.
Losses at the Clippers, Blazers, Warriors, and home against the Lakers and Rockets. Wins at home vs. the Clippers and away against the Lakers (the final matchup between Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant, on my birthday! Special day).
He’s one of those guys who hardly watched the regular season because he “knew the Spurs would be in the playoffs every season anyway.”
It’s always a Steven, isn’t it?