I need a ruling.

[Don Quixote]

Esteemed colleagues of SpursTalk, and the rest of you, I have been pondering something for awhile now, and I need a ruling on this. Call it a Man Law if you will.

My brother-in-law, a reasonably intelligent chap, not too much of a knucklehead (although he is given to nutty conspiracy theories, such as Pres. Bush orchestrated 9/11, etc) has decided, after being a Spurs fan all his life, to switch his allegiance to the Phoenix Suns.

His wife, my sister, also an educated intelligent sort, is a lifelong Spurs fan. His family are all Spurs fans. My family, all Spurs fans. Rooting for the Spurs is for us, like for many of you, sort of like eating dinner together. It's just who we are.

His reason given is a variant of the same old bag: Spurs are too old and boring, the Suns are young, fast, and exciting. Etc. Tony Parker and Manu suck, always have, and Nash and Barbosa own them. He was like this before he came out of the closet as a Suns fan, calling Manu "Manure" and what not. You all should know how I feel about "fans" who hate on our players.

Look, I can understand liking the Suns and enjoying the way they play. Shoot, I like watching them. But actively pulling for them is an entirely different matter.

The way I see it, and with apologies to Bill Simmons, there are 3 reasons to root for a team:
(1) They win. The Spurs do, alot.

(2) They represent your hometown. I'd say they represent us rather well. As a New Orleans resident who grew up in San Antonio, I stand confidently behind the Spurs and the Saints. If S.A. had it's own football team, it might be a different story.

(3) You know someone on the team, and didn't have a team to begin with. I'm this way in football. My favorite player is Kurt Warner and would love to see him on the Saints.

I can't think of anything else. There's no reason for us to root for, say, the Boston Celtics. They don't win, few if any of us are from New England, and we have no ties to them otherwise.

So ... I need a ruling. Was this fellow saved (a Spurs fan) to begin with? Should I introduce legislation to have him defrocked and excommunicated?

And what was his real motivation? Is he jealous that Tony is with Eva and he isn't?

Did Manu not answer his letters?

Perplexed in the Big Easy,
Don Quixote :fro

[Don Quixote]

I don't get it. What did the Spurs do to drive him to commit sports adultery?

[cheguevara]

don't be ashamed. It happens even in the best of families. bandwagoning, that is

[timvp]

calling Manu "Manure" and what not.

Just give Sequ some time. He'll hop back on the bandwagon.

[Fabbs]

Wow. He did not succumb to Lakerism, so that is refreshing.
Still, disturbing.
While i think Don, can I get a photoshop with a Suns logo planted on either the bag or their chest. Could this be your in-law in the photo?
http://k53.pbase.com/u46/karlp73/large/29798464.182226a.jpg
okay that photo ^^^ didn't take.
How about this one? Plant Suns logo on the sign:
http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:hwY6-P3GkWvSUM:http://cache.eb.com/eb/image%3Fid%3D66405

[cornbread]

Flip-Flopping bandwaggoners make me sick. Sorry to talk that way about your bro but it's true. He's bandwaggoning and that's very sad.

[LEONARD]

He's bailing at the right time if you ask me... :clap

Spurs are declining and once Duncan is gone they'll be in the lottery again...

Tell him to give the Mavs a shot though...much better and will be for longer...

[BradLohaus]

Abandoning your lifelong team because you all of a sudden find another team "more exciting" is basically having a sports affair. The Spurs should, by definition, be more exciting to watch then any other team because they are your favorite team. I know that's how it is for me and all other Spurs fans I know (at least the real ones, bandwaggoners excluded). Although, I very much question that he ever was a die-hard Spurs fan if he said, "Manu and Tony suck, always have, and Nash and Barbosa own them". It's not even close to true. I don't even think a Suns fan with half a brain would say that.

I hate to break it to you, but your brother is nothing more than a common bandwaggoner, as Che and Cornbread said above. It's shameful and annoying to your family no doubt. He's trying to stay ahead of the bandwagon jumping curve by jumping off the Spurs wagon and on the Suns wagon in time to celebrate what he sees as the Suns inevitable title this year. Man Law should be very clear on this.

You have the right to punch him in the face if:
The Suns beat or finish ahead of the Spurs this year and he celebrates it, regular season and playoffs, or
he tries to return to the Spurs after abandoning the Suns. You can welcome him back after the punch and an appropiate amount of time of ball-busting for his disloyalty, which I would put at one season.

[Don Quixote]

Wow. He did not succumb to Lakerism, so that is refreshing.
Still, disturbing.
While i think Don, can I get a photoshop with a Suns logo planted on either the bag or their chest. Could this be your in-law in the photo?
http://k53.pbase.com/u46/karlp73/large/29798464.182226a.jpg
okay that photo ^^^ didn't take.
How about this one? Plant Suns logo on the sign:
http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:hwY6-P3GkWvSUM:http://cache.eb.com/eb/image%3Fid%3D66405

No, not that dorky. He is a reasonably intelligent guy. He and my sister even had season tickets last year, so I got to see a handful of games after the storm when my sister got pregnant and was too sick to go. They were good seats too.

