I’ve Always Rooted for Players Over Teams

I had less loyalty to the jersey than the player inside it.

“Loyalty to any one sports team is pretty hard to justify, because the players are always changing, the team can move to another city. You’re actually rooting for the clothes, when you get right down to it. You are standing and cheering and yelling for your clothes to beat the clothes from another city. Fans will be so in love with a player, but if he goes to another team, they boo him. This is the same human being in a different shirt; they hate him now. Boo! Different shirt! Boo!”

— Jerry Seinfeld

I grew up a Michael Jordan superfan. Not just a fan, a superfan. I had his posters and pictures all over my walls, stacks of his Fleer and Skybox cards in my collection, and collected everything I could, from Starting Lineup figures to Wheaties boxes.

I have VHS tapes of some of his greatest games (the real telecasts, not the Hardwood Classics replays!) and DVDs of every game the 1992 U.S. Olympic team played.

I was 12 during that summer when Jordan won his second gold medal as part of the Dream Team. In the fall, we got a new dog. I named him Jordan. There was never a second choice.