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Tag: NBA Finals

  • LeBron James, Lakers eliminate champion Warriors with 122-101 victory in Game 6

    LeBron James, Lakers eliminate champion Warriors with 122-101 victory in Game 6

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    LOS ANGELES — Six months and a day after the Los Angeles Lakers fell to 2-10 to start the regular season, they emphatically eliminated the defending NBA champions to reach the Western Conference finals.

    Although the Lakers’ transformation has become increasingly incredible over the past several weeks, the primary forces behind it are LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The superstars won a ring together only three years ago, and they shared a joyous hug Friday night after they led their team to its biggest home victory in over a decade.

    James had 30 points, nine rebounds and nine assists and the Lakers ended the Golden State Warriors’ reign with a 122-101 victory in Game 6 of the second-round series.

    “It was great to be able to play one of our most efficient games, one of our best games of the series, and it started because of the defensive matchup we had,” James said. “We defended at a high level, and when we do that, we can be extremely good. I thought we were locked in for as close to 48 minutes as possible tonight.”

    Davis had 17 points and 20 rebounds for the seventh-seeded Lakers, who never trailed in their third home victory over Golden State in seven days. Austin Reaves scored 23 points — highlighted by a 54-footer from midcourt at the halftime buzzer — along with six assists and five rebounds while Los Angeles inexorably pulled away, weathering every attempt by Stephen Curry to will the Warriors back into it.

    “It’s special to get that win to beat a team that’s so established and so good,” Reaves said. “I think the seeding things are just numbers. When you have guys like Bron and AD who have won championships, you always feel like you have a chance, especially with the roster that we have, the talent that we have.”

    After the Lakers unseated the champs with remarkable style, they will face Nikola Jokic and the top-seeded Nuggets in the Western Conference finals starting Tuesday night in Denver. It’s a rematch of the conference finals in the 2020 Florida bubble, won in five games by Los Angeles.

    While routing the Warriors one last time, the Lakers improved to 7-0 at home since the regular season ended. They also snapped Golden State’s streak of 28 playoff series with at least one road victory – an NBA-record run encompassing Curry’s entire career.

    “It’s been a challenging year, to say the least, but we kept powering through,” first-year head coach Darvin Ham said. “Our vibes stayed positive, and finally our new pieces came together.”

    James, Davis and the Lakers are the first team since 2014 to eliminate Curry’s Warriors from the playoffs before the NBA Finals. Golden State has played in six of the last eight NBA Finals, missing the playoffs entirely in the other two seasons.

    “The better team won, and I can’t fault our players for the effort,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. “Because these guys are such competitors, it’s going to hurt. But that’s why we play: To compete against the best and see what we’ve got. Didn’t quite have enough, but it wasn’t for a lack of heart or effort.”

    Curry scored 32 points while missing 10 of his 14 3-point attempts for the sixth-seeded Warriors, whose pursuit of their fifth championship in nine seasons ended with three straight road losses and an inept offensive performance by Curry’s teammates in Game 6, including a 3-of-19 effort by Klay Thompson, who missed 10 of his 12 3-point attempts.

    “We didn’t have a changeup pitch to throw, which led to the result,” Curry said of the Warriors’ poor shooting.

    The Splash Brothers were far too dry when it mattered against the Lakers: Thompson went 10 for 36 on 3-pointers in the series’ final four games, while Curry was 14 for 49.

    Donte DiVincenzo had a playoff-high 16 points for the Warriors, but Curry was their only starter in double figures, with the other four shooting 11 for 38.

    “Definitely disappointing,” Draymond Green said. “It’s been a long time since we finished in May, just trying to process the feelings. In the end, they were the better team.”

    The Lakers took charge early, survived the Warriors’ rallies and blew it open in the fourth quarter with a balanced effort led by the 38-year-old James, who produced his first 30-point playoff game since the 2020 NBA Finals.

    The 20-year veteran can still assert his will as forcefully as almost any elite player, and he quarterbacked the Lakers’ offensive effort while Davis — who left Game 5 early after taking a shot to the head — played another standout defensive game.

    D’Angelo Russell scored 19 points as the Lakers capably survived the third-quarter ejection of Dennis Schröder, the sparkplug guard and primary defender on Curry. Schröder had five assists and defended doggedly in his first start of the postseason for the Lakers, but the German point guard was ejected with his second technical foul on a curious call after Green pushed the ball into Schröder’s face.

    His absence scarcely seemed to help the Warriors, who simply couldn’t make their open shots.

