Editor’s Note: What follows is a reader submission! Dave has been a lurker in our community but decided to stretch his writing legs and share his thoughts on sports fandom. Enjoy!
Why do we root for bad teams? It’s been a rough year, is it really necessary to compound misery by supporting a flailing group of athletes? Last season, I received a $250 ticket from the City of Rancho Cordova for not fully stopping while taking a right turn at a red light. $250. I opened this bundle of joy while watching the Sacramento Kings get blown out in preseason game. Why was I watching a probable 30 win basketball team in preseason game I knew they were going to lose? I’d compare it to going on WebMD to self diagnose your mole on limited laptop battery. It does not seem like a good use of time or result in any sort of positive psychological benefit.
Life can be tough so is it wise to emotionally tie yourself to a perennially underachieving sports franchise? I believe the true answer to that question depends on your expectations and your sense of humor. If you’re the sort of person that dropkicks your TV remote every time your team loses, it’s going to be a long, hard life. If you expect your team to win every time you turn the game on, I commend your optimism, but deplore your understanding of statistics.
Most teams that people consider bad” lose more than 50% of their games. That’s like flipping a coin, having it land tails, and dejectedly ruining Thanksgiving for everyone. On the flip side (coin pun intended), watching the Detroit Lions lose on Thanksgiving has become a major part of my Michigan-originated family tradition. You need a huge turkey, Grandma’s homemade gravy, and the Lions to fall apart in the fourth quarter. It feels incomplete without it. Unexpected side effect: historically consistent athletic failure can result in family bonding.
Optimism is fine as long as your enjoyment of the game is not tied to the outcome. Here are a few fun observations I like to make while exiting a stadium after a loss: 1. “Boy, our new first round draft pick sure keeps his shoes clean! You can tell a lot about a man by how he maintains his shoes.” 2. “Was it just me or were the hot dogs way better than normal? I think they switched to organic ketchup. Classy move, Sacramento. 3. “At least we don’t live in North Korea, right? The best athlete they get to see is Dennis Rodman.”
Other than distracting observations, the key is being able to laugh when things go wrong. For example, imagine your coach goes berserk over a call which grants free throws for the other team. This result is substantially worse than the outcome of the original call. If you can’t giggle at that irony while watching a grown man throw a temper tantrum, you’re missing out on one of life’s little gifts.
The true answer to whether supporting a bad team is good for you really depends on your expectations. If you’re a $12-stadium-beer-half-full sort of person, you expect a bad team to lose and are pleasantly surprised when they don’t. Some of my favorite memories happened when the Kings were overlooked and beat a team they shouldn’t have. For example in 2018-2019 season, the Space Jam MonStars known as the Golden State Warriors decided to rest 2 of their 4 All-Stars against the Kings, assuming a win. The Kings made them pay TWICE that season which allowed me to briefly taunt my friends from the Bay Area. This added joy to my life where it otherwise would have been absent. To answer the original question, I believe rooting for a bad team builds character, provides comic relief, and puts the real tragedies of life in perspective. So go ahead and spend $80 on the jersey of your team’s untested draft pick. My Jimmer Fredette jersey never ceases to make me smile, and isn’t that the point of watching sports? If you’re not smiling, you’re probably doing it wrong.
Also we must all be true fans, because if we were band wagon fans we would have left this train long ago.
my position is really simple on this: if you’re reading this blog, you’re a hardcore kings fan. only a real fanatic would read a blog about a team that hasn’t sniffed the playoffs in 15 years.
Amen to that.
AND you’re a masochist.
This train hasn’t left the station in a long time. Or maybe it derailed? I can’t tell. 😉
Fantastic. And probably worth plugging in the symptoms of being a Kings fan on WebMD as well. Probably would come back with things like insanity, extreme masochism, hallucination syndrome, and lupus.
Also, what if I am a 5 stadium beers all empty type of guy? Makes the games more watchable at times at least 🙂
But a great article and I enjoyed reading.
5 beers? Are we talkin first half totals here?
I’m getting older, my VORLD (Value Over Replacement Level Drinker) is going down.
I’m quickly being relegated to a VC-like mentorship role, so the younger Kings fans can achieve their full beer drinking potential.
That implies you’re still a drinker. I’m a shell of my former drinking self now. And that happened for health reasons. (I’d be drinking like a fish all day every day if I could.)
In that case, friend, I’d like to talk to you about drugs.
Drugs are bad. Didn’t you listen to Nancy Reagan when she was flapping her gums in whatever clotheshorse manner moved her that day?
Hahaha That’s a great addition. Dead on.
Remember when WebMD first went up, an we all just knew that it had to be cancer?
