Your NBA team fandom & alliances

Celtics. Grew up in New England, fell in love with them and basketball in the 1980-81 season when I was 8. I was a proper "fan" growing up but cooled when I left for college. Wish them well, follow them as much as I follow anyone, but my attention wavers. If I have a side piece it's the last 20+ years of the Spurs. I love how Pop teaches and coaches the game. In general I like the game (or I should say, I DID like the game) more than I like specific teams, and find much of the modern league pretty unwatchable. Hoisting is lame.

spurs. other than a fairweather fandom of the late 90s bulls team when i was a lame kid. my first game was at the old hemisfair arena in 91-92. best game i ever went to in person was this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAGDNHugl_U

— Who's your #1 team: Warriors

— Why is that team your #1: Grew up in central coast ca

— Who's your side-piece(s): Suns are my #2, Nuggets my #3

— Why they are your side-piece(s): Suns cos I live in Pheonix and have been here for over ten years. Also cos I liked them in the 90s a bit (barkley/kj/majerlie) and loved the Steve Nash era, which kind of rekindled my love for the NBA in general. Nuggets cos I lived there for a bit and caught some games in my early 20s, have always liked their players to varying degrees. also really loved hakeem and the mid 90s rockets but that was more about hakeem than anything.

— How, when, why you got into the NBA: I'm 38 been into the warriors and nba since the late 80s, Mullin then run tmc basically. then sprewell. But my family was more into mlb (giants) and the nfl (49ers) so it was more my friends that elevated my love for it. kinda lost interest over the lakers dynasty years but still liked it and watched the playoffs. got back into the nba big time after nash went to the suns and then the we believe warriors happened.

thats awesome xp. so low scoring

late 90s spurs basketball was GRIMY

and yet so good.

my number one team is the maine red claws

do the Red Claws still play at the Expo?

Celtics are my #1 since i've lived in MA my whole life. my dad was a lifelong fan too and got me into em when i was very young

my sidepiece as a kid was the 90s sonics bc i wanted someone to root for in the offs while the celtics sucked, more recently its been the nuggets because i liked the post-melo 2012/2013 team and then stuck with them because of my dumb meme/catchphrase which is possibly finally paying off

grew up outside of boston so it's always been the celtics. basketball was my favorite sport as a kid and the one a stuck with the longest and i loved the cards and almanacs and stats and everything. i mostly tuned out the nba from the late 90s though the mid-200os, the celtics were bad, the league was pretty bad, and it's hard to overstate how massive the sox were around here from '03-'07, which covered most of my college years (and the patriots to a lesser degree though that has certainly changed over time).

i got back into the nba later in college with lebron coming in and that whole generation of stars, followed of course by the big 3 celtics, and i've been on board ever since even as my interest in the other big team sports has waned to vaying degrees.

i don't have another team i consistently rate. i go into sort of a bunker mentality mode when the celtics are good. when they've been less good i've found transitory teams/cores of players that i've liked...i'm certainly a proponent of prime era grit and grind, i love the mavs championship team, etc. etc.

— Who's your #1 team: Portland Trail Blazers

— Why is that team your #1: I've lived in Portland for 60 of my 64 years. My dad nailed a backboard and hoop to a utility pole in front of my house in about 1965 and I must have played a couple thousand hours out there. The Trail Blazers entered the league in 1970 and played their first game a few days before my 16th birthday. How could they not be my #1 team?

— Who's your side-piece(s): I like to watch whoever is playing enjoyable hoops, but I never get emotionally involved with any other team until the Blazers are eliminated from the playoffs. So, tbh, no other team qualifies as a side piece.

— How, when, why you got into the NBA: It started with watching the NBA Finals on television in the 60s. Lakers v. Celtics. Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlin, Jerry West, John Havlicek, you know the era. Damned exciting stuff it was, too.

NB: Before the Trail Blazers existed, my #1 team was the Nate Thurmond-era Warriors. 'Beat LA' was a thing with me even then.

Beat LA is eternal.

i root for the heat as a miami boy but i don't live and die with them quite like i do with some other teams (tho the bron years were particularly fraught...) i happen to watch them a lot now because i find the team to be kind of interesting and fun even in their mediocrity, but if they were i.e. the pistons or hornets i don't think i'd watch very many of their games.

the heat as an object of fandom are pretty interesting. when i was a kid in the mid 90s they had still not even been around for 10 years -- with the marlins and panthers being even younger -- so miami was still very very much a football town... if you lived there in the 70s and 80s the dolphins and hurricanes were the only shows in town & that's what i was raised to be invested in. the heat were there -- and were good in the zo/hardaway years when i was still impressionable -- but it wasn't the same. i cared way more about canes basketball (disease) and still do. but the dolphins, canes and marlins have all been in the trash for a good two decades now and in that time the heat have won 3 titles, had wade, had the bron years & generally been by far the most (slash only) competently run team in the city. so the heat really have a lot of equity built up now especially with anyone younger than 30. miami will always get shit for its fair weather fans but the heat are a real NBA success story.

