As Princeton students, we are lucky for many reasons. We attend what is arguably the best university in the world. We have easy access to professors who are at the top of their fields. We are given the money to start clubs or pursue projects that most people can only dream of doing.
The list, my friends, can go on and on. But I can add yet one more: we are very privileged sports fans. It’s rare for us to go a season without at least one team captivating us with their wonderful play. See: the bonfire-bearing football team of the past two years, and the extraordinary women’s basketball team of the 2014-2015 season.
As sports editor, it is my great honor to cover so many of these teams. Unfortunately, when I decide to take a break from writing for a while and return to my other daily activities, I have to come face-to-face with the darkest truth in my life: I am a New York Knicks fan.
Prometheus, the Greek Titan who had his liver gnawed on daily by an eagle, did not suffer the agony I did throughout the 2014-2015 basketball season. Waking up and seeing yet another loss by the Knicks ruined many a day for me this year. We are also paying an aging superstar (Carmelo Anthony) upwards of $24 million a year. Of course, he probably spends this money mostly on the suits that he will wear courtside, given that he played in less than half of the games in the season.
I could go on and on about the agony of loving the Knicks. I could bring up our 17-65 record —worst in our conference, and second worst in the NBA. I could describe in detail for you the pitiful roster we fielded this season, containing career journeymen, castaways from other teams and totally unproven rookies.
This, however, is for another time. What I want to point out is that as a New Yorker, my emotional investment is almost completely on the Knicks. For example, the New York Rangers, one of the city's hockey teams, reached the Stanley Cup Finals in the 2014 season, and nearly became champions of the NHL. I, however, was totally preoccupied with the Knicks, and paid little attention.
This phenomenon of going “all-in” with a given sports team is something I’ve noticed among many New York sports fans. There’s one team we live or die by —the other teams, barring the times they achieve massive levels of success, tend to fall by the wayside. There are, of course, noticeable exceptions. If the Jets go to the Super Bowl, obviously the entire city is going to have all eyes on them. Of course, if the Jets were to go to the Super Bowl, I’d probably build a nuclear bunker because it would indicate that the End of Times is upon us.
Forgive the digression. The point is, New York fans seem to be very different from sports fans at Princeton. Perhaps others have a totally different viewpoint from mine, but it seems that many Princeton students, no matter what sport they consider their “favorite”, are incredibly supportive of many sports at Princeton, provided those teams are doing well. I imagine very few Princeton students would say “I only follow our basketball team” or “I only follow our hockey teams”. Our attention tends to be far more spread out than the NYC fans I know.
Granted, what I think of as an “average NYC fan” may not be representative of the city’s sports fans as a whole. Many of my friends are diehards for a certain sport, or at least are intensely passionate about 1 or 2 sports, tops. Casual fans from New York may have this same kind of mentality that I’ve seen in Princeton fans.
However, even if this were so, I’d like to think that Princeton students pay attention to many different sports teams for a reason. That reason could very well be the personal connections between the fans and the teams. Let’s be totally honest: most Knicks fans can’t relate very well to Carmelo Anthony. The dude’s a multi-millionaire, living a life we can only dream of. On the other hand, the people playing for a title-contending Princeton team might be the person in your SOC precept, or a girl in your zee group.
Watching your friends compete for greatness adds a whole new level of connectedness between you and your team. I think that many of us do pay attention to so many teams because we care more about the people in them. It does make the losses a little more bitter to watch, but experiencing the victories becomes all the more sweet.
So to all of you who play on a Princeton team, I’d like to say thank you. You make my life as a Knicks fan so much more bearable to endure.
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