NBA Playoffs 2013: Are Miami Heat Fans Really That Bad?
By Josh Hill
No team in the NBA has been handed more praise without earning it than the Miami Heat. The further into the Big 3 era we get, the more the Heat are earning, but some people are still bitter about the attention and credit the Heat were given before the were making it to three straight Conference Finals and it’s that hate that still boils over today.
The players pay their fair share but most of the hate is directed at the people who can’t back it up — the fans. While people blast LeBron James, he continually goes out and proves people wrong. Fans can’t do that which is why they make easy targets for people trying to vent rage about a team they really don’t like.
It’s the Tim Tebow effect. While Tim Tebow isn’t all that dislikable as a person or a player, the cult following he has is where most of the criticism comes from and that’s exactly the same case for Miami Heat fans. Tim Tebow followers feel that the punt protector does no wrong and it’s actually the NFL and the people running it who are to blame for Tebow’s lack of stardom.
It’s not the fact he can’t throw, has poor mechanics or that he’s better suited as a halfback. No, it’s the NFL and the people not giving him a fair chance that are to blame for Tebow currently being unemployed.
The same phenomenon applies to Heat fans, as they make easy targets. Take for example the woman who went viral for flipping off Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah. That one still photo of a crazed and likely drunken woman is exactly the stereotype fans around the NBA have in mind when they think about Heat fans.
But the fact of the matter is not all fans are like that and when you blast Heat fans for being losers or for being fair-weather, you’re blasting fans who actually really like the team as well.
Not every Heat fan is a crazed, middle aged lunatic hanging over a railing to get in the face of a 7-foot basketball player. Some Heat fans are passionate about their team and are finally living what it felt like to be a Bulls fan back in the 90s or a Celtics fan during the Bill Russell era and then again in the Larry Bird era.
The Miami Heat are a damn fine basketball team and it’s the true fans, the fans that have been following the team for twenty-odd years that you should be happy for. Do you honestly think every single Chicago Bulls “fan” during the Michael Jordan era was born a Bulls fan? Do you think every crazed person seen ranting about how the Bulls were the best team ever and that Michael Jordan was God actually had a room full of Bulls memorabilia?
Every fan base — and actually every faction of any organization in this country– has a fringe. There are those that wander into something massive because it’s popular. Why do you think we had a billion singers in the 90s trying copy Eddie Vedder’s sound? Bush existed and made it money from ripping off Nirvana, as did thousands of other bands during that time.
The Heat are the best team in basketball, they have the best player in the game today and a guy who will go down as one of the greatest to ever play the game. So it’s no surprise that the fan base is larger than just die-hards. Look at the Lakers; they’re lauded by most as one of the most stories franchises in basketball history yet Jack Nicholson is their most famous fan. Going to a Lakers game is a Hollywood event, it’s more than just a basketball game.
Going to a Heat game is approaching that level, only swap out dressed up celebrities with dressed up club junkies and you get a picture of what the pulse of a Heat game is all about. But that pulse doesn’t define the fan base and blasting it as such actually makes the person blasting the fan base look stupid, not the fans.
Sure, there are the stereotypical South Beach partiers that regularly attend Heat games, but there’s also fathers taking their sons to games and sharing that experience together. Heat games are a party, but they’re also a bonding experience like all other sporting events are and when you make fun of Heat fans, you’re making fun of that father and his son as well.
Taking an outrageous stereotype and generalizing about it is an easy thing to do, especially when you’re railing against something as popular as the Miami Heat. But the next time you’re making fun of the only people inside AmericanAirlines Arena that can’t defend themselves on the court, remember the guy who grew up loving the Heat the way other die-hards love their team and realize that you’re actually making fun of that person, not the club junkies that are there for the party rather than the game.