AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2007 > January > 24
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Help me help you!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Three games up last week and now three games down, and counting, this week.
The roller coaster ride with the fellas from Hawksville continues people.
(Ten missed free throws at United Center last night didn’t help their plight. The Bulls didn’t play well at all, but they still had enough to hold off the Hawks’ charge. If they bring the same energy tonight against Boston they should have a legitimate shot at ending their three-game slide against the Celtics.)
And if you’re still with us (thanks for those who plan to continue to stick around), you surely understand how crushing all of this has been for the Hawks and their fans.
I’ve been talking to people recently, and not for any professional task but just because I’m a curious sort, about the toll this type of prolonged struggle can have on a team and it’s fan base. I don’t mean a psychologist or a grief counselor or anyone like that. I’ve been canvassing friends, family and acquaintances who have a (for reasons that are foreign to me) hitched their fan wagons to a team, school or organization that has endured its share of struggles over a long period of time. I had to know, how they do it? How do they go on everyday believing the impossible dream?
Being a Michigan fan - FOOTBALL, first, foremost and only - I can’t say that I have any first-hand knowledge about rooting for a downtrodden team. Seriously. There have been some dips here and there, but never anything remotely close to being awful. The fact is, the Wolverines have been a winner since before I was born and continue to be. That’s no me boasting, that’s just real talk (and yeah, I know we’ve stunk it up against Ohio State and in our bowl games the past half decade, but you can’t have it all).
I was curious, though. What must it be like to be a fan of a team that you know has no chance to compete for the ultimate prize (a title), let alone a winning season? How do you persevere through these trying times?
(My older brother is a huge Detroit Lions fan. Always has been and apparently always will be. He and I have had this discussion a million times and he refuses to give up rooting for the Lions, no matter how many times they crush his dreams and force him to endure the taunts and jeers from all the Bears fans he deals with on a daily basis while living in suburban Chicago.)
The paraphrased consensus from the folks I talked to was, “you spend everyday hoping that you’ve already hit rock bottom and the only way to go is up.”
Huh? Bad answer people. Horrible answer.
Me, I can’t operate like that. If my team fell into the type of abyss the Hawks are currently stuck in, I’m not completely sure what my reaction would be. But know what it would NOT be, and that’s the “wishing and hoping” approach that I’ve never seen work.
That’s why I have to applaud you, the extremely vocal few, for voicing your displeasure with things - whether I agree with you or not on the specifics of your complaints and who might bear the bulk of the responsibility for the current state of Hawks affairs (if these coaches and players were sitting around and not working their collective fingers to the bone to fix what’s ailing them I’d be in line with you ready to vote them all off the island. But I’m at practice daily, I’ve seen the relentlessness in them when they’re working away from the glare of the lights and cameras of game night. They don’t want to be 13-26. They just are what they are right now).
But I want to pose the question here, to those of you willing and able to answer without making a mockery of the question or its intent. How do you stay true during times like these?