Look, I have no problem with appreciating or liking other teams. But changing your allegiance is another matter entirely.

[ArgSpursFan]

He's bailing at the right time if you ask me... :clap

Spurs are declining and once Duncan is gone they'll be in the lottery again...

Tell him to give the Mavs a shot though...much better and will be for longer...

yeah,it´ll be for longer..........the awaiting for a championship...... :lmao

[Don Quixote]

He's bailing at the right time if you ask me... :clap

Spurs are declining and once Duncan is gone they'll be in the lottery again...

Tell him to give the Mavs a shot though...much better and will be for longer...

Hmmm ... a Mavs fans missing the point and posting something foolish. There's a first.

It's not a Spurs suck/Mavs rule issue. All those many, many, MANY years the Spurs were contending and making the playoffs, while the Mavs were home watching the playoffs every spring, it might have been tempting for Mavs Fan to come over and start rooting for L.A., San Antonio, Houstin, whoever was good at the moment. But the real Mavs fans, I suspect, didn't. They held fast to their (crappy) team, which I respect.

And how would Mavs Fan like it if, in the midst of a championship run (or an NBA Finals choke), switched his allegiance to S.A., or Phoenix, or Denver?

[kskonn]

You know I had a roommate a lot like this. He claimed to be a spurs fan forever since I met him at the age of 12. I am now 27 and when the spurs played the Pistons in 05 I caught him giving a very slight fist pump when the pistions would doing something good. I started hounding him and hounding him about until he finally admitted that Tony parker, and tim duncan annoyed him because he thought they were arogant. He then revealed that he wanted to see them lose so all the arogant spurs fans would be dissapointed. He is no longer my roommate. We are still great friends and I give him shit all the time, espicially after game five and game seven of that series. Oddly enough he is now a rockets fan, I have decided he likes individual players(mcgrady) more than teams. he does hate the mavs though so whatever. Maybe your bro is similiar, he may have liked the spurs butenjoys seeing the players he does not like get beat more than he likes to see the team win.

[Clutch20]

Maybe, just maybe, since your brother-in-law subscribes to some conspiracy stories, don't the Suns qualify conspiracy-wise in terms of , oooo, (whisper) how many times they're seen on ESPN and all the sports media, how they've made off with all the thunder and lightning that $Cuban$ worked so hard to garner for the Mavs these past few months, and or how the Suns manage to win the unofficial midyear crown of the league's favored-status because of "moneyed" interests in the Amare line of sportswear, activewear, underwear and action figures wearing minaturized versions of same sportswear, activewear, underwear, not to mentioned countless put-together sequences of Amare blocks, stuffs.
Nothing new under the Sun, really, unless there's a conspiracy amongst those league affiliates and officials.

Naw

All my head, really!

[Senator Joseph McCarthy]

Deport him. Or at the very least whoop his ass.

[Don Quixote]

Deport him. Or at the very least whoop his ass.

It's not really a Spurs question. Really, if a bunch of Laker fans decided to switch their allegiance to the Spurs, I would never stop questioning their credentials as being true to the Spurs. Would they bail on us as soon as another winner came along. At least the gang at ST, for all their moaning, is loyal to the end.

And really ... if the world had no Laker fans, there would be no one to rag on after we stomp L.A. Of course, the City of L.A. would also be much MUCH safer at night with no Laker fans, but that's another issue entirely.

And do we really want a world without Mavs Fan? The nerve he has, still talking smack to Big Brother (us) after his team CHOKED in the Finals. High comedy all around.

[LEONARD]

yeah,it´ll be for longer..........the awaiting for a championship...... :lmao

I can wait another 6 months or so... :fro


Hmmm ... a Mavs fans missing the point and posting something foolish. There's a first.

It's not a Spurs suck/Mavs rule issue. All those many, many, MANY years the Spurs were contending and making the playoffs, while the Mavs were home watching the playoffs every spring, it might have been tempting for Mavs Fan to come over and start rooting for L.A., San Antonio, Houstin, whoever was good at the moment. But the real Mavs fans, I suspect, didn't. They held fast to their (crappy) team, which I respect.

And how would Mavs Fan like it if, in the midst of a championship run (or an NBA Finals choke), switched his allegiance to S.A., or Phoenix, or Denver?

I don't know man...I just started following the Mavs and NBA last spring...

[Cry Havoc]

Just give Sequ some time. He'll hop back on the bandwagon.

You owe me a NEW KEYBOARD. There is Mtn. Dew and granola bar all over mine!!!

JERKHEAD.