    TIP-INS

    Warriors: Golden State went 13-35 on the road this year, including the postseason. … Curry moved into 11th place on the NBA’s career playoff scoring list, passing Dwyane Wade. … Andrew Wiggins scored six points while playing with fractured rib cartilage, apparently resulting from a tussle with James in the fourth quarter of Game 5.

    Lakers: Schröder took the starting spot of defensive specialist Jarred Vanderbilt. … James passed Shaquille O’Neal for fourth place on the NBA’s career playoff rebounds list. … Jack Nicholson was courtside for the third time in the Lakers’ last four playoff games. Others in attendance: Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, Bad Bunny, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Michael B. Jordan, Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar, Jack Harlow, Dr. Dre, Woody Harrelson, Tyler the Creator and Trae Young.

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    AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • Tom Holland and Zendaya Ball Out

    Tom Holland and Zendaya Ball Out

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    You may have heard that Spider-man can do whatever a spider can, so by the transitive property, that means that a spider can do whatever Tom Holland can do, right? It’s just science. 

    So a spider can be very bad at keeping Marvel plot points a secret. A spider can adopt and gently cradle a chicken named Predator. A spider can change the world with a dance to “Umbrella.” (Still wondering why a spider didn’t make a cameo in Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime performance, but apparently a spider cannot be all things to all people.) 

    And now we know that a spider can take his girlfriend Zendaya to an NBA game. This feels right. 

    Holland and Zendaya hit game two of the series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco Thursday night, where they watched the Warriors take a w in a 127-100 game. Zendaya grew up in Oakland, so the Warriors are something of a hometown team for her. Another hint: she wore a Warriors ball cap in some of the photos from last night. If the clothes make the man, the merch makes the fan. 

    The Spider-Man co-stars have reportedly been an item since 2016, but made it Instagram-official in 2021 with a birthday post on Holland’s account where he called Zendaya “my MJ.” Say it with me: Awwwww. 

    While Holland has been busy slinging one web or another, Zendaya also stars in the highly anticipated Dune 2, and has scooped up accolades (youngest double acting Emmy winner in history, who?) and praise for her body glitter-drenched work in TV’s Euphoria. 

    Last week, the duo was spotted in Vegas to see Usher perform during his residency there. (These are a spider’s confessions.) At the basketball game, they snacked on popcorn. What will a spider do next?

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    Kase Wickman

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  • Warriors in rare territory, trail Kings 2-0 in NBA playoffs

    Warriors in rare territory, trail Kings 2-0 in NBA playoffs

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    SAN FRANCISCO — Klay Thompson pondered the Golden State Warriors’ current playoff situation and expressed some relief. In years past under the old best-of-five format, the defending champions would have been on the brink of elimination trailing 2-0.

    Thompson, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green have never been in the hole like this, down by two games — and this is a group that has practically seen it all over the past decade while capturing the franchise’s first championship in 40 years with the 2014-15 title and three more since, reaching the NBA Finals in five straight seasons from 2015-19 along the way.

    But the upstart Sacramento Kings, coached by former top Warriors assistant Mike Brown, who helped Golden State accomplish so much as a top assistant, are coming to Chase Center on Thursday night for Game 3 of the best-of-seven first-round series with some serious momentum.

    “Luckily, it’s first to four. It’s not the old format where it’s first to three,” Thompson said, “that would be not so much fun.”

    The Warriors had gone 27 consecutive playoff series during the Curry era without falling behind 2-0. Steve Kerr hadn’t seen it, either, since he began coaching the team in 2014-15. Now, this group will need a mighty comeback and will perhaps have to do it without emotional leader Green after he stomped on Domantas Sabonis during the fourth quarter of Monday night’s 114-106 defeat at Golden 1 Center.

    Sabonis was called for a technical foul for grabbing Green’s leg and Green received a flagrant-2 foul that led to an automatic ejection and possible discipline by the league. There was no announcement as of Tuesday night but often the NBA waits until a day before the next game.

    Green has always walked a fine line with the officials and even his own team. He began the season with a short leave of absence after punching teammate Jordan Poole in the face during training camp.

    Green has been called for six flagrant fouls and 27 technical fouls in 147 career playoff games. He was ejected from a playoff game against Memphis last season.

    Green was suspended for a crucial Game 5 loss to LeBron James and the Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals for accumulating too many flagrant fouls in the playoffs that season. The Warriors wound up losing in seven.

    He’s hardly the only concern right now.