otherwise i just root for storylines, pain, and steph curry

i'm only marginally an NBA fan and grew up in pittsburgh, so i have no allegiances

long ago i hated the spurs because my father lived in san antonio, but that was before duncan (who i fucking loved) and pop

would theoretically root for duke products (not austin rivers) but in the one-and-done era i don't really care. except for zion, now

root against teams from places i've lived (wizards, knicks). except i have nothing against the t-wolves and am barely aware of the nets even though i live in brooklyn now

otherwise i just root for storylines, pain, and steph curry

otm

I've rooted for the Warriors since Run TMC (grew up in Bay Area) but only really started following hoops and stuff when I moved back in '07. I don't really have a side piece, tend to root for individual players more. I guess I've kinda dug Denver ever since the Melo trade, lots of fun bball's been goin on up there.

Memphis stole my favorite team RIP

oh damn sorry i knew i was missing one!

Grew up in North Carolina in the 70s and 80s so it was all about college hoops. No one watched the pro game in NC back then even if we knew about Dr J, Jordan and Magic etc. Gradually became disinterested in college hoops (it became kinda boring once I left NC). First pro team I followed sort of closely was the '10-'14 Spurs when they were battling the Heat. Also, because I was in the Bay Area, I started watching the Warriors on TV at the gym. That was the season (?2011) they traded Monte Ellis. Super frustrating team to watch. Eventually the legend of Steph and the preposterous sounding splash brothers drew me in. Been watching the Dubs closely over past several seasons.

11-12 was the year curry only played like 20 games cos the ankle. also klay's rookie year. and yeah they traded bogut for monta and the new owners got boo'd that day. david lee was really ballin tho. people forget he was the first all star the dubs had had since sprewell, curry didnt get his first one until a couple years later. pretty quick rise to the mountaintop from there.

I like reading this simmons column about the booing with the benefit of hindsight: http://grantland.com/features/how-annoy-fan-base-60-easy-steps/

a classic piece for sure

so I wasn't actually an NBA fan until after the Vancouver Grizz left, but my little sister was a diehard fan, and I ended up going to some terrible games. I recently watched this extremely wholesome documentary about tracking down Big Country that brought back the memories:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMhM-8D-Q1o

my sister was also obsessed with steve nash (and any Canadian player, like the legendary Todd MacCulloch) and I started watching the Vince-Iverson playoff series in 2001 and the Nellieball Mavs. I transferred allegiances to the Suns when Nash was traded and lived and died with those heartbreaking playoff series against the lakers and spurs. I guess I'd still consider myself a suns fan, but it would be nice if they were ever competitive again. I've been lightly rooting for the Warriors because they took the Nellieball/Seven-seconds-or-less style and perfected it, but by this point I'd be happy if someone knocked them off, like most NBA fans.

celtics, saw bird play in the old garden w my dad etc, have p much been a hardcore fan since, watching many games in even the direst of todd day dee brown type seasons

generally like to pick up a side piece that plays good offense tho havent really gotten into any this year kinda like toronto and sacto i guess

obvs am also just an general nba fan tho too i like to watch the guys do the dunks

can't root for the celtics simply because of bill simmons

hes not the celtics fault lol

I don't really have a fav team. I would be a Knicks fan but I hate Dolan so much, plus obv they stink. The Nets aren't interesting to me. I grew up in DC but the "Wizards" name change always annoyed me. Moreover I just feel silly being a "fan" of a team on any deep level as a near-40-yo-man.

sad

xxp i know! but that's how it goes

very sad!

xp to goon, i should also add as well that I am a complete nba junky. the warriors were so bad for so long i learned to just love watching nba hoops in any form, still do. i mean, i still watch a lot of suns games...

league pass is such a game changer, i watched so many knicks games in my life, rough lol

during the we believe era warriors i would watch reg season games by using this one random link that i got from some warriors chat room. i would open the link then type into a blank chat box what game i wanted to watch, supposedly went to some dude in germany... then a link would be sent back within a few minutes and i had exactly 60 seconds to copy/paste the url into a very specific version of windows media player and the game would open. couldnt make the window full screen so it was like 1/10 of the monitor space but i didnt care, i needed my fix.

<3

lol nice, i had cable + league pass for a year and basically went into an nba coma waking up on the couch confused in the middle of the night and so forth

no such thing as too much hoop

league pass is such a game changer, i watched so many knicks games in my life, rough lol

― lag∞n, Tuesday, March 19, 2019 12:50 PM (fifty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Knicks Lakers the other night was deeply painful -- turnovers like every three runs! Just bad, embarrassing, pickup team level play. I imagine a lot of the games are like that but I don't watch that many.

yeah especially late in the season

lotta crap teams start shutting down their best players at the end and you get a lot of mediocre rookie showcasing and 10-day g league call-ups. It can get really ugly. but you are often left with questions like: is mudiay good now? is colin sexton gonna be ok in this league? how did elfrid payton get 5 triple doubles in a row? etc

lol i love the late season random stat games tbh

I've come reeeeally close to pulling the trigger on League Pass for like 8 straight years I think but still haven't done it, honestly between NBATV, TNT and ESPN there is pretty much 1-2 games on every night and I'm not terribly picky about who I watch.