I had strep throat once around 2006 and felt absolutely terrible when it was first setting in.
Before I could get to the doctor, I plugged the symptoms in WebMD and it was suggesting cancer, tumors, and all sorts of terrible ailments. I bunch of random vitamins at CVS and was miserable until my actual Dr.’s appointment.
Have been a bit more cautious with it ever since.
Stomach discomfort? CANCER
Joint soreness? CANCER
Pink eye? CANCER
Cancer? DOUBLE CANCER
It was probably the first CD-19 case. Eaten any bat back than? 😉
Thank you for this and for de-lurking.
Will we see you around in the comment section more often?
I have to ask: would you smile every time if you had a custom-made Kings Luka jersey?
I think I would cry.
That’s probably where I have to draw the line: custom jerseys of players we should have drafted. That’s a next level move haha
Great bit of writing there. Keep it up. I actually like going against the grain. I honestly wouldn’t enjoy this team as much of they we’re winning and everyone jumped onboard. Instead we have this tight-knit group of loser-lovers and it’s gold.
Takes me back to the nineties when Indie Street Cred¢ was more important than life itself, and resulted in a phenomenon I called “more alternative than thou.”
I agree with you about bandwagoneers, but I’ll put up with them rather than continue to pull for a perpetually losing team.
Christ, I’m a Bengals fan. My allegiances are lifelong and often very, very stupid.
Let’s not forget that a HUGE portion of the current die hard fanbase started as bandwagoners in the late-90s.
This is true. I am one.
That phenomenon lasted thru the 1st decade of this century (at least).
Well done – fun read.
It’s geography for me. If this team resided anywhere other than the Sacramento area, I would not be following them…or the NBA all that much, really.
That said, it’s the now-TKH community that has kept me high level-interested over the years. Without this community the team would be far less important to me and take up far less of my time.
I can’t tell you how much time I spend each time going to Google Images looking for GIFs to reply to comments on here.
Absolutely. The devotion and humor of this site makes it like a support group. Got to have it.
Skinner’s rat experiment with variable reinforcement.
I’m not sure I “root” for the Kings right now, for reasons I’ve touched on before. I enjoy this blog and I enjoy following Kings news and NBA news like a soap opera almost, looking out for hot takes, trade tweets, etc. When I actually want to watch basketball to see the game played in an enjoyable way, I watch the Blazers by simple virtue of geography.
When you fail as much as the Kings hae, the small success are the greatest feeling. I couldn’t imagine becoming numb with expectations of winning. Lakers and recent Warriors have fans have that kind of superficial feeling.
Another major aspect is being a one sport town. Things may change with the Republic going major, but one sport teams have a special connection to their community. When you’re quite literally the only game in town, you take what you can get.
I love getting the chance to turn good comments purple. Enjoy that 5th rec pal
What about millennials who grew up in the Bay, but who’s favorite teams were the Kings revolving around Webber and co? Then said fan went off to school at UCD and took up a job with the State after graduation only to see said team collapse into destruction after Artest (MWP) leaves. So then the fan returns home to the Bay and watches his neglected local bball team become legendary, yet still reads this blog every week since Zillercat founded it. Strange and superficial don’t begin to describe it…
Tom Ziller is who you speak. ZillersCat is a neglected pet meme.
W. Griffith created the discussion of a Cat? I actually don’t know the origin?
I don’t root for bad teams. I root for my teams whether they’re winning or losing. Bandwagon fans are basically the Vichy French of athletics, and should be treated as such.
Do the Vichy French have good looking women? I’m asking….for a friend.
Have the French ever had been known for not having good looking women? Tell your friend the Vichy French had particularly good looking women. What is a young woman to do when your country is being sacked…..answering….for a friend.
But the women of the French resistance were also very good looking if somewhat less haute monde.
But my question is why hasn’t France produced better hoopers? Along with believing that any player the Kangz draft will not meet any expectations. My personal rule of thumb is if your team drafts any French players in the lottery you will be rooting for a bad team. Right?
We should only aspire to our defense being as good as the Maginot Line. What a thought.
“Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.
Anything built by man, can be destroyed by him.”
-George S. Patton, on drafting slow, immobile players
Didn’t know Patton had something against Georgios Papagiannis. That sucks. At least he’s not Bernard Montgomery.
At least Monty could break ten seconds in the forty-yard dash.
Fair point.
This is actually perfect because we think we have a good line of defense but we tend to forget the other team is already behind us, wreaking havoc.
Masochistic tendencies?
New band name! Dibs!
