Wow, the game wasn’t even over yet and I had people writing me to inform me that Duke sucks. Yes, I know that very well. They also play incredibly ugly basketball but for some reason they just keep on winning. I guess that you can tell that my fandom has started to wane as I really am not celebrating this final four berth. Mainly because I don’t think that I earned the right to celebrate it as a fan.
If there is one thing that I cannot stand it is bandwagon fans. Those are the people who suddenly show up to support their local teams just when they start to win. As a kid growing up in Chicago the idea of supporting a winner was pretty foreign to me because the teams never won. You had to support your team through the crappy seasons because otherwise you would have no reason to ever go to the games. So I’ve tried really hard in my life to not be the guy who buys the team shirt just as they enter the playoffs.
And while I have more Duke related clothing than I know what to do with they all come from a different part of my life. To be honest I haven’t bought a new Duke shirt in probably eight years and what I do have a) doesn’t fit me and b) is by definition at least eight years old and in some cases nearly twenty years old. This will come as surprising to people who have known me for a long time but outside of workout clothes my Duke gear is no longer part of my wardrobe.
Up until this weekend I don’t even think that I watched a full Duke game. I certainly didn’t want the Duke – Carolina matchups which in previous years were like holy days to me. I didn’t even know that Duke had two brothers on the team. Outside of a few of their veteran starters the team was pretty unknown to me. I still cheered for them but I just could never bring myself to be a huge fan. This is partly because they really do play an ugly style of basketball: a grinding, defensive, brutally physical style of play. It works but there isn’t much joy in it (especially when compared to a team like the Illinois Final Four team that may have been the most exciting basketball I have ever seen.) But the biggest problem is that the team plays like a bunch of whiners.
It’s an outgrowth of the J. J. Reddick years. I know that some people would point to Laettner and Hurley for starting all of this but those teams were at least out there trying to prove themselves. Wojo may have wined a bit but he was also an undersized, feisty point guard who fouled on every single possession. In past years though the guys who play for Duke act as if they are owed calls and respect simply for the name on the uniform. Scheyer pulled it off this evening and drew a technical on Baylor. At times I just want to tell the team to suck it up and play.
I still cheer for Duke. I have my poster of the 89 / 90 squad next to me as I write this. The Duke – Kentucky game may still be one of the five greatest moments of my life. But it just isn’t a big deal any more. The school rejected me twice and I’ve gotten over it. My life has moved on and improved. I don’t need a basketball team to justify my existence any more.
Best of 120 Minutes: I’m just in a Soul Asylum mood at the moment.
The five random CDs for the week:
1) Steve Earle “Transcendental Blues”
2) Gear Daddies “Can’t Have Nothing Nice”
3) The Police “Live”
4) Various Artists “Real: The Tom T. Hall Project”
5) Sting “The Soul Cages” (the first CD I ever bought for anyone wondering)
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