Fans are Great

July 2, 2005

Fans are great! Fans are fanatical about their favorite teams; and, apparently, part of being a fan is exaggeration or expressing tremendous ranges of emotion. Sometimes fans simply see their teams in the proverbial rose-colored glasses and lose all sense of reality.

Tuesday night, June 28th, the Houston Rockets selected guard Luther Head with the 24th pick overall in the 2005 NBA Draft. As soon as the pick was announced, you could almost hear Rockets fans saying, "Who?!" "They picked who?!" "The Rockets blew it again!" "Don't they know we need a power forward instead of another guard!" "They should have picked Wayne Simien!" "How could they pick Luther Head?!" "By the way, who is Luther Head?"

Wednesday morning, the local sports talk shows were bombarded with calls from disgruntled, disgusted, disappointed (re: pissed off) fans criticizing the Rockets front office for making another poor draft choice.

Wait a minute, fans.

Does the 2005 - 2006 NBA season start in July? Did free agency go the way of the dinosaurs? The answers to both questions is of course not. Then, why are so many people overreacting? Because overreacting is what fans do.

I admit I thought the Rockets would select a power forward. (I thought they'd select 6'9" forward David Lee from the University of Florida in my mock draft.) However, as soon as the Luther Head selection was announced, I quickly assumed the Rockets would attempt to acquire a power forward during the summer. No muss, no fuss. While acquiring a forward via trade is not out of the question, signing a free agent power forward seems the more likely option. Therefore, the forward spot will be filled this offseason. Problem solved.

Though some people may disagree, the Rockets front office is not full of incompetent people. Clearly, management has made poor personnel decisions in the past such as signing average, at best, players to huge contracts (re: Matt Maloney, Kelvin Cato, Moochie Norris, etc.); but, management also traded for Tracy McGrady, Mike James, David Wesley, and Jon Barry. In fact, Barry, Wesley, and James were acquired during the last season -- not in July. Therefore, to all of the Rockets fans I say: be patient. Wait and see what management does this summer before you blast them out of the water.

Another example of fans being fans pertains to the Comets. Though many local media has not reported this news, many Comets' fans want head coach Van Chancellor fired. I'm not talking about after this season. I mean RIGHT NOW! The Comets began the 2005 season 4 - 1; and, everything looked bright in Cometsland. Then, the Comets lost four straight games to drop to 4 and 5; and, many Comets fans were screaming for Van's head! Therefore, the season was barely 25% done (34 game regular season in the WNBA); and, fans wanted team owner Les Alexander to fire Van immediately! It didn't happen. Les is not going to fire Van during the season. Period.

Since the four game losing streak, the Comets have won three straight to improve to 7 and 5. Considering the team has seven new players compared to last year's roster and all-world forward Tina Thompson has yet to play this season due to maternity leave, what did the fans expect the Comets' record to be 12 games into the season? Apparently, better than 7 and 5. The Comets are tied for second place in the Western Conference; but, the fans want more. Despite the number of new faces and no Tina Thompson, some fans will not be satisfied until Van is fired. Those fans say they will not spend any of their money supporting the Comets until Van is replaced. Their wait is going to continue because Van will be coaching the Comets until he decides to step down. Fans' overreacting to their team's successes or failures is part of a fan's make-up. Plus, it makes good copy, too.