    So far this series, Golden State has misfired from 3-point range — a team featuring three shooters with 200 or more 3-pointers in Curry, Thompson and Jordan Poole and Thompson with an NBA-best 301 — and has been sloppy taking care of the ball.

    After Monday’s game, Curry challenged the Warriors to be smarter on both ends.

    “You do this as long as we have, whatever it is, 28 series or whatever, we’ve never been in this situation, so you got to stay together and stay locked in on things we need to do better,” Curry said of the deficit. “Embrace the challenge of protecting our home court, which we’ve been great at all year. And at the end of the day, all we got to do is win one game here, somehow, some way, whatever game it is.”

    Only 26 of 334 teams that fell behind 2-0 have ever rallied to win in a best-of-seven series — a .078 percentage, according to Sportradar.

    This also marks just the fifth time a defending champion has trailed 2-0 in a first-round series and all the others went on to lose. The 2012 Mavericks were swept by the Thunder 4-0; the 2007 Heat lost all four matchups to the Bulls; the 1984 76ers fell 3-2 to the Nets and the 1957 Philadelphia Warriors lost 2-0 to the Syracuse Nationals.

    “The way our guys fought, they showed what they’re made of,” Kerr said. “So now it’s a matter of going home and licking our wounds a little bit. We get a little rest with a couple of days in between games and we go home and take care of our home court.”

    And with Curry, Green and Thompson’s experience, they never count themselves out on the big stage.

    “It’s a new challenge. After the game I was thinking about that, thinking like, ‘Man, I think this is one we haven’t seen yet,’” Green said. “We’ve conquered all the rest of them so why not go conquer this one. It’ll be a lot of fun.”

    This is a group that has regularly been challenged before and bounced back — even during this topsy-turvy regular season and its struggles. The Warriors dealt with injuries and Andrew Wiggins’ extended absences for a personal matter to avoid the play-in game and earn the sixth seed from the Western Conference.

    “It’s unfamiliar territory, but we’ve been down 3-1. We’ve been up 3-1. We’ve been through everything. So we rely on our experience,” Thompson said. “We take a great off day and we recollect ourselves, and do what we do, and that’s play well at home — always.”

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    AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • Gasol, Nowitzki, Parker, Popovich among Hoop Hall finalists

    Gasol, Nowitzki, Parker, Popovich among Hoop Hall finalists

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    SALT LAKE CITY — Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker and Gregg Popovich are all one step closer to basketball immortality.

    The three international greats — Gasol, Nowitzki and Parker — were among the list of Class of 2023 finalists unveiled Friday by the Basketball Hall of Fame, putting them on the doorstep of enshrinement this summer. Also on that list: Popovich, the winningest coach in NBA history with the San Antonio Spurs, and Dwyane Wade, part of three championship teams with the Miami Heat.

    “It’s really about the journey,” Gasol said. “These type of recognitions, which are an amazing honor, they come along when you do things very, very well for a long time and when you love what you do. I’m just privileged to have played the game for so long, at a high level, with amazing people who taught me so much.”

    Also making the finalist cut were four selections from the Women’s Committee — 1990 national player of the year, Olympic champion and world champion Jennifer Azzi; six-time WNBA All-Star and WNBA championship-winning coach Becky Hammon; and longtime coaches Gary Blair and Marian Washington.

    The other finalists from the North American Committee include Gene Bess, believed to be the all-time collegiate coaching wins leader with 1,300 to his credit; two-time Division III national champion David Hixon; and seven-time Big Ten coach of the year Gene Keady.

    “I love the class. I think this is a loaded class,” Hall of Fame Chairman Jerry Colangelo said.

    Colangelo said it’s unusual for finalists to get this far in their first year on the ballot. Wade, Popovich, Gasol, Parker, Nowitzki and more got this far in their first opportunity.

    “The Class of 2023 will be remembered as one of the most distinguished classes the Hall of Fame will ever see, and we are extremely excited for this unparalleled collection of talent and achievement to be one step closer to Springfield,” Colangelo said.

    Popovich has coached San Antonio to five NBA titles, four of them with Parker as the team’s point guard, and led the U.S. to the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The other two legs of the Spurs’ Big 3 from that championship era — Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili — are already Hall of Famers.

    Nowitzki is sixth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list and led Dallas to the 2011 NBA title as the top moment in his 21-year career, all of it spent with the Mavericks. Gasol won NBA titles and led Spain to a FIBA world championship, and Wade was a 13-time All-Star, Olympic champion and earned membership on the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.