Living in NC I am nominally a Hornets fan but this year has been a pain in the ass because I don't have traditional cable and my Playstation Vue doesn't get whatever rando regional sports channel that carries Hornets games. So I've literally watched them less than any other team this year because they're blacked out on the very rare occasion they appear on one of the national sports networks. This is all probably for the best. I saw them twice in person last season and they got smoked both times, once understandably by the Raps but once by the damn Nets.

I think the avidity of my NBA fandom has definitely peaked in the last few years, maybe in part due to the fact that I've dropped baseball as a sport I follow and I only get into college hoops in March. Honestly a big part of it too has been getting into NBA podcasts, especially the Lowe Post but also some of The Ringer's stuff, it just makes following the sport more enjoyable when there's a lot of smart content out there about it (same has been true for me with the NFL).

— Who's your #1 team:

Bulls

— Why is that team your #1:

Cause grew up in Chicago 'burbs. I was 6 when MJ was a rookie, 20 when he retired from Bulls 2nd time, so whole childhood was MJ Bulls.

— Who's your side-piece(s):

Don't have one. Respect the hell out of Pop and Spurs though. If Bulls aren't playing, I just root for good ball/close game/that player who annoys me to lose in comical fashion.

— How, when, why you got into the NBA:

See above re: 6 yr old me and MJ rookie. !st games I remember watching though were when MJ came back from fractured foot; I was so annoyed with his minutes restriction.

HAWKS. moved to atlanta from charlotte when i was eight and right in the middle of the classic nique/doc/spud/moses years. don't fuck with sidepieces and really don't watch much ball unless the hawks are playing. became weirdly invested during the rebuilding years of the early 2000s and haven't backed off since.

my son is two and is already asking me to watch trae highlights. when he shoots on his little basketball goal he yells trae highlights when it leaves his hand. this is how it should be.

aw go lil man

very nice.

my kids are arizona natives so i (kinda) want them to choose their own team, i try not to fill their minds with too much warriors homerism. they have chosen wisely thus far, obv with gentle nudging + praying to steph curry every morning and night.

reddit.com/nbastreams is consistently great if you don't mind watching games on your computer

er... r/nbastrems w/e

STREAMS

rae streamerds

celtics, saw bird play in the old garden w my dad etc, have p much been a hardcore fan since, watching many games in even the direst of todd day dee brown type seasons

Same same same, but sub “grandpa” for “dad” and “jeered at” for “saw”

no flex zone

https://i.imgur.com/hP2KjK6.png

dont be rude to larry bird please thank you

— Who's your #1 team: Dubs
— Why is that team your #1: Moved to the east bay in the '90s and slowly warmed to them.
— Who's your side-piece(s): I considered myself a Pistons fan in the Bad Boys era and also liked the Knicks, but mostly watched the Lakers since they were on TV regularly. Pretended to not enjoy the Lakers due to anti-LA bias. These days: My fantasy teams/players.
— Why they are your side-piece(s): $
— How, when, why you got into the NBA: Pretty much got into NBA/MLB/NFL as soon as I noticed they existed. Went to a few San Diego Clippers games as a tyke.

"celtics, saw bird play in the old garden w my dad etc" is p much as good a tagline as it gets for sports fandom

yeah theres some great stuff in this thread.

really liked jordans miami sports breakdown, had never thought of or heard any of that.

didnt know aimless was around for the golden years of the nba! its kinda weird to me that the nba hasnt uploaded a full archive of all games played or something. would love to watch some games from the 60s-70s.

yeah even before YouTube was a thing I thought NBA should put up all its old games online. but there are a LOT on YouTube. I watched a '71 Bucks Finals game not that long ago.

i watched a celtics-lakers russell-wilt finals game over the summer and...... it was so bad, no offense to the legends and what not but russell looked like he had never held a basketball before

sadly i'm a bit too young to have gotten to see larry bird, i did go to some games in the old garden with my dad but it was during like the dee brown era

there was a couple years in there where the celtics were playing smallball just cause their roster was bad and tommy called them "the mighty mights" lol really trying to be optimistic

mighty mites i guess makes more sense actually lol

Celtics are one of my earliest sports memories. Watched the Celtics/Rockets finals in a bar (!) with my dad.

