Love to Love, Love to Hate

During this series and the whole playoffs, everything I read or heard said that people were rooting against LeBron and the Heat, as if it was the right thing to. 

And yet, in the 1990's it seemed like most people wanted to see Jordan win. Before 2008, everyone wanted Tiger to win. It's hard to remember for sure, but it seemed like people liked watching Joe Montana win. 

But of course, non-Yankee fans love to watch New York lose. It's become popular to hate on Duke. In 2001, the Patriots were a lovable underdog. By 2008, I was rooting against the 19-0 bid. 

So how do we decide which successful athletes or teams we want to root for or against? The old standby is that America loves an underdog. Which is true some of the time. But not all of it.

In tennis and golf, it makes more sense to root for successful athletes. Because they're still playing against the field. 2005 Tiger might be a favorite to win a major, but his chances of winning might only be 15%.  

In team sports, there seem to be some stars that America loves to love. Maybe because Jordan played in the pre-internet era, but everyone seemed to want him to win, even if I didn't. (I thought he was a ball hog and remember rooting against him in 97, 98. I was in the minority and rightly so. You want your stars taking your big shots. I'm also aware that I'm using the word "seem" a lot.)

I'm a sports fan that doesn't really follow an NBA team. I like LeBron. I like Durant. I don't like Kobe. I rooted for the Heat and I thought they were going to win game 6 the whole time, even down 5 late. 

I don't have good reasons for who I like, who I don't like. But I know that if LeBron had missed the shot that Duncan missed, writers would have ripped him 100x more than the Spurs' star. I know that LeBron is the best player since Jordan. Better than Kobe and Duncan and whoever else you want to put in the mix. Good enough that when the next young star comes out in ten years, writers might ask if this is the next LeBron, partly because it's not conceivable or fair to ask if this is the next Jordan. 

But I think it comes down to mostly this. It's fun to watch an underdog topple a heavy favorite. But it's also exciting to root for greatness. I want to see Tiger break Nicklaus' records. And then in twenty years, I want to see someone break Tiger's. Even if LeBron can't match Jordan's titles or MVPs, I want to see LeBron win as much as he can. I want to see someone at his prime do things that others can't.