    Hall of Famers get an orange jacket to commemorate their enshrinement. Wade said he’s dreamed of wearing one, noting that he’s now “one step closer.”

    “A young Dwyane Wade never would have thought this moment would be here,” Wade said. “Sometimes when you’re young and you have a dream, a lot of people don’t believe in your dream. It seems so far-fetched. But I’ve always been a dreamer.”

    The Hall also announced Friday that longtime high school scout Tom Konchalski will receive the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor the Hall bestows short of enshrinement. CBS Sports will receive one of the Curt Gowdy media awards handed out this year, with ESPN’s Holly Rowe and Marc Spears also now Gowdy recipients.

    The Hall class will be announced April 1 at the NCAA men’s Final Four in Houston. Enshrinement weekend is August 11 and 12 at Uncasville, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts.

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    AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • AP source: Kevin Love discussing possible buyout from Cavs

    AP source: Kevin Love discussing possible buyout from Cavs

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    CLEVELAND — Five-time All-Star forward Kevin Love has discussed the possibility of a contract buyout from the Cleveland Cavaliers after being dropped from the rotation, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Thursday.

    Love is in the final year of a $120 million, four-year deal.

    The 34-year-old hasn’t played in the last 12 games and his representatives approached the Cavaliers about the buyout, said the person who spoke to the AP condition of anonymity because negotiations continue.

    At this point, nothing has been finalized and the sides are expected to engage during the All-Star break, the person said.

    Love has been with Cleveland since 2014, and one of the NBA’s most versatile big men had a major role in the team winning the 2016 title, the city’s first pro sports championship since 1964.

    The Athletic first reported Love’s buyout request.

    Love played well earlier this season before being slowed by a thumb injury. When forward Dean Wade and guard Ricky Rubio recently returned from injuries, Love’s minutes shrunk, and lately he hasn’t been in the rotation at all.

    Love’s situation became cloudier when the team signed veteran forward Danny Green after he became available via buyout. Green made his debut in Wednesday night’s loss at Philadelphia while Love sat again.

    Last week, Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman said he had not spoken to Love or his agents about a buyout and expected him to have a contributing role again at some point this season.

    Coach J.B. Bickerstaff said something similar earlier this week, complimenting Love on continuing to be a good teammate and leader.

    Love hasn’t played since Jan. 24 He missed two games with back spasms but hasn’t been in Cleveland’s last eight games despite being active.

    Although he’s averaging career lows in points (8.5) and rebounds (6.8), Love may be able to catch on with a playoff-contending team looking for an experienced player. He went to four straight NBA Finals with Cleveland.

    Love has averaged 17.2 points and 10.5 rebounds since 2008. He spent six seasons with Minnesota before being traded to Cleveland.

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    AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • Bey, Cunningham lead Pistons past defending champ Warriors

    Bey, Cunningham lead Pistons past defending champ Warriors

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    DETROIT — Saddiq Bey scored 28 points, Cade Cunningham was an assist short of a triple-double and the Detroit Pistons beat the defending champion Golden State Warriors 128-114 on Sunday night to end a five-game losing streak.

    “I’m overjoyed for our guys after the work they put in tonight,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said. “That’s what happens with a young, rebuilding team. There are going to be nights like this where people are going to say, ‘Whoa, where did that come from?’ That’s exciting.”

    Cunningham had 23 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists to help the Pistons win for the first time since their opening game. Isaiah Stewart added 24 points and 13 rebounds as Detroit’s starters scored 111 points.

    “I think tonight we showed what Pistons basketball is going to be,” Stewart said. “We played defense the way we needed to play it every night, and on offense we were sharing the ball and making sure everyone got shots.”

    Steph Curry had 32 points and Jordan Poole added 30 for Golden State, coming off a 120-113 overtime loss in Charlotte on Saturday. The Warriors played without Klay Thompson (rest).

    “We can’t stop fouling, and something needs to click with our guys,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after his team put Detroit on the line 38 times. “We have to be near the bottom of the league in defensive efficiency and that puts us in some bad spots offensively.”

    Golden State led by 10 early in the second quarter, but the Pistons responded with a 29-9 run to take a 10-point lead of their own. Stewart had 15 points and seven rebounds in the first half, including a rare 3-pointer to put Detroit up 63-55 at halftime.

    Curry was 3-for-8 on 3-pointers in a 15-point half, but the rest of the Warriors went 1-for-13 from behind the arc. Golden State had a 22-12 edge in points in the paint, but Detroit’s jump shooting gave it a decided edge.