nice, kinda left field that 2 of the 3 bird era titles came vs the rockets

also kinda left field that the year before the celtics beat them in the finals for the first time they beat them in the eastern conf playoffs https://www.landofbasketball.com/head_to_head_gl/rockets_vs_celtics_game_log_pl.htm

my earliest celtics memory is when reggie lewis died :(

that was sad rip

I think I only got to see MJ play in person twice, once at old Chicago Stadium once at United Center.
Chicago Stadium game was last game of the 88-89 season vs the Cavs, so it was just before those 2 teams met in Playoffs for "The Shot". Went with my neighbor and his parents, and this kid was goofing around and totally blocked my view of MJ doing a stylin reverse breakaway dunk. I'm still kinda mad about that!
UC game was during Rodman era, won tix via supermarket drawing, sat in lower skybox, Rodman had like 26 boards.
So that means my parents never paid to take me to a single game wtf what is the statute of limitations for child abuse??

recall seeing the shot at an applebees for some reason

lolol
I was up in my room watching the game on lil tv that I recently got as a hand-me-down. Don't know why I wasn't watching with my mom in family room cause she was a fan too. We were about to go out to dinner at pizza place mom n dad would go to when they were dating. So maybe she was busy getting ready to go out and my sisters took control of main tv. I remember jumping around on my yellow shag carpeting after he won it.

So that means my parents never paid to take me to a single game wtf what is the statute of limitations for child abuse??

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, March 20, 2019 11:40 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol wow you need to confront them, might need a psychiatrist to talk this one through together to make sure nothing is left unsaid.

— Who's your #1 team:

Chicago Bulls, may god have mercy on my soul

— Why is that team your #1:

I always loved MJ but I remember watching them in the finals against the Lakers and it really took hold then. I was 14 I guess? The Layup was the big moment for me in that series. I watched every game through high school. I loved all those guys: Pippen of course, just a quiet assassin out there. Horace Grant, who maybe isn’t as beloved in Chicago as you’d imagine: Bulls fans remember him going to the Magic during their extremely failed attempt at supplanting the Bulls as the next EC dynasty. Armstrong, Cartwright (who seemed at the time like an ancient wizard out there against Hakeem, Ewing, Robinson, etc. Even Parish), Paxton, and so on.

— Who's your side-piece(s):

The Spurs for sure.

— Why they are your side-piece(s):

I just admire that organization and generally speaking they’ve always been a likable group. Up til Kawhi got weird. Pop is incredible. Duncan and Robinson were amazing. Have made the playoffs in 22 straight seasons now, in 42 out of 46 seasons in the NBA. The Lakers have missed the playoffs six times....in the past six seasons!

— How, when, why you got into the NBA:

Answered up there a bit but it was actually maybe a bit earlier, I loved watching Jordan, Bird, Johnson, Barkley, that golden era of centers who averaged 28 ppg and 14 boards. Late period Moses Malone and Erving and Abdul-Jabbar. A great time to enter into the game.

I was so MJ/Bulls focused early on + it was so much easier to not keep up with the NBA as a whole + Finals were always when summer vacation began so I was never inside in front of a TV = missed those mid 80s Lakers/Celts series. That's def something YouTube has been great for.

But re: "so much easier to not keep up with the NBA", the upshot was that these players (esp West Conf players) who you rarely saw play took on near-mythic qualities. Like who the fck is this Fat Lever guy, how does he get these numbers they just put on the screen while he's shooting a FT?? There was a lot more mystery, esp for a kid.

my earliest celtics memory is when reggie lewis died :(

― ciderpress, Wednesday, March 20, 2019 2:09 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that was sad rip

― lag∞n, Wednesday, March 20, 2019 2:11 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hate this day.

(sorry, couldn't resist).

— Who's your #1 team: Warriors

— Why is that team your #1: Been in SF for 7 years. And Steph. And Klay.

— Who's your side-piece(s): Pelicans

— Why they are your side-piece(s): I'm from NOLA. They weren't around when I was growing up and I didn't have any room in my heart/life to be a fan of any other team than the Saints so I didn't really give them a second thought until I got into NBA a few years ago. Kings/Clippers are my tertiary faves because they're young and fun.

— How, when, why you got into the NBA: Got swept up in Stephmania during the unanimous season and have only missed a couple games since. It helped that the Warriors' rise coincided with a period that I was having a harder and harder time justifying following the NFL. Lebron going supernova and the Game 7 crushing loss felt so familiar to me as a Saints fan that I think it was the final ingredient in completing the graft of my loyalty from the Saints over to the Dubs. That said, the more I watch and learn about the game the less team-loyal and more player/system-fan I become. It is a beautiful game to behold.

— Who's your #1 team: Lakers
— Why is that team your #1: born and raised in LA and some of the earliest memories are listening to chick Hearn on that radio during showtime era
— Who's your side-piece(s): the LOL knicks , idk i just want them to be good but they arent
— Why they are your side-piece(s): get to go see them at MSG at least once a year
— How, when, why you got into the NBA: grandpa was s huge Dodger and Lakers fan

I'm not sure why/how I got into the NBA when I did. I think watching Lebron in the 07 ECF, where he just kicked the Pistons' asses in that one game. That was cool. Even though the 07 finals were supposedly boring I enjoyed watching the Spurs do their thing. I actually missed the 'we believe' dubs series by a hair. So I got into them pre-God mode Curry...the Anthony Randolph/Corey Maggette era lol. Loved watching Monta do his crazy shit, driving like a maniac. Honestly still amazed how quickly it turned around. Good grief, Kwame Brown, signing an offer sheet for Deandre Jordan...I still remember when Steph got his first triple double, grabbing a rebound right as the game ended, not even realizing it until Turiaf or somebody rubbed his head and congratulated him. As you can see I'm really defensive about accusations of fairweatherness.