I remember when Sacramento “got” the Kings. We became a big city because we had a major sports franchise. It didn’t matter that they weren’t that good (they did make the playoffs with a sub .500 record that year as I recall). Sacramento has always been the stepchild of LA and SF and this was some sort of validation that we were our own city, and weren’t forced to root for some team outside of our city limits. Watching the big markets get every advantage while Sac struggles to get free agents builds a disdain for those big markets coupled with some small dog hope that we can compete, breeds a unique type of fan. A blind loyalty unfettered by ineptitude. Even now, living in Southern California, I will always be first and foremost a Kings fan, with my second favorite team always being whoever is playing against the Lakers. There is cause for hope too. Small markets have found the fleeting rewards of success (the Webber Kings, or the SA run of greatness). When it comes, it is better than anything the big markets experience.
I think it’s so satisfying walking around San Diego with my Kings jerseys and accessories.
Sure some people kinda laugh, but I get a lot of satisfaction knowing how loyal I am to my hometown team. And finding that one other Kings fan down here to commiserate on the everlasting state of our franchise. ð
I was on the island of Kauai a few years back just walking down Hanalei in my Kevin Martin jersey when I saw another Kings gear wearing brother. We didn’t say a word and simply high fived as we passed each other.
I love that kind of shit.
Exactly! I don’t see a lot of sisters down here, most of my friends are into football which I’m not.
But for sure I’ve seen the occasional guy rocking a hat or jersey. Always gotta yell out Kings! Haha
A few weeks ago in a Target in Pasadena, some young teen was nodding at me. I wasn’t sure why until he pointed to my shirt and gave a thumbs up. (I was wearing the Young Superteam T-shirt).
Other memories off the top of my head:
Waiting for the train to New York from some middle stop after leaving the airport, I see a guy with a Kings shirt on, so I walk up to him and pull out the Young Superteam t-shirt out of my luggage. The shirt was super new at the time, so I was hoping to impress him. He looked at me suspiciously, as if I was trying to sell him some bootleg items and wasn’t really a Kings fan. I mentioned Ye Olde Site to hopefully let him know I was a true fan, but he didn’t seem like he knew of that site.
Once in Montebello, east of LA I was walking to band practice in a poor neighborhood. I saw a young guy wearing an old Kings jersey. I forget which player, but it was something from the golden era team. I walk up to the guy with my Kings t-shirt on and go for a high-five. But the dude just looks at me weird. I had to point to his jersey and my t-shirt and I think he still didn’t get the connection. I have concluded that this guy found the t-shirt in a dumpster and just needed some clothes.
I’ve worked at sports networks here in LA and met a surprising amount of Sac Kings fans, even in upper positions. That’s always great to see, but I was saddened that they weren’t on this forum.
Whenever someone in LA looks at me and says “Go Kings!” and I know they are obviously mistaking me for an LA Kings fan, I smile and wave at them but secretly cringe inside.
When I was single I always imagined dating a Kings fan would be the ultimate date. I envied those of you who did so. What perfect harmony. Alas, I’ve dated L*kers fans and Celtic fans and it was always in the back of my mind like how Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld can date hot people and still not get over little technicalities.
Definitely! It’s best if the date has extremely low expectations and is thrilled by mere competence.
Touche’, Andy! Touche’!
hahaha
I was walking through a jungle once with a bamboo stick and came across a rhino, and then walked as close as possible towards it, and then watched it take a dump. True story. Endless entertainment value.
I like myself more when I root for bad teams, b/c I know all of you who are here now are the true fans. When/If the Kings turn this around, and you see all these dopes around town in their brand new jerseys and hats, we’ll know who was here in December 2020 when we were on the even of a 20 win season and Christmas wishes for trading bad contracts.
rooting for the Vlade era Kings definitely tested my fanhood. It just felt like saying Safeway is your favorite sushi restaurant just because it’s the closest purveyor of sushi. There was no qualities to appreciate other than proximity and familiarity.
This brings to mind an important question; have you ever had AM/PM sushi?
That’s a trick question. If he had AM/PM sushi, he’d be dead now. Stop pulling that Common Core stuff here!!
Sigh.
I’m too old for Common Core, but too young to remember Jason Williamson.
I just can’t win.
Jason Williamson
Eh. I made a typo. Nobody’s perfect.
I just thought it was a fun portmanteau of former Kings players
I only get hot items at convenience stores. I feel like sitting under a heat lamp for 8 hours makes them relatively safe to eat.
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever concocted? You know, the idea that, on paper, seemed like it could be good, and then turned out to very much not be?
Sacramento Kings fandom.
The 2019-20 Kings.
the one thing I used to make is called “steak fry surprise.” It was basically just steak fries, cheese and I bunch of other shit. People would always talk shit until they tried it.