    “I think our offense is killing our defense, whether it is floor balance or whether the ball doesn’t move and guys are stagnant,” Draymond Green said. “The two ends aren’t connecting, and in order to be a great team, those two ends have to connect.”

    The Pistons kept rolling in the third quarter, starting with an 11-2 run to go up by 17, 74-57.

    Poole, though, scored 12 points in 52 seconds — a three-point play and three 3-pointers — to cut it to 79-72.

    TIP-INS

    Warriors: Poole and Curry outscored their teammates 62-52 in the first three quarters. Their fellow starters — Green, Kevon Looney and Andrew Wiggins — combined for 19 points on 7-of-24 shooting.

    Pistons: Detroit had more points in the first three quarters (100) than they averaged in four losses (96.3) to the Warriors over the last two seasons. … Rookie C Jalen Duran left in the fourth quarter with a left leg injury. Casey said he would know more on Monday morning.

    UP NEXT

    Warriors: At Miami on Tuesday night.

    Pistons: At Milwaukee on Monday and Wednesday nights.

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    More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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  • Why Can’t I Stop Rooting for a God-Awful Basketball Team?

    Why Can’t I Stop Rooting for a God-Awful Basketball Team?

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    When I attended a Washington Wizards open practice at D.C.’s Capital One Arena earlier this month, the focus was more on spectator entertainment than Rocky-style workouts. The season opener was a week away, and the players ran drills at half speed and engaged in silly skills competitions for fans, including a basketball version of Connect Four. But as a lifelong Wiz devotee, I was having an awestruck, love-you-man moment. Here I was posing for a photo with Phil freakin Chenier. Franchise royalty. My childhood idol. Back in the 1970s, when Chenier was draining jumpers and sporting a Richard Pryor mustache, the team routinely chased titles. These days? Not so much.

    Being an NBA fan who loves the Wizards is a little like being a foodie who adores turnips: It just doesn’t make sense. Since the 2000–01 season, only the Knicks and Timberwolves have lost more games. The franchise last advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs in 1979 (back when they were called the Bullets), and they’ve missed the playoffs 16 of the past 25 years. We fans have endured 40-plus years of frustration and disappointment, mainly from the typical issues—bad defense, bad draft picks, bad trades—but sometimes from … weirder ones: One All-Star player was charged with a gun felony involving a teammate, and another was once suspended without pay for being overweight. It’s all #SoWizards, to use a Twitter hashtag.

    And yet, I made it out to the open practice with a few hundred fans on a Tuesday night, wearing a Wizards T-shirt and feeling the faint, irrational warmth of preseason hope. Anyone can root for a winner. That’s easy. Last season, the NFL teams with the top-selling merchandise were the Cowboys, 49ers, Patriots, Steelers, and Chiefs. Each team finished with a winning record. In Philadelphia, the currently undefeated Eagles and the World Series–bound Phillies have generated a 20 percent or more increase in business for local restaurants, sports bars, and memorabilia stores.

    But rooting for the middling Wizards takes guts at best and is downright masochism at worst. Still, even though the team is more likely to bring me agony than elation, I can’t fathom supporting any other franchise. The same is surely true of my fellow Wizards fans—and many fans of other perennial losers (hey, the Detroit Lions somehow still have fans). So why do we stay hooked?

    My Wizards fandom began in the D.C. suburbs in the ’70s, when I was a Bullets-crazed kid devouring box scores on the sports page, shooting jumpers on a backyard dirt court, and pretending to be Chenier. I was 12 when the Bullets paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue to celebrate their only title, and the subsequent 44 years have brought lots of bad memories: Last season, the Wizards somehow blew a 35-point lead against the L.A. Clippers. The worst part? I wasn’t surprised.

    Recent pain should feel stronger than childhood joy, I would think—even for fans like me, whose support was passed down geographically. But these deep, die-hard roots can influence our adult behavior. “Early learning is incredibly powerful and hard to erase,” Chris Crandall, a psychology professor at the University of Kansas who has studied fan allegiance, told me. The team’s success 50 years ago may have boosted my childhood loyalty, Crandall explained, and their subsequent failures did not remove it. A new attitude (“Wow, these guys stink”) essentially “lays over the old one, but the old one is still there,” Crandall said. “And it’s very difficult to get rid of it.”