And Spottie's right, David Lee deserves much dub nation love, I was sad when he left but it had to happen.

he even unlocked the code in the 2015 finals! got draymond out of his weird funk and showed him the path to breaking the defense down.

I know he's a cue anon guy or whatever but having Bogut back has increased my affection for this year's team quite a bit.

i agree for some reason, it feels good idk why.

Hi ILH lurker delurking for a sec

— Who's your #1 team:

Houston Rockets

— Why is that team your #1:— How, when, why you got into the NBA:

My first post university job was working the night shift at a petrol station, there was a radio there and reception was p shitty but for some reason one night i stumbled across some station for overseas US military personnel, on long wave i think, that had commentary on that year's NBA Finals and just from hearing 2 or 3 games from that series I found myself rooting for Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets. Can't say that I've always followed them assiduously in every season since but they're still my team and I love James Harden boneheaded non defensive plays and all.

— Who's your side-piece(s):— Why they are your side-piece(s):

76ers cos Iverson. Mavs cos Dirk.

Mostly tend to root for players, and occasionally coaches (i see you Pop and Stan Van) rather than teams maybe because I'm not American and have no local affiliation although the majority of players I like are Euros so that's a local affiliation of sorts.

we have a rockets fan! welcome oscar

lol nice

do you follow euroleague? if no, why not?

No, I don't follow Euroleague. Wouldn't even know where to start. As to why? Well I assume it's vastly inferior to the NBA and tbh I don't really have a high enough understanding of basketball to solely watch games to appreciate systems or styles etc. I mean I struggle to even enjoy college ball because it mostly seems kinda slow and incompetent to my untutored eye in comparison to the NBA and I've always assumed I'd feel the same about Euroleague.

lots of posters on ILH itself and through them finding articles from people like zach lowe have greatly helped in my appreciation of the game but even then when you guys point out things that a player does particularly well or plays that a team run particularly smoothly I'll look them up on youtube and still sometimes be none the wiser.

So yeah i like basketball but it ain't in my bones like it is for most of you.

As you can see I'm really defensive about accusations of fairweatherness.

I'm definitely a bandwagon fan and probably won't find out if I'm fairweather til Steph and Klay drop off. I don't ever see myself watching less basketball though. The sick moves/messy drama are too enthralling.

No, I don't follow Euroleague. Wouldn't even know where to start. As to why? Well I assume it's vastly inferior to the NBA and tbh I don't really have a high enough understanding of basketball to solely watch games to appreciate systems or styles etc. I mean I struggle to even enjoy college ball because it mostly seems kinda slow and incompetent to my untutored eye in comparison to the NBA and I've always assumed I'd feel the same about Euroleague.

lots of posters on ILH itself and through them finding articles from people like zach lowe have greatly helped in my appreciation of the game but even then when you guys point out things that a player does particularly well or plays that a team run particularly smoothly I'll look them up on youtube and still sometimes be none the wiser.

So yeah i like basketball but it ain't in my bones like it is for most of you.

― oscar bravo, Wednesday, March 20, 2019 3:23 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

college hoop is really trash now. they really just need to adopt the nba rules (4 quarters, 24 second shot clock, no bonus/double bonus, 6 fouls foul out, etc) the nba is a far superior product. the one and done rule has hurt college a lot too and i bet it will be more fun to watch once all the best of the best get to join the nba out of high school again.

however, the next 4 days are 4 of the best days of sport in the year. I love opening weekend of March Madness. really dont care as much once they get to the later rounds (espesh if there arent any cinderella teams to cheer on) altho i will be routing on our favorite son zion all the way obv

yeah first weekend is the true madness

why four quarters? i mean, what's the difference

— Who's your #1 team: Knicks
— Why is that team your #1: My first-ever sporting event was a Knicks game. Well, not just a Knicks game, but an NBA Finals game. What a way to kick off a fandom right? The Knicks were by far the biggest deal in town in my early childhood ('til I was about ten), and the players were everywhere on the TV.. My fondest pro hoops memories of all time come from the lockout-year team that made the finals. Besides being larger than life, a bunch of the players lived kinda nearby in the suburbs where I lived, so I would occasionally run into, say, Buck Williams shopping at the Halloween store with his kid. And they would do signings and engagement that really affected me when I was a kid. It's a far cry from the current era--a team of journeyman and the occasional star who management alienates until they leave town.
— Who's your side-piece(s): Brooklyn, Sixers
— Why they are your side-piece(s): For Brooklyn--proximity. I live in the Flatbush area, so Barclays is a short walk. Plus, they're a super-fun team with talented youngsters and a good coach who was actually given a leash to work his magic. Sixers, I have a close family friend who works in the front office. Plus--years of Knicks misery and shared enmity against the Celtics.
— How, when, why you got into the NBA: Kinda got into it above, sorry.

