*Warning: If you are hoping for one of my typical touchy-feely, puppy dogs and ice cream, everyone hold hands and sing Kumbaya posts... then this is not the post for you (although I still will use my trademark ellipses and parenthesis as much as possible).
Because I love sports talk radio and leaving ESPN on in the background while I'm... pretty much doing anything... I have heard the name "Kevin Durant" at least 5 million times over the past couple of days. It seems everyone is playing doctor or sociologist (a far less popular and fun game) with their perfect 20/20 hindsight.
Look at that fan who paid $5000 to watch men play basketball.
I'll leave the doctor part for another post. For now I'd like to focus on the sociologist aspect. It seems that many holier-than-though sports fans are bashing the utterly "classless", "trash", and "barbaric" Toronto Raptors fans for cheering when Kevin Durant injured his Achilles tendon during game 5 of the NBA finals. Many professional athletes have joined the fray by expressing their distaste for these fans treating athletes like objects rather than human beings. There is quite a bit of outrage directed at Raptors fans. In my opinion, most of it is undeserved (unless your outrage is directed at Drake for being a complete tool... but that has nothing to do with the Durant injury reaction).
Let's take a look at that previous paragraph. I intentionally used the word "fans" four times. Why? The word "fan" is short for "fanatic". What is a fanatic?
It is also this...
Does it say anything there about being reasonable or logical? Nope. Because that is not what fans are. The entire idea of being a sports fan is incredibly illogical. Think about it. Is it reasonable to spend so much time and effort caring if a team that consists of no one you know wins or loses a game? Does it make sense that one day you can love a player and the next you hate him because the color of his shirt changes? Is it logical to spend a significant amount of money watching someone else play a child's game?
Of course not.
But that is not what sports are about. They are about passion, creating a common bond, having something safe to argue about, and providing an escape from the "real world". As a result, grown men and women act like complete whack jobs, paint their faces, disown family members, and cry over the results of games.
It is because of this irrational fanaticism that professional athletes are able to earn HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS playing a kids' game for our entertainment. It is silly to think that the same people who willingly fork over $1000 for the privilege of watching a game will then behave completely logically at that same game. They spent that $1000 because they are irrationally passionate about "their" team. Those who cheered when they realized the best player on "their" opponent's team would no longer be competing against "them" were simply continuing to be irrationally passionate.
If it were so easy for people to turn off this passion, they would have done it long before they entered the arena. They would have looked at the ticket price and said, "Wait. This is so illogical. I can buy an awesome new TV with that money and enjoy hundreds of sporting events instead of going to this one game... that may end in a loss and my misery."
This is the result when I searched "rational, logical, sports fan".
So although I empathize with the professional athletes who finally came to the realization that "fan" is short for "fanatic", they are going to have to suck it up. Otherwise they are going to be asking their fans to stop being irrationally passionate. They should be careful what they wish for. Because if all of a sudden fans start following their brains instead of their hearts, those athletes are going to find far fewer fans in the seats and zeroes on their paychecks.
And to all of you fans who are pointing your fingers and shaming those in Toronto, I suggest you take some wise advice from Confucius who said:
"When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self."
Or you can just listen to my grandma who said:
"When you point one finger, there are three fingers pointing back to you."