The Garden loves Lil’ NateHaving gone to the majority of Knicks home games over the past two seasons, I’ve gotten to see how certain players vacillate between being fan favorites borderline villains with the MSG faithful. While David Lee and Nate Robinson have consistently been among the guys whom the fans love, others have gone back and forth; Eddy Curry was The Man last year, and now everyone hates him. Renaldo Balkman was a huge fan favorite as a rookie, but this year you can tell the fervor has died down just a bit. (Maybe if he’d stop jacking those 18-foot jumpers he’d be back to his former status.) Jamal Crawford wasn’t universally loved in ‘07 — except for the night when he dropped 52 on D-Wade and was all but given a parade — but now is one of the players fans dig the most. And naturally, there’s copious amounts venom in the Big Apple to go around for Isiah, Steph and Jerome James.
When I’ve gone back to Seattle and hit up Sonics games, I see the fans obviously love Kevin Durant and love Nick Collison, and have a love/hate thing with Luke Ridnour (hometown kid, but he just kills you if you’re a Seattle fan with some of the stuff he does). And not like Sonics owner Clay Bennett would show his face at a game now, but he’d get a collective gas-face if he did.
Out of curiosity, for those of you who regularly attend NBA games in your city, who are the fan favorites and least favorites?
March 17th, 2008 at 9:13 am
2 Easy says:
First definately aint the worst lol
Raps love CB4 and they love Calderon and AP. They love Hump, big hustle guy. They cant stand Ford i guess its the random stupid shots I dont know.
March 17th, 2008 at 9:13 am
rangerjohn says:
here in houston YAO (obviously) is a fan fave, tracy is back and forth (he is a fav now that they are winning) rafer same thing, (i dont care for tracy or rafer myself) mutombo is by far the most popular i think here in houston, when his finger wags, the croud goes NUTS! luther head is on again off again, and carl landry is becoming a huge fan fav. battier is another one the fans really love no mater what he does. rafer seams to be the real goat when they are losing though.
March 17th, 2008 at 9:19 am
mike says:
Raps fans LOVE Jose. They don’t dig TJ too much right now, but they did last year. Also, i noticed that whenever i watch the game with buddies at home or at a bar, everyone always hate Hump, because he just has no offensive game and forces it WAY too often, but when you’re at the game, his hustle plays definitely fire up the crowd. CB4, obviously the fans dig him lol.
March 17th, 2008 at 9:35 am
dueceduece says:
I go to BU and i’m about 30 min. away from the Boston garden so I’ve been to a few celtics games this year. The entire city gets excited when ray allen hits a 3, rondo makes some crazy acrobatic layup, or when big baby goes crashing to the floor for no reason. I don’t know if this is true for everyone, but me and my friends can’t stand scalabrine…what a waste of money.
March 17th, 2008 at 9:36 am
myrie says:
Fan favorites?
Not many fans left in NY…
March 17th, 2008 at 9:49 am
E$ says:
Right now is the best time to be a Rocket! We love em’ all. Skip was getting alot of heat for the losing, but that was sooooo longgggg ago. HA!
March 17th, 2008 at 10:08 am
fallinup says:
In Motown, everyone loves Chauncey. But the biggest ovations come whenever Sheed touches the ball. The collective “SSSSHHHHHEEEEEEEEDDDDDD!” fills the arena.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:25 am
007 says:
In Orlando, Dwight is obviously the fan favorite. I think the 2nd favorite is probably JJ Redick. The crowd goes nuts on the rare occasion that he gets in the game.
There really isn’t a player that gets bood by the crowd. Arroyo can drive us nuts sometimes with his no look passes into the 2nd row.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Celts Fan says:
It’s all love in Boston now that we’ve gone from doormat to knocking on the door for chip #17, but to nitpick, fans love Scal now but he got tons of venom last year, (though more through him at Doc for playing him so much probably.) Fans LOVE Leon (hustle guy that went from end of the bench type to solid rotation guy with hard work) and Big Baby (kids got a ton of skill and a ton of stomach, and who doesn’t love the jolly fat guy with a great personality that can actually contribute and contribute well? We like Tony Allen, but he sometimes tries to do too much (like run and dribble at the same time. honestly, dude’s handle is garbage, but he’s another energy guy off the bench that occasionally will explode for 10 pts. in a half and you can always count on good D or at least good effort on D) and when he gets a little too carried away, he’s been known to get the occasional boo. Same with Eddie House.
