48 Responses to “Do the home fans make a difference?”

1. June 9th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

   Sam I Am says:

   I think it’s something special to play at home. The smell, the sounds, the images of the:
   banners
   people
   clips on the titantron

   I know just playing ball on a court I’ve played for years you feel like you can do so much;

   On someone else’s court or somewhere unfamiliar, just the people not saying nothing or being all quiet and weird when you play distracts you.

   But Yes, home court fans def boost your morale to sink in a crazy shot or go for a pass to make you a highlight, a reason for them to go off and hype you up.

   My 2 cents of course

2. June 9th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

   hahns says:

   i think the importance of fans can get overstated at times, but i defintiely think it matters. to say that playing in front of nobody, playing in front of a hostile crowed, and playing in front of your home fans are all the same is just foolishness. and thats pretty much what one is saying if the claim is made that fans dont impact the game. tv analysts always say how role players play much better at home, and i think for the most part its true: once momentum builds, cheering fans can give players confidence and to play and just get in the flow of a game. as oppose to playing each position on its own, where one lost posession is so precious, that if wasted, dramatically impacts the team’s chances.

3. June 9th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

   hahns says:

   a few typos, i meant “posession” not position, and the extra “and” before the “to play…”

4. June 9th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

   Marcus says:

   After 110 games, I’m sure PP doesn’t give a f*** if they’re chanting or booing. But sure it fires up the bench players.

5. June 9th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

   Austin Burton says:

   “But that moment of fan hysteria never came because Doc chose to take Powe out during a timeout. As soon as this happened, I emailed Austin that Doc screwed that up. By not giving the crowd that chance to go crazy, he killed the momentum a bit.”

   Not true, Jed. You sent me that e-mail as soon as Vlad Radmanovic had his travel/dunk, when the lead had already been cut to four. So you had time to think about it and still decided that Doc, as you said in the e-mail, “f’d this game up” by not taking Powe out at a different time.

   Will a boisterous home crowd give an athlete a bit of a boost? Sure. But not enough that it makes a difference between holding a 24-point lead and letting the game come down to one possession in the final minute.

   Also, why weren’t you guys cheering during the time L.A. was coming back? If you WERE cheering and the C’s STILL blew the lead, doesn’t that kill your argument?

6. June 9th, 2008 at 2:39 pm

   Brado says:

   Yes it makes a difference, especially for a younger team….a’la - Utah. Almost unbeatable at home while weak sauce on the road.

7. June 9th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

   TWolves Convert says:

   I think fans make a deffinite difference. Everybody likes support, proffesionals or otherwise. I don’t think the “these guys are profesionals” argument holds up because if it were true home/away wouldn’t make any difference. Being professional does mean you are the best at limiting the outside influences, but it doesn’t mean you are impervious to them.

   I do agree that the bench and less experienced players are affected the most. This explains Rondo’s bad weaker play away from Boston.

8. June 9th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

   Logan Light says:

   I attended and now work at Harding University, a D2 school outside of Little Rock, AR. Our games sell out pretty regularly and the fans are legendary around the state… I have been in the Rhodes Field House when the crowd seemingly willed the Bison to a victory. Yes, the players still have to have the skill set, but when you know that 3,000 screaming fans have your back it definitely boosts your moral.

   You also need to take into account how the away team handles that crowd. Numerous times I remember players airballing shots and then losing all confidence as the fans never let up.

   Yes, that is college ball. The NBA is full of “Professional” ballers who have wills made of steel… right. The NBA crowd is not as into the game as the crowd in college - maybe with the exception of Golden State fans, you won’t see an NBA crowd standing for a long duration. Because of that, when an arena of 25,000 plus goes bananas, it definitely has an impact on the game. And not on every player… I’m sure Kobe could care less about the Boston fans… but lets also take into consideration the refs.

   Be honest, if you were to walk in a room and people started cheering for you, you would smile. Endorphins.