[Supergirl]

A true fan roots for his or her team, regardless of whether they win or lose.

I've been a Spurs fan since before David Robinson was drafted, so I assure you I've rooted for the Spurs in some dark, dark times.

I grew up in SA, so I'm Spur fan for life.

I lived in Portland OR, so there's a small part of me that is attached to the Blazers, and I live in Boston now, and I've become a Red Sox, Pats, and Celtics fan by osmosis. You can't live in this town and not become a Red Sox fan. It's in the water. Seriously.

If your brother-in-law can switch allegiances that easily, he's not really a fan and never was. He just wants to be on the side that's winning, or that he thinks will win. A true fan roots for their team even when they're losing badly.

[mardigan]

He was never a real fan then

[Rynospursfan]

Well if you are a bandwagoner the Suns aren't too bad of a choice. They have a great team and 3 first round picks in the upcoming draft.

[RonMexico]

Yeah, I'm a die-hard Suns, A&M, and Arizona State fan and I could NEVER see myself actively cheering for UT, U of A, or another NBA team (although I have supported the Spurs when they've made the Finals after they beat the Suns). I also kind of support Arizona because ASU never makes the NCAA tourney, and I have to have something to look forward to once my bracket blows up.

I mean, I'm a huge Suns fan and I actually resent your brother-in-law for proclaiming allegiance to my favorite team because now I view him as a bandwagon fan. I've been a fan since I could actively understand basketball - around 1987-88 and I've been there for the Finals run of 92-93 and the disappointment of the "Starbury" period. Now, that the Suns are "popular" again in Phoenix, I hate some of those douchebag bandwagoners that even live in Phoenix because they're generally the biggest homers and the ones who have the least amount of b-ball knowledge. I mean, I've stuck with the Cardinals this whole time, which is depressing (and I really thought they had more playoff appearences ahead of them until they decided to dismantle their entire defense).

Perhaps I can see switching to support a team not in your conference or something like that because they aren't in direct competition with your team except twice a year. Still, I've lived in Texas for 5 years and been in Houston for 1 and I don't support the Rockets, the Astros, or the Comets (just kidding, WNBA doesn't count). I do support the Texans but they're in the AFC and they're just as pathetic as the Cardinals.

[Extra Stout]

This is a case of straight-up bandwagonning. Bandwagonners are the scum of sports fandom. Your brother-in-law must be shunned.

[mardigan]

We shall never speak of him again

[ArgSpursFan]

I can wait another 6 years or so... :fro



fixed.

[dbestpro]

He's bailing at the right time if you ask me... :clap

Spurs are declining and once Duncan is gone they'll be in the lottery again...

Tell him to give the Mavs a shot though...much better and will be for longer...

Maybe he could root for the Mav's and the Suns and be a sports bigamist. No, the Mav's would probably just be his concubine (bitch).

[mardigan]

Shit, if Spur fans can stick with them the year before we got Duncan, then we can stick with them through anything

[Fabbs]

His reason given is a variant of the same old bag: Spurs are too old and boring, the Suns are young, fast, and exciting. Etc. Tony Parker and Manu suck, always have, and Nash and Barbosa own them. He was like this before he came out of the closet as a Suns fan, calling Manu "Manure" and what not. You all should know how I feel about "fans" who hate on our players.

Perplexed in the Big Easy,
Don Quixote :fro
Can he be saved? Hmmn.
Did he comment this way during the 2005 playoffs when Spurs ran the Suns off the court?
Or did his Suns leanings and full blown orientation have it's initial seeds in the 2006 playoff season of discontent?

[phyzik]

Bandwagoners dont deserve to be saved... they are the scum of the sports world.

All a bandwagoner is is someone who cant win for themselves so they latch on to those that can, they have no sports morals or sports dignity... shoving a basketball up his ass wouldnt be punishment enough.

Face it, he is no longer your brother, excommunicate his ass from the family fold.


j/k of course, ya he's a flaming homo for switching but its just a game.

[Timmy!]

At least it wasn't Dallas.

[Pugglekicker_21]

bandwagoning at its purest

[bigfundamental21]

Ask him if he likes the Suns after we beat them on their home floor tomorrow night.
:flag:

[SequSpur]

Dude, I am a huge Michael Jordan fan, but not really a Bulls fan. I like Vince Carter and love to watch him play, but not really a Nets fan... So fuck it, at least it wasn't the mavs or the rockets.

[SenorSpur]

Your brother-in-law essentially is trying to trade in his old car for a new model. For a true fan, it doesn't work that way. The team you ride with, is the team you die with.

Dude was never a true fan to begin with. Time to introduce legislation to have him defrocked and excommunicated.

[THE SIXTH MAN]

Dude your brother in law just broke the man rules. Only teenage girls switch up on things they like. A real fan rides it out through the good years and bad.