Kings
Chargers
Padres
I don’t try and dig too deeply into why.
I’m Kings / A’s / Raiders
I need help
Don’t expect sympathy from me.
agreed
Speaking of those dang Clevelanders…..that loss last night was brutal.
Nah, that’s just another Browns game, really.
Fair. Brutal, but fair.
We’re trending in the right direction, though. I am not too worried. Try to get some playoff experience this year, use the draft to strengthen the D next year.
The Padres feel like a good comparison for the Kings. Must have felt great to see them make the playoffs this year.
Kings
49ers
Giants
Sharks
The Giants have given me that championship feeling and going to the parades were epic experiences. If the Kings ever have a parade, it would be one of those moments you will never forget and cherish. Here is to dreaming.
Kings
Bengals
Reds
Buckeyes football
University of Dayton basktball
Other than the Flyers and Buckeyes, it’s been a rough decade.
As we’ve already established, I’m not a real fan. I don’t care about bandwagoners vs diehards. I don’t buy into the tribalistic nonsense. I’m not a gatekeeper. If new fans get excited by a winning team, then I say the more the merrier. I don’t really see tenure of loyalty to a shitty product as some sort of badge of honor. I’ve always been a basketball fan and I’m still more of a basketball fan than a Kings fan. If, Basketba’al forbid, the Kings got contracted, it wouldn’t really change my interest in the sport (though I’d be less engaged due to the lack of this specific community). I got into the Kings because my deeper interest in basketball’s nuances (team-building, prospect scouting, etc.), my college years (UC Davis), and the Kings peak years all happened to coincide chronologically and geographically. And, from a team-building standpoint, the Kings are constantly interesting in one way or another. Now, the strongest part of my connection to the Kings is probably the TKH community.
Cal Poly > Davis
If they weren’t essentially the exact same place, I’d agree with you.
CalPoly has a beach.
This is the biggest part of my Kings experience right now too.
Now I’m just sitting in anticipation of the TKH Fantasy draft.
I truly love the game of basketball especially at the NBA level ! I pull for the Kings but love the game more than the team !
The Kings may frustrate me as an organization, but I will never stop being a fan. I grew up in Sacramento and some of my fondest memories growing up were going to a Kings game with my Dad. My first game was in 1994 v the Pacers and I had to ask my Dad who we were rooting for. I was 5 years old and I fell in love with the bonding time I got with my Dad and brother as a kid. I was at the infamous game 7 in 2002, I watched Lebron’s very first game in the NBA, I got to see Michael Jordan play, I got to see the Kings win when I was growing up and as a child I looked forward to going to these games. I would even drive to Oakland and watch the Kings beat the Warriors when it was known as Arco West. My Dad even flies out to Denver every year and we splurge to sit behind the Kings bench so we can listen to time outs, hear the players talk to each other, and just get a fun experience.
My brother, my Dad, and I still love talking Kings basketball. They both have accounts on the herald. As a family we have bonded over the Kings and that will always be with me. The kings have been bad for a long time and I hold onto the memories of them being good and how fun it was for the family. Bad teams eventually become good again, look at the Browns and Bills this year, and that will happen for the Kings eventually. And when they become good again, it is going to be awesome. I am willing to wait and go through the process. Even if they never become a great team, my family bonds over Kings basketball and it is a great excuse to bring the family together.
As your brother, I completely agree. This team keeps us in constant contact. It can make us frustrated, but we also all have an amazing sense of humor towards it. No matter what, it’s fun, and I thoroughly believe liking this losing team has made it even more fun at times in a kind of self-deprecating way (minus the relocation scare. Zero fun sir). By the way, the reason you went to that game 7 was because your grades were better than mine. I’m still bitter, but only have my 7th grade self to blame.
Similar to you guys, it’s a family affair for me and I also grew up going to the games. Was lucky enough to go to college in Chico during the Glory years (97-2002) and actually some close friends I met in college from SoCal and other areas became, and are still, Kings fans to this day. Never got to see Jordan but seeing Kobe/Shaq Lakers on Christmas Day was probably the most memorable single game other then the times my parents used to drop my friends and I off on the street outside the arena property and we’d run across the muddy/grassy fields and through the parking lot to purchase our standing room only tickets for $5 to watch Mitch Richmond and Walt Williams and Spud Webb and then towards the end of the game we’d sneak down to the lower section and one time after I called out to Spud he threw me his towel and I thought that was the greatest thing. Yea so today kids get signed sneakers or whatever, but I hung that NBA branded towel up on my wall with pride. This was when they were probably worse off than they are now. But at that time the glory years were right around the corner….