9. June 9th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

   The Jed says:

   Austin, A. you’re d-bag. B. I turned to everyone around me and said it AS SOON as they took Powe out. C. People were cheering, but fans show normal reaction and it was definitely a nervous cheer. Basketball is a game of runs and all I’m saying is that the fans can help a team go on that run. D. You’re a d-bag.

10. June 9th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

    shake&bake says:

    I think the main advantage of playing at home is that there is no stress travel involved and you get to sleep in your own bed. I think that makes a bigger difference than fans. Fans do make a difference but there are those players who thrive off being booed and heckled.

11. June 9th, 2008 at 3:23 pm

    BigBabyismyBoy says:

    Come on guys. Are we really having this argument? Have you watched college basketball? Have you seen a game in Arco? The home crowd is crucial. not just the home bed, lockerroom, court, but also the home crowd. to say otherwise is just dumb.

12. June 9th, 2008 at 3:38 pm

    Dime Magazine says:

    BigBaby -

    couldn’t disagree more. these guys are professionals. the guys on the court last night have played more than 100 games this season alone, and all of them were in front of pretty big crowds. to say that the performance of Paul Pierce, a guy who’s been in the League a long time, is significantly altered by the crowd is just not true.

    now is a raucous crowd cheering you for everything that you do better than them not saying anything at all? sure, but I don’t think it has nearly as big of an affect on the outcome of games as fans would like to think.

    -PC

13. June 9th, 2008 at 3:43 pm

    Sam I Am says:

    I think we’ll see when the Lakers play on Tuesday and clearly the Celtics are 12-1 at home b/c of something and it sure aint a balanced home-away consistency

14. June 9th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    bliz289 says:

    Austin, you’re the same guy who defended Mike Vick, thinks “A Different World” is one of the top 10 shows ever, thinks Whoopi Goldberg is the best actress on the planet, and would say today is Tuesday if I said it’s Monday just to argue - so you’re credibility is questionable at best. The only thing you’ve got going for you is that you hang around Christian, who says even more ridiculous things than you - like Kazakhstan is an imaginary place made up by Borat.

    A few points on home-court advantage and last night’s game:

    1. Adrenaline is a real thing. It’s scientific. You can’t argue against it. It’s fact. Crowds pump up athletes and it has a positive effect.

    2. Loud “hostile” environments have a negative effect on visiting teams. Are you really going to argue against that?

    3. At the time Doc pulled Powe, the Celts had a 20-point lead. What’s the harm in leaving Powe in for one more whistle so he could get the ovation he deserved? Doing so would have fired up the crowd and might have had a positive effect on the rest of the team. Seems like there’s very little downside and a lot of upside.

    4. Austin/Pat, how do you explain why home teams win so much more than road teams in the NBA Playoffs? Can you acknowledge that the home crowd has SOMETHING to do with it?

    5. Strictly from a basketball perspective, Powe was playing out of his mind. He was arguably the C’s best player last night. He hadn’t hit the wall yet, so why not ride it out and leave him in?

15. June 9th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    Austin Burton says:

    @bliz — Just so the people out there aren’t thinking false things about me:

    (1) I didn’t defend Mike Vick per se, all I said is that dog-fighting isn’t the worst thing in the world, no worse than hunting, which is legal and supposedly OK with White people.

    (2) Christian said “A Different World” was a Top-10 show. But I will always say “Martin” was better than “Seinfeld.”

    (3) I didn’t say Whoopi was a great actress, I said she was an A-List celebrity. EVERYONE knows who she is.

    (4) It is Tuesday.

16. June 9th, 2008 at 3:57 pm

    The Real Chief says:

    How many people know where Kazakhstan is? Home teams win @ home because they don’t have to travel. No planes, trains, buses or whatever. It is a comfort zone. The fans don’t have THAT much to do with it.

    Please explain how MJ, Kobe, Reggie Miller and LeBron (King James did it a few times this season)go into hostile enviorment and kill the comp there. The fans actually help when they are hostile…unless you are Ron Artest. Lol

17. June 9th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

    Frank says:

    Uhh… dogfighting is waaay worse than hunting.

