Sports fandom exists on a spectrum. Over the past four years covering the Brooklyn Nets, I have seen firsthand the impact a team has on its fanbase. Over many more years before covering the Nets, I felt that same angst as a pure fan myself - and still do in moments even now.
The Brooklyn Nets finally made the “hard choices” and put themselves into a position to land a high pick in next year’s draft. Trading away Mikal Bridges was step one, and as many have assumed, more trades this season would further cement the unspoken tank agenda.
While preparing for a rebuild, Brooklyn also hired Head Coach Jordi Fernandez. After multiple seasons of feeling the roster lacked structure, that the schemes lacked... scheme - Jordi Fernandez has in just 19 games proved just how critical a Head Coach can be to organizational stability and team success.
Nets fans rejoiced at the conviction of direction, and most even cheered the early season’s surprising wins. But now the team sits in the eighth seed in the East and outside the lottery with the 15th overall pick.
(In my best Jackie Moon voice) “Everybody panic!”
On the one hand, the tank is off the rails. The Washington Wizards are 2-15 and have a near-zero percent risk of overachieving. Even if the Philadelphia 76ers move beyond their injuries and right the ship teams like Utah, Toronto, and Portland among others, are very much in a race to the bottom.
So to the question at hand: what is it to be a fan? Yes, we all had a set of expectations coming into the season. Yes, Cooper Flagg and Ace Bailey are among the potential generational talents in the draft. But that is the future. That is a moment somewhere off in the distance.
The here and now has presented a team filled with veterans and young talents putting together career performances night after night.
I was once that little 12-year-old kid, sitting on the couch, hoping against hope that Kerry Kittles and Kendall Gill could shock Jordan and the Bulls in 1998. I was there at 17 - feeling that long last Jason Kidd could lead the Nets to the promised land against the Lakers... or the Spurs.
Spoiler Alert: They lost. The championships never came but I still pulled my chair back up to the table in 2013, 2014, and 2015; and again in 2019. Years, as a fan, championships were not the expectations but the excitement and FUN of watching your team overtook any sense of where the ping-pong balls would bounce and what prospects would be missed out on.
It was pure fandom and joy for a team that brought me so many amazing moments with friends and family throughout the years. Why fight against a good time?
Why rail against a vibe that puts a smile on your face for a few hours on a random night, otherwise destined to fade away among the many other nameless nights we all have in our lives?
Here, now in a season “destined for the tank” and improbably fighting against it I throw my hands up and surrender to the young fan in me and say...
The journey is long. Enjoy the ride!
