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: The Present Tense

Meandering Thoughts of a Sports Fan of Today

For the last 2 years, I've been salivating at the possibility of Minnesota trading superstar power forward Kevin Garnett to the Warriors. On draft night this year, it was supposed to happen, but because of communication issues, it didn't. Instead, my favorite Warrior, Jason Richardson, got traded for a college freshmen project who doesn't play hard, and today, KG is about to put on the green and white. My Dad grew up a huge Dodgers fan, but can't name more than 3 players on the team now.

In baseball, with the trade deadline quickly approaching, fans of teams are rooting for certain players to join their teams, and fans of other teams will be thrown into doubt by their team trading away one of their favorite players.

In the modern age of sports, there are very rarely any players who spend their career with one team. At the baseball hall of fame this weekend, Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn, two players who spent their entire careers with one team each, perhaps represent the end of that era.

Today, I can't bring myself to buy a Warriors jersey, because I'm worried that the player whose jersey I choose won't be on the team in 2 years. The only Warriors jersey I ever owned was a Chris Mullin jersey, and a few years later he went to Indiana to play, before retiring a Warrior. I can't bring myself to buy a Baron Davis jersey, because even though I love him, he's by far and away the Dub's best player, he resurrected the franchise, and he's been on the team for a few years now, he still doesn't quite feel like a Warrior to me.

Players who are franchise cornerstones, who are never supposed to leave their teams, like Shaq, KG, Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky, and Alex Rodriguez, can be had. I can probably only list less than a dozen players in all of pro sports who are untouchable: Derek Jeter, Lebron James, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Tim Duncan come to mind immediately. Other than these guys, and maybe a couple others, anything is possible. And if you came up with a good enough deal, the GM from these teams would have to listen. Everybody has a price.

When you're a fan of a major sports team, it's hard not to become invested in certain players. It's hard sometimes to choose the team over your favorite player when they leave. It's hard to respect the decisions of management and be patient for the future when you've spent your whole life rooting for that team, and waiting for the payoff.

Much of the reason for players changing teams so often is the rise of the salary cap, the demise of the reserve system, and the explosion of free agency. So what's the cure? Is there a cure? Is this even a problem? In college sports, we have new key players every year, and the only consistent thing other than the team name is the coach, and even that is changing. Yet we continue to root for the team, because of our connection to the name on the front of the jersey, even if we love the guy whose name is on the back of it.

So while I miss J-Rich, KG is joining the evil Celtics, Mark Texeira puts on the Braves uniform, Jeff Kent strangely wears a Dodger uniform, Randy Moss catches passes from Tom Brady, and Larry Bird runs the Pacers, I'll still put on my Warriors hat, go to Cal games, and sing You'll Never Walk Alone, because that's what it is to be a sports fan in the modern age. You root for your team, even if your favorite player is gone, you aren't a fan of the person wearing your team's colors, or you don't even know how a certain player ended up on your team. You stay loyal to the team you've always loved, even if it does suck and makes no rational sense.

Full post as published by The Present Tense on July 31, 2007 (boomark / email).