Sports Guide to Picking a Team

The NBA season has arrived and I'm for some reason not excited. Maybe it's because it's a player driven league rather than a team oriented league, or maybe it's just because I don't have a favorite team that makes me think that. Unlike the NFL or MLB, I don't have a favorite team. I root for both the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cubs, so in my search to become an NBA fan it seems natural to settle with the Bulls. Yet, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I hate becoming a fan of a team the year after a successful campaign and beings how I'm from Iowa, everybody and their father is a Bulls fan. What do I do? Where does a sports fan turn in times of need? There's no guide or rule book, there's no tutors or mentors, there's just you and the toughest decision you'll ever make. During my time of need I laid down a few simple rules to picking a team.

Make the commitment

Sports are like a marriage, once you pick a time you're tied to them until death do you part. So when picking a team you'll have to be very careful. You don't want to pick a team for the wrong reasons. If you're an Iowa guy you don't want to pick the New Jersey Nets. I know, I know, Jay-Z owns a percentage and it may give you street credibility to be a Nets fan BUT when are you going to be able to watch them? When I was selecting a team I concentrated solely on who the media makes available to me. I looked at teams near my media market, the Midwest. So that leaves me with the Bulls ( who I already threw out), the Bucks, the Pacers, the Pistons, the Cavaliers, the Timberwolves and maybe the Nuggets.

Don't be a bandwagon fan

I've always despised bandwagon fans with a passion. It amazed me how many White Sox fan's popped up in my small county after they won the World Series. I kind of touched on this earlier, but it's wrong, just plan wrong. There should be a rule stating that a fan free agent cannot "sign" to a team the year after a playoff performance. Bandwagon fans should never be considered sports fans. I make it a simple rule here in Iowa to never trust a Steelers, Patriots or Colts fan unless that person hailed directly from, or around one of those major cities prior to small town, rural Iowa.  And since I just created the rule that throws out the Nuggets, Bulls, and the Cavaliers.

No team flip flopping

This rule applies to picking a team simply because of players. When picking a team concentrate on it's roster. The best part about the NBA is it's electrifying players. You don't want to pick a team in your rookie fan season that is flat, bland and unentertaining. If you do, you may find that the NBA is boring and lose interest. This is a once in a lifetime decision, if you mess it up it's likely you won't get another chance at becoming an NBA fan. So this takes out the Pacers, who selected a boring, tall, white guy in Tyler Hansborough in the draft. If you do team flip flop your views on basketball, or any sports event, you should be forever disregarded as dumb and irrelevant. Nobody will ever trust you again and you will forever be viewed as a trader. You'll be hated more than Johnny Damon is in Boston.

Learn the history

With these three basic rules I narrowed my choices down to just the Bucks, Pistons and the Timberwolves. So now the real pickle begins. I'm immediately throwing out the Pistons due to their great success in recent years. This comes with knowing the team's history. If I picked them I'd fear looking like a bandwagon fan. Now I'm left with just the Bucks and Timerberwolves. No real simple rule to make this decision. But since I've followed Brandon Jennings career since he decided to skip the NCAA and play professionally overseas I'll pick Milwaukee. Simply because their in my media market, their a team with a lot of promise and I love Jennings moxy. I officially announce myself a Milwaukee Bucks fan for life.

The rules to picking a team are pretty basic and simple, but the anxiety that comes along with the decision is excruciating. I plan on writing an article based on the rules of being a sports fan. Basically extending this into a much broader spectrum of sports debacles. But with these three simple rules anybody should be able to pick and team and start enjoying the thrill of being a sports fan.