    I’m at least old enough to remember the team’s lone championship. The top memory for Wizards fans in their 30s is probably John Wall’s dramatic game-winning three-pointer in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Wizards, of course, then lost Game 7. But one reason fans stick around is the perverse pride they have in their fandom, Edward Hirt, a professor at the University of Indiana who has studied sports-fan psychology, told me. Rooting for the Lakers or the Dallas Cowboys is like wearing khakis: You hardly stand out in a crowd. Loving the Wizards gives me a defiant sense of individuality. “Do you want to be like everybody else, or do you want to be different?” Hirt said. “The answer is neither. We want to be a little bit of both. We like feeling like we belong, but we don’t want to be seen as a clone of everybody else, either.”

    Supporting a loser satisfies both of those desires. I can commune with fellow fans at a sports bar or game, but when I walk through an airport, even in D.C., I’m often the only guy wearing a Wizards cap. And honestly, I like that. My Wiz fandom, Andrew Billings, a sports-media professor at the University of Alabama, told me, sends a message to the world: “How loyal am I? I root for the Washington Wizards.” (Which, let’s be real, would be a great T-shirt). In a 2015 study of students from seven universities, football fans were 55 percent less likely to wear team apparel following a defeat compared with a win. But those who do are making a statement: I’m not a fair-weather fan; I’m dedicated and trustworthy.

    Those noble qualities explain why fans of lousy teams despise fair-weather fans, Hirt added. Bandwagon fans skip the suffering but embrace the glory. If the Wizards somehow reached the NBA Finals this year, I’d be both thrilled and infuriated by the mobs of rapturous fans at downtown watch parties. Where were these bandwagon yahoos in 2001, when the team finished 19–63?

    But maybe winning matters less than we think—even for die-hard fans who react to each loss with a primal scream. In one 2019 study, fans of a college football team felt a two-day rise in self-esteem after a victory. But self-esteem levels didn’t drop significantly among losing fans. One of the reasons: Even if your team loses, you can raise your self-esteem simply by commiserating with friends, Billings, a co-author, said.

    Yes, suffering sucks, but suffering together has some upsides. It can be a social glue that intensifies bonds with the team and fellow fans. “Going through this hardship with your sports team makes you much more likely to stick with them,” Omri Gillath, a psychology professor at the University of Kansas, told me. Fans don’t just bask in reflected glory, or BIRG, as psychologists call it; they also BIRF—bask in reflected failure. “It’s about having a community of people that understand you and like the same thing that you do,” Gillath said.

    Last season, a friend and I attended the Wizards’ home finale, and they got shellacked by the equally lousy Knicks. But my friend and I enjoyed laughs over pregame beers. We made sarcastic comments as the Wiz turned a 10–0 lead into a 22-point deficit. I bought an end-of-the-season discounted T-shirt at the team store. Listening to Knicks fans hoot about their victory was annoying, but we had fun. And we bonded.

    But rooting for a losing team may be a dying phenomenon. Sports betting and streaming have made sports more solitary and less tied to where you live—undercutting some of the reasons fans endure their god-awful teams. “Geographic loyalty is particularly powerful for older generations, partly because they weren’t nearly as mobile with their jobs or their careers as younger people are,” Billings said. “I live in Alabama. If I wanted to be a Golden State Warriors fan, I could access all 82 of their regular-season games in a way that was not possible for older generations when they built their fandom.” Younger fans may also be more likely to follow a single player than a particular team, Billings believes.

    Let’s be clear: Winning is way better than losing. A 2013 study found that on the Monday after NFL games, fans of losing teams were more likely to consume saturated fats and sugars compared with fans of winning teams. But I truly believe—and maybe this is loser talk—that my decades of Wizards fandom have made me a better human. I have well-developed coping skills. My friends and I are like Statler and Waldorf, the crusty hecklers on The Muppet Show: We manage head-smacking losses with well-timed quips. I don’t get too elated after a victory—although victories mean more when they’re rare—or too down after a defeat. Hell, maybe it’s even made me more empathetic to people’s challenges. After all, most of us in life can relate more like the constantly struggling Wizards than the trophy-hoisting Warriors.

    Even though I know better, I’m optimistic this season won’t be a #SoWizards year. Maybe the team will jell. Maybe the young players will develop. Maybe the veterans will stay healthy. Or, you know, maybe not. A struggling sports franchise, I’ve decided, is like your idiot brother or jackass uncle. Despite all their obvious flaws, you still love them. And so I’ll cherish disco-era Bullets memories, celebrate the unexpected victories, cling to foolish hope, and brace myself for the worst. If they miss the playoffs—again—well, there’s always next year.

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    Ken Budd

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