Comments on: Mike Bibby Is Right – Most NBA Fans Suck (Except in NY and LA)

By: NONAME

NONAME — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:58:44 +0000

what about Chicago fans? we know basketball and we let the bulls have it if they screw up. and they’ve screwed up plenty these past few years. We’ve also had one of the best attendance records in the NBA for a while even though we’ve been a sub-par team.

By: E

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:56:00 +0000

I agree with some of what you wrote, but when it comes down to it, basketball is a business and most people don’t want to pay to see an unsuccessful team. Take for example a really expensive restaurant that you eat at three times a week. Now imagine they started making lower quality food because one of the companies they bough an important ingredient from went out of business. Most people would give the restaurant another try or two due to loyalty, but if the restaurant couldn’t improve the quality of their dishes after that, people would stop eating there. Because more people would stop coming, the restaurant would be forced to lower their prices or create brand new dishes from scratch, but even this may not satisfy their customers.
Imagine the NBA as the basketball equivalence to high end restaurants. Because they are marketing themselves as the best in the world at their profession, their ticket prices can’t sink below a certain level or else the league looses its prestige. They are competing with other teams in the best league in the world, and if these teams can’t compete, people are going to look elsewhere.
Now why does Los Angeles and New York still draw the crowds even during bad seasons. First,the Lakers have built prestige over the years and being one of the elite teams in the league for so many years earns a team a longer length of loyalty. Also Mr. Bibby, the Lakers have probably only missed the playoffs once since you entered the league, and they have won the championship four times, so your observations are a little bit shewed. Secondly, both Los Angeles and New York are two of the richest cities in the world, and while you may think that they expect more out of their team, they also have the extra money to spend on games. If there was only one nice restaurant in a city and your options were go to it or not go at all, you would choose go to it if you had extra money because its still the best you can get in that industry, and you would choose not to go at all if you didn’t have extra money and eating out was a special occasion because you would be paying the same amount for a less enjoyable experience. Anyways, that’s all I have to say. You’re an elitist and you are only rich because you are very good at a particular talent and not because you actually understand how the world works. This is real life and this league is made possible because its a business and they can pay people like you millions of dollars to keep you in the league because you are one of the best in the world. Be a little sympathetic to the underprivileged. They may not be as cut throat but they know when it is worth it to spend money and when it is worth it to stay at home.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:25:27 +0000

great story ive been supporting the mavs since 2002 i remember the nash-finley-dirk combination we didnt win a lot but what can you do but i can remember those days like it was yesterday by the way bandwagon fans are a disgrace, every sport has it you cant do anything about them. since the celtics have won the championship last year out of nowhere the people i knew that liked the lower teams like knicks, kings became celtic fans all of a sudden?? !!! they had explained to me that they had liked them from the beginning what a shame!!

By: RVN

RVN — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:48:03 +0000

Well said…screw BANDWAGON FANS!

By: Anthony

Anthony — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:16:48 +0000

Really dig this topic man. I agree with a lot of what you said. I think in today’s society fans have become very fair weather, and in a lot of instances truly do not understand the game. I do disagree with part of it. I am a Philly fan, having spent most of my life there and now having lived in Los Angeles for almost 4 years. New York and Los Angeles are definitely great basketball towns, but I feel its pretty easy to sell out when you have 20 million people living near the arena. The fact that the “morons” cannot afford to go to the games is both a good and bad thing. It sometimes weeds out some of the bad element, but there are a lot of great fans that can no longer attend. It turns it into a corporate atmosphere. Like they are at a symphony. Thats why arenas are playing music and all the other dumb stuff they do during games because the people who attend largely are not basketball fans. Also, in L.A. they come by the 2nd quarter and leave in the 4th. Oh, and we boo in Philly all the time. Haha. The only other thing is, of course I know I’m Biased, but in Philly the attendance dropped the last few years significantly, but I do not see that as a sign as being poor fans. In a city like Philly which is very blue collar many people struggle to afford to go to the games, and if a team is not going to attempt to put something watchable out on the floor, why should they go? I respect that more than just showing up year after year so the team keeps making money and rasing prices even though they are crap. Maybe it will inject some life into the front office to actually try and win. Booing won’t take money out of their pockets. Although I am huge fan of booing. I think there are great fans and idiot fans all over the country, either way I will never stop being a huge fan of all sports myself.