More Than Just a Team…

Hi guys (and gals?)! Sorry I’ve been on radio silence for awhile. I had a busy week and wasn’t able to break away to write any. I’m writing this article from St. Kitts, an island off of Puerto Rico, where I’ll be for the next month (don’t get too jealous, it’s a total 3rd worlder out here…).

Anyhow, I was toying with an idea for an article in my head, a sort of devil’s advocate piece on moving the Clippers to Seattle to be the new SuperSonics, when Baron Davis decided to come to town. Needless to say, the new enthusiasm that brought to the Clipper table made it kind of hard to justify my reasoning any further, and my article’s legs were taken from underneath it. It’s honestly not a bad thing though, I like it when people are able to get behind their team with renewed enthusiasm. Sometimes it can get bad enough to where a new face, be it a head coach or new player, can be just what the doctor ordered.

I feel that Baron Davis brings a lot to be excited about, too. He’s long been one of my favorite players and his exciting style means that, in the very least, you’ll always have a potential highlight on your hands. 

Still, the circumstances that inspired my unwritten article stole the show last week. I’m talking of course about the unfortunate departure of the Seattle Sonics to Oklahoma City. I don’t want to delve into the sketchy politics of the situation, because never in my career do I wish to be considered the guy who passes off things he heard or read elsewhere as my own stuff. I will simply say that as a fan of the city, and a fan of the game of basketball, the situation is very simply, sad. Despite the tone of my originally planned article, I have to say that it’s hard to ever support the departure of a team from the city that fielded it for so long. The NBA will not be the same without the Green and Gold, and the league is NOT better off for it. As I said though, I don’t want to get into any politics or sling any mud.

Instead, I’ll talk about the kid shooting hoops with his dad in their driveway. In sports, so many people tend to get so bogged down in what they THINK is important, the wins and losses, points per game, touchdowns, and home runs, that they forget about what is truly important. You couldn’t find an athlete or a fan out there who doesn’t want their team to win, and they’ll be the first to tell you how bad a taste losing can leave in their mouth, but at the end of the day, winning is never what keeps any of us from returning to the courts, fields, and parks on which we, and our favorite players play. To me, that is what that kid and his father represented, and hearing that the Sonics would be leaving only strengthened that sentiment.

I’m only 25, so I can’t say that I remember a lot of what many of us consider to be the greatest games or performances of all time. I was 8 when Jordan hit his shot over Ehlo, and was too busy playing Sonic the Hedgehog to care that my Dallas Cowboys were involved in a mini dynasty in the early-mid nineties. Whenever I did make the time though, to turn off my Sega, I spent a lot of time playing football, basketball, and baseball in the streets outside my house. Those games didn’t mean anything to me then, but I think about them a lot now. I guess part of it stems from being an adult and having actual responsibilities, but I think that the other part of it comes from the fact that those times of enjoyment came from times when I was too young to tie my allegiance to any particular team.

That will not be the case next season for many Sonics fans as they watch, through gritted teeth, their old team take the court in a different city. It will be different for them because, as we all do, many of them long ago reached that age where their team becomes a representative part of who they are. I can remember the first San Antonio Spurs game I ever attended. While I wasn’t lucky enough to be able to say I attended any of their championship clinching games, I can say without a doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t ever trade that memory for anything, not even another championship.

Last week, when Seattle residents learned that their team would be taken from them, I’m quite sure that many residents were able to conjure up similar memories of their own. These memories are important in so many ways than just one. For some, they are stories that they can tell and retell to their children. For others, those memories may manifest themselves in a driveway or backyard, as kids reenact the accomplishments of their heroes. For others still, myself included, their memory may be one that is shared with a loved one, whether that person is a parent, son or daughter, or significant other.

In the past few years, I have made long strides to correct my once infamous temper, which often appeared as a result of a Spurs loss, among other things. Notable appearances of my outbreaks included Manu Ginobili’s boneheaded foul in Game 7 of the ‘06 Western Semis. While I don’t intend for this article to become an expose of my many faults, I feel that it is worth mentioning because, in my attempts to correct myself, I’ve found myself calling on some of my own memories. They’re calming in a way, and they’ve served to remind me that no matter what happens, that these games are just that: Games. Still, it has to be said that anything that can give us memories that we hold so dear to ourselves, is also more than just a game.

When I said above that our respective teams become an integral part of ourselves, I said that with the knowledge that most of us swear allegiances to our teams that hold, come hell or high water.

I would imagine that many of you Clips fans have had to endure countless jibes, ribs, and insults from Laker fans, as well as your own disappointments with your team. Still, you wouldn’t trade in your team for anything in the world. If anything, the hard times only serve to endear your team even more to you than do the good times. Hard times for most sports fans however, represent a slump in the wins column, or a string of particularly tough defeats to a rival.

To this generation of Seattle fans, the hard times are so much more. They have to deal with the fact that their team is gone. Much like you, I cannot begin to imagine to imagine what my life would be like if my San Antonio Spurs were to leave. While I could never say that losing a team would be akin to losing a friend or other loved one, I could offer my best guess in saying that for those of us who love our teams, it wouldn’t be too far off. Considering that for many of us, many close friends, and the memories I have written about were formed because of these teams, I can only imagine the size of the hole that would be left in its absence. 

During this trying period, we’ve seen a lot of Cleveland Browns fans reach out to their Seattle brethren. As victims of the most recent team departure prior to this one, they feel, rightfully so, that their condolences are important. They know what it’s like to lose their team, but to me, what is most important about this outreach is that they represent the hope that their team will one day return. This represents what is potentially the only bright spot of the events that have transpired. That Commissioner Stern will realize that the NBA isn’t better off with this team in Oklahoma. Hopefully, those commercials we’ve all seen, the ones assuring us that “The NBA Cares”, will legitimize themselves in the future when a team returns to the Emerald City.

As said before, I could never imagine what it would be like to wake up one morning and learn that my Spurs would be leaving, and with that said, I do not envy what the fans in Seattle are going through. However, through all of this, the important thing to remember is that no matter how much money Clay Bennett has, and no matter how shady the politics of this whole thing are, the fans in Seattle will always have their memories. They’ll still be able to remember being the first 8 seed to upset a number 1. They’ll still be able to tell their kids about seeing Gary and Shawn go toe to toe with Michael Jordan in the NBA Finals. Their kids will still be able to pretend they’re Kevin Durant in their driveways. In their memories, they’ll always be wearing the Green And Gold.Good Luck, Seattle…