18. June 9th, 2008 at 4:00 pm

    Dime Magazine says:

    Chief -

    knowing where Kazakhstan is located is VERY different than knowing whether or not the country exists.

19. June 9th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    bliz289 says:

    @ The Real Chief
    “Home teams win @ home because they don’t have to travel. No planes, trains, buses or whatever. It is a comfort zone. The fans don’t have THAT much to do with it.”

    So if two teams arrive in a city on the same day, meaning they both traveled into town that morning, the home team wouldn’t have an advantage because of the crowd?

20. June 9th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    Austin Burton says:

    Is hunting really better than dog-fighting? Tell me how. (And I don’t mean people that hunt because they need food, I’m talking about people who hunt so they can put a deer head on their wall.)

21. June 9th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    alex says:

    Ok, so if the argument that FANS DO NOT help in these situations - because they are professionals (robots who play ball and don’t get pumped up by cheers and rattled by boos), then how do you explain Pierce, Iverson, B.Diddy etc etc always looking to get the fans involved in games?

    Its no coincidence that teams with good home records usually have really loud fans.

22. June 9th, 2008 at 4:07 pm

    The Real Larry Legend says:

    Dog Fighting is not worse than hunting! America is the only country where people hunt on a full stomach. It is still senseless killing.

    Dime,
    No one from Kazakhstan can see me on the court or in the octagon. Tell them to come see me.

23. June 9th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

    SWAT says:

    But what if you’re a trash team…does home court help you? Seattle? New York? Hmmm…

24. June 9th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

    Egg head says:

    Austin. Dude. Uhh.. people of colors other than white hunt and think hunting is “O.K”, and hunting is way the hell more humane that dog fighting. If you want to argue the point use something like “Shooting and blowing up women and children is worse that dog fighting”, or “Slavery is worse than Dog Fighting”, or “pedophilia is worse than Dog fighting”. That people will think.. “HMMMM mayby dog fighting IS kinda cool”. If you go about it the right way you might be able to start a dog fighting league with Micheal Vick as a coach or m.c. or something.

25. June 9th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    Frank says:

    Have you guys even seen the pictures from these dog fights? Snouts bitten off, legs chewed raw. You think that’s just as bad as a bullet in the head? Plus these dogs are locked up for days without food and water. That’s as bad as hunting? Get your mind right. Just because both dogfighting and hunting end up in death does not mean they are the same. The paths they take to get there completely different.

    hunting = killing
    dogfighting = torture + killing

26. June 9th, 2008 at 4:17 pm

    Dime Magazine says:

    @ alex -

    the Warriors have the loudest arena in the League and they didn’t make the playoffs. the Kings’ fans go crazy, but they were awful this season. i think there’s a whole lot of fans out there who think/hope that their cheering for favorite players or teams is going to help change the outcome of a game.

    - PC

27. June 9th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

    Austin Burton says:

    Have you seen what a bullet does to an animal? It’s not like on TV where they just get hit and drop and they’re sleeping peacefully. Bullets rip and tear flesh, and you don’t always die right away. Especially with the assault rifles that some people use to hunt. Some animals get hit with a bullet and run away only to eventually die from loss of blood. That’s humane? I’m not saying dog-fighting is a healthy activity, but it’s not any less humane than hunting.

28. June 9th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

    Prof. TX says:

    Austin, that is seriously ignorant. Not all white people are ok with hunting (actually, most of the animal rights and tree-hugger types seem to be white) and more than just white people go hunting. If I said that dog fighting was just something that black people do for fun then this board would be full of comments calling me a racist and you’d probably be one of the ones to rightfully call me out on a stupid claim like that.

29. June 9th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

    Kermit the Washington says:

    It’s like Doug Collins always says, your bench players always play their “out of their minds” games at HOME. You hardly ever see the Leon Powe heroic games, or the Boobie Gibson, Anderson Varejao, Luis Scola type cats having games like that on the road.

30. June 9th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    Austin Burton says:

    My bad. I said “White people” in a sweeping generalization of the most prominent anti-Vick media and all the hunters I see on ESPN shows. I know people of all races hunt. And people of all races hold dog-fights.