I LOVE Eddie House, because you could not see a score, but watching him play lets you know what the score is, give or take. There’s Close-Game Eddie House who tries his best to be a combo guard with some restraint. He facilitates and doesn’t shoot too much (keeping in mind his role is energy scorer off the bench so shooting is part of the job description,) then there’s Garbage Time Eddie House (who may be my favorite non-star in the league.) Garbage Time Eddie House is the guy that you KNOW is shooting the ball while the pass is still traveling to him. I’m convinced that once it’s garbage time, every time someone passes him the ball, all he hears is the sound of a gun loading. He’s the guy that jacks up 15 shots in 6 minutes. The guy that’s never met a shot he didn’t like. The prognosticators that were criticizing his pick-up before the season saying things along the lines of, “How long until he’s jacking up shots with 17 seconds left on the shotclock with Ray, Truth, and KG looking at him confused?” were talking about Garbage Time Eddie House. It’s a running joke with everyone in my section at the Garden and I’m sure we’re not the only ones that notice it. You can tell when it’s a beatdown, because Eddie’s conscience gets turned off. Gun away Eddie, gun away…
March 17th, 2008 at 10:57 am
yallallreadyknow says:
unfair question
all of us dont live in the states
March 17th, 2008 at 11:03 am
fweezy says:
in sac i guess the least favorite player would be artest for me because he forces too many dumb shots..but sactown fans really cant stand grant napear
March 17th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Ross says:
In San Antonio, they love everyone. They even cheer former Spurs from like, 5 years before.
In Houston (earlier this season when they were losing), they really didn’t like anyone, except maybe Yao. McGrady didn’t play the nights I went. I remember someone next to me boo-ing Alston. They did love Francis when he got in the game for a few mins.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:57 am
YOUNGFED says:
Detroit
Favorites: Billups/Sheed
Villians: Rip/Flip
March 17th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Austin Burton says:
They really don’t like Rip Hamilton?
March 17th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
YOUNGFED says:
Not that we don’t like Rip/Flip they just get mad alot win Rip is off and continually shoots jumpers. With Flip its more like whatever, he not gonna make any type of coaching decision. sometimes it feels like the starting five run the team. Many fans simply put just wanna see Amir play more and Mcdyess coming off the bench. But over all Naw, no real villans in the D.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
D-Lite says:
I concur in Sactown, Ron Ron aka Jeckyl and Hyde gets the ire of the Arco faithful. Dude can play lock down for a qtr then decides to let someone else play D for a while. He’s at his best when he can knocc down his first jumper from 22 feet. Kings TV announcer native New Yorker gets the business on the airwaves daily too. He brags about being from New York daily, but won’t take the hint and move back there. ohhh boyyyy, if you don’t like dat’ you don’t like NBA basketball….. lol
March 17th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Brown says:
In TO they love Calderon, Bosh and Parker. Sometimes Moon when he gets big blocks or catches alley-oops, he gets the crowd pumped, but he’s been off lately.
The announcers are fan-favourites too - Chuck Swirsky and Leo Rautins, not too sure about Jack Armstrong though. I think it’s cuz for the most part they’re not homers and tell it like it is to a certain extent.
The least favourites are Ford and Bargnani. They get the brunt of the hate when the team doesn’t play well. The thing with TO fans is that they’ll hate you if you don’t play well, but if you have a good game you’re back in their good graces until you have another bad one. We know these players are capable of playing well, but for some reason or another just haven’t come through this year, and when you don’t play up to your capabilities or expectations, that brings the hate out of the fans.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
ngoogs says:
Daniel ‘Boobie’ Gibson is for sure a fan favorite in C-town. Eric Snow was pretty much the goat back when he would actually play. Varejao WAS a pretty big fan favorite, but after the whole hold out incident, not really so much. Sadly enough, drew was a pretty big scape goat when he was here, just cause he was so damn inconsistant. I have a feeling that if Joe Smith keeps doin what hes doin, hell be a fan favorite in no time.
they really seem to hate lebron here, though. hahahaha
March 17th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
doc says:
In the illadelph they on a little streak so the crowds fall back a little but we come at Willie Green,Calvin Booth,and we used to come at Billy King the most before he got the ax.They loving Dre Miller,Iggy,Lou Will,Thad Young , and Reg Evans because he chumps the other team.Oh and we hate Kevin Ollie.