I will say that the team I follow closest in both football and basketball is the Michigan Wolverines. College sports seems mostly non-grata around ILX parts, but I can't help it--I've been indoctrinated and I bleed Blue to the point where I organize my life around their games (why why why would you schedule a wedding on a fall saturday, whyyyyy)

I wouldn't say I prefer College Hoops to the NBA product. It's clearly inferior for all the reasons that everyone says. I'm a League Pass subscriber and the NBA is definitely the most fun league out there.. But the shorter games and the longer shot clock means more unpredictability, and it means each possession is a bit more meaningful--it's more of a visceral experience watching than the NBA, which is pure entertainment. Plus, in the particular case of Michigan, John Beilein built a very warm and fuzzy program, with an unconventional style and few one-n-dones. It's nice to have them flourishing while the knicks near their 19th straight year of hopelessness (give or take that one 2012-2013 season)

— Who's your #1 team:

dearly departed seattle super sonics

— Why is that team your #1:

seattle born and bred. i left for a while and came back. now they need to

— Who's your side-piece(s):

blazers

— Why they are your side-piece(s):

lol rivalries, but i lived in portland for a couple years and the town is obsessed and i couldn't help getting with it. living in the same town as rasheed wallace has that effect on a person

— How, when, why you got into the NBA:

legend of '79 champions, slick watts, jack sikma

living in the same town as rasheed wallace has that effect on a person

man I really wanna post earnestly on this thread but when I start thinking about early nba times it is straight up a proustian Madeline and I get lost in memory and I’ll end up writing an 8 volume novel or whatever

— Who's your #1 team:
Sixers
— Why is that team your #1:
Lived in SE PA and became friends with a bunch of Sixers fans in the Iverson era.
— Who's your side-piece(s):
Spurs and anyone playing the Lakers.
— Why they are your side-piece(s):
Pop. And rooting against the Lakers is in the Bill of Rights.
— How, when, why you got into the NBA:
See above. Did not become a real fan until the late 90s when the Sixers got Iverson. Loved that team that went to the Finals with Eric Snow, et. al. LOL.

Iverson was just such a perfect Philly player.

I hear Snow is still highly beloved there

man I really wanna post earnestly on this thread but when I start thinking about early nba times it is straight up a proustian Madeline and I get lost in memory and I’ll end up writing an 8 volume novel or whatever

― Clay, Wednesday, March 20, 2019 11:50 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

let it flow my man

otm

I think the nba owes as much to iverson as it does to jordan. he brought in so many young fans and made everyone in the world want to do sick crossovers and wear arm sleeves.

for sure iverson was so charismatic

i've been largely absent from ILH this year for basketball- and non-basketball reasons but i still lurk and this thread in particular is great

Who's your #1 team:
cavs.

Why is that team your #1:
cleveland is my hometown. i was a kid in the when lenny wilkins coached the mark price / brad daugherty / ron harper / larry nance era, it was p fun. i did basketball camp at the y and danny ferry came to the camp. but really it was seeing lebron ascend when i was in high school and then being able to #witness his whole astonishing career arc, it's been so goddamn fun to see someone from this area do what he's done. i went to a catholic high school and they did prayers over the classroom PA system and sometime in 2002 (i think maybe when sports illustrated did their big "chosen one" feature on the high school lebron? i can't remember but it was sometime when lebron was in the news in 2002) and the prayer leader gave thanks to "our lord and savior, the son of god" over the PA and my teacher in the classroom mumbles under his breath "lebron james" and we all just ate it up.

Who's your side-piece(s):
don't really have any but i love lebron for aforementioned reasons, so maybe the lakers right now, i've probably watched more lakers games than cavs this year. always admire the spurs for reasons others have mentioned. i used to hate the dubs of course but now i enjoy them

How, when, why you got into the NBA:
i've always just been a casual fan, dipping in here and there and checking out completely occasionally. but playing tecmo NBA basketball on my super nintendo in the mid-90s, watching NBA inside stuff with my older brothers who really seemed to know everything about the league, playing playground and driveway hoops with them, then the lebron cavs part 1 and of course part 2 made it really fun to be an NBA fan

clay what you describe is the hoops board of equivalent of hoisting which we all agree is wonderful

xps

— Who's your #1 team: Timberwolves
— Why is that team your #1: I grew up in MN; also, I hate myself
— Who's your side-piece(s): wherever Lebron is playing
— Why they are your side-piece(s): I was born in OH
— How, when, why you got into the NBA: I was always a fan of the Magic/Bird rivalry but my real gateway into the NBA was when I watched Patrick Ewing lose to Villanova in the 1985 NCAA tournament and said to myself "I must follow this dude's career into the pros and root against him at any and all opportunities"; then the 90s and Jordan happened and I was hooked up until the always-disappointing Timberwolves beat most of my active enjoyment of the game out of me. I still enjoy rooting against the Celtics and Knicks, though.