31. June 9th, 2008 at 4:28 pm

    The Real P Squared says:

    Vick tortured the dogs, yes that was wrong. BUT there is no difference b/w dogfighting and hunting…especially when the people hunting arent eating the animals they kill.

    I was at a dog fight YESTERDAY, yes YESTERDAY and no dog was critically injured. I made more money than I did betting on Big Brown this weekend, shit.

    Speaking of Big Brown…horse racing is pretty f*cked up too. Them horses get taken out faster than a kid at Michael Jackson’s house if they break a leg. How come them dudes aint locked up?

    Free #7

32. June 9th, 2008 at 4:36 pm

    alex says:

    “the Warriors have the loudest arena in the League and they didn’t make the playoffs” - that’s weak. that’s assuming that the fans can somehow turn a bad team into a good one.

    Nobody is saying that. The argument here is that the fans HELP, they make a difference. It means that if two teams are more or less equal, the fans can definitely turn the tide. Golden State’s fans definitely had something to do with the upset last year.

33. June 9th, 2008 at 4:39 pm

    Austin Burton says:

    The fans do help; I think most everyone can agree with that. But I don’t see how a 2-minute standing ovation for Leon Powe would have made a difference in the Lakers mounting that big comeback in Game 2.

34. June 9th, 2008 at 4:41 pm

    Egg head says:

    When one hunts the idea is to kill the animal quickly, butcher it, and eat it. 99% of hunters eat what they shoot, they pay fees to support the game and their habitat. When one pits dogs against one another, the dogs are treated terribly, trained terribly, fight in vicious protracted painful combat, and the losers are often left to die or killed. That was part of the deal with Vick case, he was involved with strangling dogs that lost. Ugly stuff. I am not a hunter, but i respect people that participate in the sport. Dog fight is scum level stuff. That said, 20 pit bulls attacking a race horse would be cool!!

35. June 9th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

    Egg head says:

    The warriors lost because Baron Davis and Andris Biedrins were out at the dog fights in oaktown untill 5 in the morning on game day.

36. June 9th, 2008 at 4:51 pm

    Austin Burton says:

    Yes, the “idea” in hunting is to make a quick kill, but that doesn’t always happen. And even a quick kill is a painful kill. Watch someone get shot in the head and tell me if that’s humane to you.

    And maybe 99% percent of the people who hunt do eat their victims, but the percentage of those who HAVE to eat the animals is much lower. When I went fishing with my Grandpa we’d eat the fish, but we could have just as well gone to the store and bought fish. A lot of people hunt for sport, just to get “trophies” (heads on the wall, rugs made of the fur, etc.) and what they do is not any more noble than dog-fighting.

    Whether you want to admit it or not, dog-fighting has a worse reputation than hunting for two reasons:

    (1) Dog-fighting is, at least as presented to most of us, primarily an activity for poor Black people.

    (2) Dogs are “cute” and people feel worse about seeing them suffer than they do seeing a wild animal suffer.

37. June 9th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

    The Jed says:

    If Leon Powe received a 2 minute standing ovation it would have effected the team somehow. Is it possible that the players would have wanted to play even just a little bit harder for Leon? To show their appreciation for his unbelievable effort by stepping up their already high level of basketball just one more notch? Can the fans shake a player’s confidence by riding him? Yes. Can the fans lift a player up? Yes.

38. June 9th, 2008 at 5:06 pm

    Dime Magazine says:

    @ alex -

    do cheering fans help the home team? maybe. would they ever really be the difference in a close game where professionals are involved? probably not.

    @ The Jed -

    i’m sorry, that’s just crazy. KG, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce are going to dig deeper and play harder for Leon Powe because the fans are cheering for him??? are you serious?