March 17th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
MoxWestCoastRep says:
Where my lake show fans?! Obviously KB24 is the staples boy but after that I’d say
Luuuke Walton
Turiaf
Fish
Vujacic
Farmar
Sometimes LO gets on our nerves but no one got the business like KWAME!!
March 17th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Joeman says:
In the Chi last year it was the big four Hinrich, Deng, Nocioni, & Gordon. Now it’s just Nocioni who gets the shine, but the rook Noah the fans seem to like or at least the ladies! I work as one of the guys who toss the t-shirts in the crowd during the 4th.
March 17th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
K Dizzle says:
for real tho. In LA, it’s all love for all, except that one Kwame incident. Lotta love for the whole squad, especially Coby Karl, Bynum, the young guys, plus the local kids:Farmar, Ariza. Shoot, even Shaq gets more love now than Kwame did when he was on the squad
March 17th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
spindlest says:
Ever since Stack and Kwame got traded, there isn’t really anyone that DC hates. Some people think that Gil is a loudmouth, but that’s about it.
March 17th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Brown says:
Isn’t Gil being a loudmouth part of what makes him popular though?
March 17th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
D-Rock says:
here in Milwaukee only Redd and Bogut get love.
Bobby Simmons and Dan Gadzuric definitely get the hate for those big contracts with nothing to show. Even Mo Williams and Yi take there fair share for under producing a lot
March 17th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
myrie says:
Oh yeah…in the NYC, we still have LOTS of love the New York City Dancers.
Does that count?
March 17th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
miamiVIS3 says:
Well here in miami me and the only other person in all of miami that goes to the games obviously love D-Wade and Matrix(altho he doesn’t get shaq luv) also a real big fan fave is Chris “quinny” Quinn J-will gets love too. weve got a love hate thing with ricky buckets. Only people here weve really hated recently have been luke jackson and antoine when they were here.
March 17th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
BxBaller says:
I don’t know why people in NYC hate Steph, I mean would they rather of had Charlie Ward & Howard Eisley running the point.
March 17th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
K Dizzle says:
yes
March 17th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
yallallreadyknow says:
bxballer
steph marbury is the biggest waste of talent since 1995.
i would rather have rick brunson back at the pg if i was in ny.
March 17th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Joe says:
In the land of the Blazers, most of our players are very well liked. Joel Pryz gets a lot of love for his hustle and tenacity on defense. Broy and LMA are loved as the future of the team. The only guy who seems to have the love/hate thing is Jarret Jack. His untimely turnovers tend to drive us crazy
March 17th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Claw says:
In the AZ, Shaq, Nash, and Amare are getting all the love and you can throw Raja in with them (everybody likes that “Longest Yard Clothesline” he put on Kobe).
Boris drives fans crazy, passes up layups to pass it out to the 3 point line, or throws it away. Can Barbosa step in a big game, just one time!
March 18th, 2008 at 1:52 am
adrian says:
here in boston glen davis is a fan favorite with all his hustle plays. KG always gets people pumped too. ray’s 3s and pierce’s finishes in the lane also get people excited. i can’t really think of a least favorite. i used to get pissed off though whenever tony allen ran the point, but that doesn’t happen anymore.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Celts Fan says:
“steph marbury is the biggest waste of talent since 1995.”
damn YAll, we finally agree on something! Isiah Rider is a close 2nd though. What a shame…
and at least Ward and Eisley showed up, kept their mouths shut (except Charlie about Jews anyway) and did their jobs (badly, but not “embarrassing the entire franchise with their behavior” badly)
March 18th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Juanito says:
Boston fans will boo Rondo by the end of the playoffs. He will be the reason they fall to the Cavs in the 2nd rd.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:38 am
... says:
GET RID OF TJ
he reminds us of Mike james but better….shoots ridiculous shots at the end of games and loses.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Utes Fan says:
Jazz fans really don’t have anyone who gets picked on since Giricek got traded. Sending Giri-CHUCK to Philly for Korver was the best trade they have made since the ‘94 trade with Philly for Hornacek.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
JDizzle says:
Now that Dunleavy is gone, Pietrus is probably the one people get on the most. Then maybe Harrington because he’s so inconsistent. For some reason Barnes seems to be given a lot of slack even though he’s having a horrible season. I don’t know, maybe because he’s such an underdog…I still like him.
Everybody LOVES Monta, Baron, Biedrins,and Stephen Jackson.