i can't remember but it was sometime when lebron was in the news in 2002) and the prayer leader gave thanks to "our lord and savior, the son of god" over the PA and my teacher in the classroom mumbles under his breath "lebron james" and we all just ate it up.

looll please tell me your teacher did it in the Lebron James kid voice

Total bandwagon GSW fan, but I did grow up the Bay Area and live in San Francisco...

but my real gateway into the NBA was when I watched Patrick Ewing lose to Villanova in the 1985 NCAA tournament and said to myself "I must follow this dude's career into the pros and root against him at any and all opportunities"

amazing

DJI if you're from the area then you can jump on the wagon anytime with no baggage!

— Who's your #1 team: Timberwolves
— Why is that team your #1: I grew up in MN; also, I hate myself

― GDPR vs GAPDY (DJP), Thursday, March 21, 2019 2:19 PM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol i love wolves culture

so much self loathing haha

looll please tell me your teacher did it in the Lebron James kid voice

― but I can't let Trae do it I got Huerter on my mind (Spottie), Thursday, March 21, 2019 2:25 PM (thirty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

loool

also i was 9 when the 1992 dream team happened and that was so fun

xpost Rasheed Wallace is now the coach for the boys team at my old HS. I can't even...

obv I voted for the Wolves basically djp

I don't see sports as fun per se rather a familial burden I must carry through life

wolves fandom is sounding like catholicism itt

Hi, guys
I've never had a #1 team. I grew up in Kansas City, and the Kings left town right after I was born. I guess now OKC is the closest team, but no way could I be a fan of a team from Oklahoma. I have shifting side-pieces depending on style, players, and league narratives. I really enjoyed the early '00s Kings and was bummed that they couldn't grab a title from Shaq and Kobe. LeBron and I were born the same month, and a big part of my NBA fandom has been watching his career since high school.

I watched the Dream Team play, and I had a basic knowledge of who the best players were growing up, but I didn't really get into the NBA until 2000-ish. I was a Kansas Jayhawks fan, so Paul Pierce getting into the league was a big deal. I remember looking at newspaper box scores his rookie year and wondering who this A. Walker was that was taking so many shots. Also, as weird as it might sound, the draft was important for me getting into the NBA. I saw magazine covers featuring Eddy Curry, Tyson Chandler, and Kwame Brown saying something like "This high schooler could be the #1 pick in the draft!" and was intrigued that there could three of them and wanted to find out more. High schoolers and that wave of big time international players made it an interesting period for following basketball prospects, so I could go on nbadraft.net and nerd out and also watch games to see how guys who were already in the league were doing.

I've been neglecting the league this season, need to watch some games to get back in the groove before the 'offs.

I remember looking at newspaper box scores his rookie year and wondering who this A. Walker was that was taking so many shots.

lolllllllllllll

lmao memories

https://media.tenor.com/images/12b3ddf25ec2c58830d84984caa9cbb1/tenor.gif

The antoine walker thing was a great little blip in time

lol, I have a lot of fondness for the players who became stars in the post-Jordan Bulls, pre-LeBron years.

i read a lot of Slam magazine in that time period, they hyped a lot of those guys

I never read Slam, but I can definitely picture those covers in my mind. Also there was about a year in there where I played PS2 NBA Street every day.

— Who's your #1 team: 76ers
— Why is that team your #1: i started watching basketball in like 2015, and the process was interesting, and then joel embiid ended up being a really fun guy and then they did good and i didn't have to live through years of badness, i just get to show up for the fun part haha sorry phidelphians
— Who's your side-piece(s): blazers, raptors
— Why they are your side-piece(s): cool-ass jerseys (blazers), i liked portland when i visited (blazers), i am from canada (raptors), but not toronto (anyone but raptors), lillard and kawhi
— How, when, why you got into the NBA: 2015 because it was the only major sport i wasn't watching at all and some new friends of mine were v into it so i jumped in and i was like "wtf this is good" and i stopped watching hockey and football p much immediately because basketball is very very very good. still have <3 in my heart for baseball tho, the ambient sport.

THAT SAID i dunno if i am gonna click sixers in the poll or click "w/e team is fun" because honestly i... watch who i can? with the weird nba pass blacking out every game. and there's so many good players at basketball. i like deaaron fox!!

ahh ill clikc 76ers to make it more interesting

— Who's your #1 team:
the nuggets

— Why is that team your #1:
I grew up in upstate NY and had filial and geographical connections to syracuse college sports. I was 13 or so when the carmelo-led team won the NCAA title and ended up just following him to the nuggets as I didn’t really have an NBA team. I was really into those teams from melo’s early years but only really became an every-game-watching fanatic after he was traded and fell in love with the deep, fun team they put together (especially the 2013 nuggets, my favorite team ever)
— Who's your side-piece(s):
whichever team chris paul is playing on, mid-2010s spurs for aesthetic and manu reasons, and generally any team that is good and plays fast

— How, when, why you got into the NBA:
I was only a casual fan for most of my early life, watched the late jordan bulls and the shaq lakers, but probably started the league more closely once I started following the nuggets

#1 team: Milwaukee Bucks
Lived in Wisconsin since I was 7.