[ShoogarBear]

Sounds like he was never really a Spurs fan to begin with, and was just passing for one in order to get in good with your family.

Is your family wealthy? Did your sis sign a pre-nup? :lol

[Don Quixote]

Your brother-in-law essentially is trying to trade in his old car for a new model. For a true fan, it doesn't work that way. The team you ride with, is the team you die with.

Dude was never a true fan to begin with. Time to introduce legislation to have him defrocked and excommunicated.

You make an excellent point. Is he going to dump my sister when someone hotter comes along? I mean, he was with the Spurs ... 29 years? I'm sure he won't, out of fear. Not of me, but of my sister. She would have his hide.

[bdictjames]

I feel sorry for him.

[ro_50]

Tell him to kiss my a## and go ahead and become a Suns fan.

Freaking bandwagon hopper.

[ponky]

my little nephew bailed on the spurs when the mavs beat them in seven games...he went through some transformation over the summertime and at the start of the season he picked the suns....his entire family roots for the spurs and all last year he would not stfu about the spurs/mavs matchups. i think the kid's learning bad habits because he only wants to be with the team that wins, he'd probably bail on the suns if the mavs beat them this year (he hates the mavs even though he *tries* to act sincere when my bf and i show up because his mom makes him)

i think when choosing teams to root for, it doesn't have to be your home team....my brother gew up cheering on the pistons back in the day and that's his team through thick and thin

[YoMamaIsCallin]

OK here's the real deal answer. No kidding around.

There are two possible explanations. Or maybe it's a combination of both.

1) Your brother-in-law does not understand that sports is not like entertainment where you can just jump to someone new who comes along. Sports is like life where allegiance and loyalty are important. In other words, your brother-in-law is not a man.

2) Your brother-in-law is a jackass who is doing this just to jack around with his wife and her family. He's a nasty, manipulative sonovabitch.

[Don Quixote]

OK here's the real deal answer. No kidding around.

There are two possible explanations. Or maybe it's a combination of both.

1) Your brother-in-law does not understand that sports is not like entertainment where you can just jump to someone new who comes along. Sports is like life where allegiance and loyalty are important. In other words, your brother-in-law is not a man.

2) Your brother-in-law is a jackass who is doing this just to jack around with his wife and her family. He's a nasty, manipulative sonovabitch.

I'd have to eliminate #1. He watches alot of sports, probably too much. ESPN is on all the time at their house. And there's nothing wrong with that. Sports on TV is a good thing. I just think he gets nutty ideas from some of the talking heads on the networks.

I'd lean towards #2. He is known for jerking people around, and I've wondered if he seriously believes his conspiracy theories about the Illuminati, Skull & Bones, the Masons, or "Bush Planned 9/11," or whether he's just messing with people.

But I think he's serious about the Suns (for now).

[Big Shot Rob]

Sir, I'm sorry to have to break this to you.

But your brother in law is a FUCKING PRICK, A DOUCHE BAG PIECE OF SHIT, A MISERABLE, TOTALLY WORTHLESS SCUM SUCKING ASSHOLE.

Signed,

Your loving sister

[Don Quixote]

Sir, I'm sorry to have to break this to you.

But your brother in law is a FUCKING PRICK, A DOUCHE BAG PIECE OF SHIT, A MISERABLE, TOTALLY WORTHLESS SCUM SUCKING ASSHOLE.

Signed,

Your loving sister

Sis, I told you about him. He's a real douchbag. So when are you coming home?

[exstatic]

I can wait another 6 months or so... :fro



I don't know man...I just started following the Mavs and NBA last spring...
Damn, you caught them right at the peak.

[wildbill2u]

No, not that dorky. He is a reasonably intelligent guy. He and my sister even had season tickets last year, so I got to see a handful of games after the storm when my sister got pregnant and was too sick to go. They were good seats too.

Look, I have no problem with appreciating or liking other teams. But changing your allegiance is another matter entirely.
Has your sister notices any of these changes in the past year:

1. He's paying more attention to his clothes.
2. Has started a workout regimen to 'lose a few pounds'
3. Traded in his pickup for a convertible or sports car.
4. Uses men's cologne regularly now
5. any other changes in long time habits

Add any two of the above to his change in affection from the Spurs to the Suns and she should see a divorce lawyer immediately.

[Don Quixote]

Has your sister notices any of these changes in the past year:

1. He's paying more attention to his clothes.
2. Has started a workout regimen to 'lose a few pounds'
3. Traded in his pickup for a convertible or sports car.
4. Uses men's cologne regularly now
5. any other changes in long time habits

Add any two of the above to his change in affection from the Spurs to the Suns and she should see a divorce lawyer immediately.

He's been 1-4 all the time I've known him. In fact, I'm sure he's a flaming metro. And my sister won't divorce him -- she has all the power in that marriage.

[Don Quixote]

Any new insights?