A New Season
I’m a little hoarse today. Granted it could be from the cold that struck the entire family, but it’s more so from the screaming and yelling I did last night. The Charlotte Sting hosted its home opener last night against the Washington Mystics.
I’m a season ticket holder to the Sting games, in fact we have five seats with our family name on them. My five-year-old and four-year-old even have their own tickets.
I’ve been a basketball fan most of my life. In college I watched the high school playoff games hosted in my university’s arena because of the incredible basketball those kids had to offer. I’m also a big college ball fan (Go Duke!)
What I’ve not been is a professional basketball fan in the past. By that I mean NBA. I think the NBA, like most of the other pro sports in packed full of money-hungry, I-can-do-whatever-the-heck-I-want poor role models. Ok, sit down…not all of the men in the NBA are, just most.
I resisted the WNBA at first as well. I expected many of the same things. Plus, the game in the NBA just isn’t the same. It’s power vs. finesse. I like watching the lower scoring games where they have to work for every shot and every rebound. The ball movement and heads-up intelligent play is lacking in the NBA for me. After attending a few Sting games three years ago, I found what I’d been missing since moving south.
The nice thing about women’s sports, they don’t expect as much as their male counterparts. They don’t have the multi-million dollar deals, in fact most, if not all make under 100,000 in the WNBA. So, it’s not about money. It’s about the game.
The fans are also different at the WNBA games. The are old school fans as much as the game is old school basketball. They are there to support their team. Good play or bad play, win or lose. They are screaming and cheering working just as hard to lift their team up just enough to pull it out in the end.
We came close last night. With four minutes left, the Sting was down by I think 12 points. The lost by only 4. They came very, very close to tying the game up, but unfortunately didn’t quite make it. Yet the majority of the fans, the true, real fans were still there. Hoping to watch a miracle happen on the court before them.
This one event. This group of fans, can return a person to a time where people would watch a high school tournament just for the chance to watch good basketball. The Sting may not have sell out crowds every night. But two things are certain regardless of how many people are in the stands. First, each person in attendance is treated to old school, fun to watch basketball, played by women who love the sport for the sport and not what it can give them outside the arena. Second, you will be surrounded by REAL fans. Fans that what they may lack for in numbers, will make it up in noise and heart!
11:41:46 AM 
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