Side-pieces...none, really. I liked the Mavs because of Dirk and the Spurs are always a cool team to watch. I like LeBron and a few other individual players like Chris Paul and Boban.

How, when, why you got into the NBA: Like a lot of 90s kids I pretty much grew up on Jordan's Bulls, not really caring about my own hometown team which was mostly awful. Nobody I knew really liked basketball so I kinda forgot about it, by the time I made some basketball friends and started watching again it was 2002, the year after the Bucks' last run with Ray Allen. They have not won a playoff series since. Still, it wasn't all bad - not having a good team meant no pressure and cheap tickets. Plus, we've been kind of spoiled by the Packers, so I figured rooting for a team that downright sucked sometimes was probably good, on balance. I thought the 2010 Bogut/Jennings team had a chance to make some noise...didn't happen. Of course Giannis has changed everything in Milwaukee.

aw go mke

how's the local vibe for the bucks now? are people into it?

i have only passing familiarity with milwaukee but don't see any reason why it shouldn't be a good basketball town.

a friend of mine who moved back to WI said it was a legit vibe, sld out games after years of like not getting sold out

yeah Milwaukee's a good basketball town, even better baseball town. how could it not be, drinking + cold weather + sports really do go together. there is a lot of excitement around the Bucks right now; most of the games I've been at this year were sold out and incredibly loud. Like when they go on one of those 2-minute 12-2 runs the place just goes absolutely mental. Plus we don't have a lot of big money/celebrities here so the front rows are nearly always big fans. I also think the Packers missing the playoffs twice in a row and generally looking like garbage has something to do with it as well. the idea that Wisconsin would have 2 MVPs and neither would be Aaron Rodgers would have sounded completely bonkers 5 years ago.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

— Why is that team your #1:
I grew up in upstate NY and had filial and geographical connections to syracuse college sports. I was 13 or so when the carmelo-led team won the NCAA title and ended up just following him to the nuggets as I didn’t really have an NBA team. I was really into those teams from melo’s early years but only really became an every-game-watching fanatic after he was traded and fell in love with the deep, fun team they put together (especially the 2013 nuggets, my favorite team ever)

― k3vin k., Wednesday, April 10, 2019 2:44 PM (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you should feel blessed every day that you didnt choose the knicks

for sure lol

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

dang, 46 votes? show yourselves you cowards

46 votes!?!? xp!!

ILH has got some lurkers

i voted so:

— Who's your #1 team: Bulls
— Why is that team your #1: grew up in northern IN, which is closer to Chicago than Indy. MJ was dominant.
— Who's your side-piece(s): I loved the Hornets when younger. I like to watch the celtics these days.
— Why they are your side-piece(s): hornets: for their gear and later on for the 'My Brother and Me' ties. celtics: IN ties. grew up watching all of the epic Larry Bird VHS docs with my dad. I like Brad. I also like to know what Bill Simmons is complaining about on his podcast.
— How, when, why you got into the NBA: Larry Bird VHS docs. pistol pete instructional videos.

ilh lurkers fear the yellow card imo

my yellow cards are literally carrying this message board franchise right now, have you read the politics threads???

this thread gives me heavy nostalgia for '90s NBA, there were so many gods walking the court at that time

the yellow card is a badge of honor

indeed a yellow card rules i'm just saying the lurkers are a-scared of em

i dont believe you????

idk im making it up. i was a-scared of it until i realized they are in fact a tasty treat! and now i post

Who's your #1 team: Spurs
— Why is that team your #1: went to college in SA in the 90s
— Who's your side-piece(s): Bulls, Hawks
— Why they are your side-piece(s): lived in those places, lived in the Bay Area too but I never really got that the warriors were local because I am dumb
— How, when, why you got into the NBA: 85 I think, started watching baseball daily and nba games would sometimes be on instead (bulls & knicks mostly) I hate all things ny except the knicks because I loved watching Patrick Ewing play

you went to trinity right?

Yes!

I saw a bunch of games while there, even a playoff game one year

yeah Milwaukee's a good basketball town, even better baseball town. how could it not be, drinking + cold weather + sports really do go together.

I'd + relatively few transplants/many WI lifers

this thread gives me heavy nostalgia for '90s NBA, there were so many gods walking the court at that time

― omar little, Friday, April 19, 2019 3:53 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this era might be even better: lebron, durant, steph, chris paul, harden, giannis, AD are all going to be top 25 all time dudes

not sure AD and cp3 belong in that conversation but im open to be persuaded

cp3 is already there and I’ve made the case a million times, you can just look at his stats and all-NBA teams and such, AD obv well on his way