The Making of This Charlotte Bobcats Fan

Grew up in NYC during the Willis Reed/ Walt Frazier era. Attended the occasional game at MSG. Once that team’s time had come and gone however it became very difficult to follow the thoroughly unlikable Knicks of the next generation (and every generation since.) Also followed the ABA Nets’ great teams but very few were on tv and as we didn’t have a car I had no way of getting to Nassau Coliseum.

Went to Penn in ‘79 and saw the greatest Ivy team in history; no greater present can a school bestow upon a future alum. Attended all but one home game at the Palestra and drove to Greensboro for the eastern regionals against Syracuse and St. John’s (with both UNC and Duke knocked out the arena was maybe half-full.) Didn’t care one way or the other about the Sixers.

Grad school in Boston the next year, saw Larry Bird’s rookie year and the end of Pistol Pete’s career. They used to show highlights of Pat Ewing’s high school games on local tv— huge black dude running over all the little white guys in that league. Lived next to Fenway and went to lots of Sox games but never once went near the hated Celtics’ Boston Garden. My partner in BU’s film program was from Murfreesboro and for my master’s thesis I wrote a 200pg script for a movie about basketball in rural Carolina.

Lived in LA in the 80s. Saw the first Clippers game ever at the Sports Arena and attended most of the give-away nights. A hotel maid in Germany swiped my Clippers razor.

Was in Arlington TX for the early 90s. Tickets to Mavs games could be had for free most nights. One year they were going for the all-time NBA losing streak and then blew it when Jimmy Jackson ended his hold-out and they won a game. Bummer, I was really hoping to be in Reunion for the record-breaker.

San Diego from 1995 to 2006. No pro ball and the Lakers are not particularly beloved. It’s just not a basketball hotbed. One of my buddies was a high school ref and so I used to go to the games he and his ref friends worked. Saw Jared Dudley a couple of times and Chase Budinger once. I am not enamoured of Cox Arena— it’s just too damned loud. Played at Helix High many times; they still have Bill Walton’s trophies displayed. Saw a girl’s game at Santana High shortly after the shooting spree.

On to Raleigh in ‘06. Worked in an NC State dive bar where we had the ACC package and I rooted for Dudley’s BC to beat the Carolina schools. I decided however that I would start following the Bobcats because as an expansion team they gave me a chance to get in on the ground floor of something good. As a guy with long hair myself I expecially appreciated Walter Herrmann and like all Cats fans I loved the hell out Gerald Wallace. And still do. Bernie was doing a great job bringing the kids along and you could see them getting incrementally better each game.

I’m now in Tallahassee and may be the only Bobcats fan in the metropolitan area. What I still love about them is that they are a “character” team and I am quite pleased with this year’s draft, two more articulate and intelligent young men who can also play basketball. And as a Jew myself and an old ABA-er I have always been a big fan of Larry Brown. I regularly wear my Bobcats sweatshirt to work and though I am always happy to talk basketball I find very few folks here who are into the pro game at all; all that matters here is FSU football. It’s mostly fellow transplants who are into hoops and amongst them I’m sure not one of them can name 3 players on the Cats. Which makes it all that much sweeter as a fan— when they get good, like hopefully this year, there will surely be lots pf bandwagon-jumping however I will be able to claim the pure high ground of being an original fan from the early years…

Well I started watching the Hornets during the Glen Rice era. After they moved to NO, I still somewhat rooted for them. But now we have the Bobcats, I naturally root for them now. Im a homer, what can I say.

Huge NBA fan ‘down under’ really didn’t get to experience alot of NBA games other than Laker or Knicks games that got brought over on cable (a rarity in Australia).

Had family in NC my whole life, so naturally I developed an affinity for the Hornets particularily in the Zo, LJ, Muggsy days (what a great team) and followed them up until they left us for the Bayou. I was not one of these Hornet fans that wanted them to succeed in a new city, I deeply despised George Shinn for pulling the move and cursed them with as much voodoo and bad mojo an Australian can muster. Though now we have a team it’s water under the bridge.

I followed the Mavericks for a while, just by virtue of the fact I am a big time Steve Nash fan; but that was more of a passing fancy.

When the Bobcats were announced, well, not the Cats per se, but the Bobcats, Dragon, Flight and every other name that was considered I was amped to see the revitalization of NBA basketball in the Queen city. I remembered those raucus days in the Charlotte Collesium and couldn’t wait to get that atmosphere back (am still waiting patiently).

Being the NBA head I was during that initial expansion draft I knew some of the players we took. I was excited for Gerald Wallace, I liked the Brevin Knight pick; some I had to research (who is this Tamar Slay??). When the inital draft took place and we got Okafor I was ecstatic. Yes, he didn’t have the flash or promise that Dwight Howard did, but in hindsight we got a solid double-double guy and though Howard is a legitimate superstar he could have equally been the next Kwame Brown.

I went to a few games that first season and we had a year slightly better than I even expected. Bickerstaff was a good choice to lead us early on and he did alot to build the team the right way.

So, that’s my story… I’ve been a Bobcats fan since their inception and am waiting with baited breath to see what this upcoming season brings.