Long Live Jimmer!
At least we aren’t Jets fans….
I own a It’s Jimmer Time t-shirt and still wear it proudly
God I’m jealous
OT: This is good.
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1338912082578853888
Breaking: RORDOG says he’s asking Giannis Antetokounmpo to borrow five dollars.
The average American worker works 1,768 hours in a year.
Translated into an hourly rate, that means Giannis would make $129,072.40/hr.
Must be nice. I’m happy for Giannis he worked hard and he finally gets to reap the benefits.
The single most important thing that people need to remember is that the Bucks offered him all of that dough because they expect to make money from the transaction. It’s not sentimentality, love, friendship, or any other pedestrian thing.
I don’t care how staggeringly-large an athlete’s contract is, they’ve earned every penny.
Well said Dave. I’m a $12 beer half full fan! Always will be.
Fuck this franchise, but at the same time I love them. It’s a love-hate relationship for me. Even if I know the end result on most nights, I still tune in.
During the Vlade era I was ready to tune out. Honestly, Luka was the last straw. But with the hiring of Monte and my awkward love of pain, I’m just happy to watch.
Maybe for me, when we do eventually make it, I will cry tears of joy. But for now, it’s like I’m getting blue balled for the last 15 years.
Now more than ever, you have to watch. There’s literally almost nothing else that you can do.
Congratulations on a terrific post! Keep’m coming!
Why would you root for a team that buys their way into the playoffs? Also, some of us remember them being good. 😉
I think we’re all just holding out hope that one day our patience will be rewarded… until then it’s pure masochism.
Really enjoyed the article! I periodically consider the logic behind my fandom as well.
For me, it’s about representing Sacramento and remembering where I came from. Sometimes that means a lot of losing!
The Bills were terrible when I was a little kid and then they were pretty consistently great for a decade and then I was convinced they would never, ever make the playoffs again. Then in 2017, they backed their way in and it felt really, really good. In 1999/2000 I was in college, in 2017/2018 I was 40; in the intervening years I watched all but maybe 5 games of the most uninspiring, losing, terrible football you had ever seen and mostly enjoyed it because I loved that team.
But the pay-off was totally worth it. Sure, that 2017 Bills team wasn’t great but, shit, they made the playoffs! (and lost 10-3 to the Jaguars in an intensely boring playoff game, but so what!) Superheroes, all of them! The monkey was dead! The curse buried! They could just go be a normal-ass team now, whatever the future brought!
Turns out 2018 was a step back, 2019 two steps forward and 2020, well, let’s not jinx it but things are looking pretty damn good.
I adopted the Kings when I moved here in 2015 (though I followed them somewhat since moving to the Bay Area in 2005). They remind me a lot of the Bills – a small market team with no real track record of success. They aren’t going to be able to put together a bunch of high profile free agents, whatever success they find will be mostly through the draft and maybe a few savvy trades. And, let’s face it, they haven’t been good for a while either.
It will happen, though, and when it does I plan on being very, very excited all over again.
The Bills are my 2nd NFL team. Rooting for you guys.
Thanks Rik! Looks like the Browns aren’t doing too bad either – will probably come down to them or the Fish for that last playoff spot, so definitely will be rooting for Lake Erie in that case.
This is great. Thanks for the laugh.
This comment thread is absolute gold.
I have been a Kings fan since 1985, and some of my greatest memories have been getting out of my tree drunk at Arco with my closest friends watching really bad Kings basketball.
30 losing seasons out of 35. Pain doesn’t hurt so much after you get used to it. At least we still have beer.
Actually 8 seasons were winners and all coached by Rick Adelman !
Lol I don’t know what Out of my tree drunk means, but I’m 100% certain I’ve been out of my tree drunk watching bad Kings basketball.
Isn’t it as simple as supporting the team in your town?. I realize that sports the sports business makes it more complicated than that. I admire the English approach that your team is your team for life and that has to be tough when they get relegated. I’d recommend the show Sunderland till I die on Netlix.
To be fair I’m not as an avid a fan as I used to be as the Kings make it tough at times and the older I get I don’t get so emotionally invested in sports as I used to
Well that and where is the joy of being a band wagon fan, or worse a Lakers fan. As Medhi Hassan once said of the bandwagon Warriors fans.,”I’ve been a Warriors fan ever since Kobe retire”
Guys…Im brazilian…every time I tell someone here (very few people watch NBA here, and are all Fakers, Warriors fans) they look at me like “WTF dude, why?!?!?”
https://twitter.com/MattGeorgeKHTK/status/1338967146383085570?s=20
Lol I just found out we got a game today! I’m a shitty fan.
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