39. June 9th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    andre says:

    i know that whenever we play games, its so much better playing at home cuz after every shot, the entire crowd goes nuts. playing on the road is much harder cuz not as much fans show up and the home crowd sometimes boos you. i played jv last season, and one game there were even kids booing us at the free throw line. it was jv, for god’s sake

40. June 9th, 2008 at 5:30 pm

    Dime Magazine says:

    andre -

    that’s the point though. you’re a jv player. these guys are professionals paid millions of dollars to perform. they’ve played in front of thousands of crowds in their lifetimes.

41. June 9th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

    word says:

    damn i wish i had tickets jed you are lucky you got to be there live for that, and yea home crowd does make a difference.. i seen a guy in the background during the intro’s with a sign that said “i need tickets”, i can imagine how much ticket cost prolly a few grand for courtside?

    by the way.. bulls hire a coach with no experience is not a good idea

42. June 9th, 2008 at 7:18 pm

    Desrat says:

    Hunting is not the clashing of two dominant animals to see who is fiercer. There is no comparison between the two. It is not that one is more cruel than the other. In this country we often guage a crime by the the intention of the purpatrator prior to commiting it, and the hunter and the dog fighter are very diffrent intentions. While both will cause a death by brutality, the hunter pits is know-how, patience and focus against the animals ability to survive and the dog-fighter uses his know-how and patience and training abilities to turn an aggrisive dog into a fighter. Very diffrent activities.

    That said I can understand the comparison. Ali paid a high price for his boxing carreer, but could you imagine a world that did not have him as a boxer? Would the world have been a better place if he had died in ‘nam as Cashes Clay? He was born to box, and it is very hard to say that his is a wasted life, even with his slured speach and tentative raising of the fist. I do not enjoy dog-fighting at all, but some of those dogs were born to fight. To save them from themselves seems a little arragant to me. I have known several pits that were saved froma life of fighting. I can say one thing about them, they all loved to fight. The were bred for it, born for it. To say that they did not know any better, they need us to save them, is to rob them of there autnomy. The same was said of black folk and why slavery was better and we all knew it for a straw man argument then, and it is now.

43. June 9th, 2008 at 7:29 pm

    shake&bake says:

    I don’t think that teams are good because they have good home crowds. I think they have good home crowds because they are good or have been recently. The Warriors had good crowds last year and this year because they made the playoffs for the first time in a long time and then had one of the biggest upsets in playoff history.

44. June 9th, 2008 at 11:41 pm

    daquest?on a.k.a Heavy Artillery says:

    i agree with austin in that dog fighting isnt the worst thing in the world ppl made a big deal out of it. where i come from we fight cocks and (maybe here and there) dogs, its completely legal and its part of our culture its almost the same as dog fighting.. plus i hated the espn ppl talking about mike vick and dog fighting and pedro martinez and cockfighting its part of the culture of where the people comefrom i mean they are just animals.. dogfighting is the same as UFC and u dont see ppl complaining

45. June 9th, 2008 at 11:44 pm

    daquest?on a.k.a Heavy Artillery says:

    some people believe that their way of thinking is better than the way of thinking of others, that is what happened during the mike vick case on espn. the punishment was way too harsh

46. June 10th, 2008 at 12:14 am

    Egg head says:

    Michel Vick was helping those dogs archive their rightful place in pop culture. Dog fighting and steroids should be lagal. Dog fighting is the same morally as hunting, which is the same morally as eating a cracker, which is the same morally as rape. Its all good bro.

47. June 10th, 2008 at 4:23 am

    karan says:

    egg head: that is one of the greatest comments on these boards. congrats.

48. June 10th, 2008 at 11:38 am

    doc says:

    Home crowds can put that extra boost of energy and refusing to loseism into a player that wont be on the road.BELIEVE it.Boston is 12-1 and home and the Lakers are 8-0.I think dogfighting ,hunting ,all that shit cool with me let people do them.The main people all on Vick ass for dogfighting got they own shit they should be worried about.If hunting is a sport so is dogfighting,Which it is and people pay to get in overseas.Some people take care of they pits some dont.Thats the life of owning a animal.Some people treat them like its they fucking brother.Some treat it like its a fucking dog.Whatever side you on you gonna rep so its pointless.

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