What Our Fandom Teaches Us about Trust
The Mavericks have lost many loyalists and it might take years to ever win them back.
Today is going to be a surreal sports day in our city. It will be the first time that the Mavericks have to play Luka Dončić head to head. It is the first time, so it will be awkward, but there are times coming where it can get worse.
He will play his first game back in Dallas on April 9. That will be much more awkward.
And then, if I know the sports gods, these two franchises will meet in the playoffs before too long. Like Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns against Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks in 2005, it is surely written that Luka and Kyrie will meet for a post-season, seven-game battle that will make everyone feel even more awful about what has happened.
It is surely written.
We know it doesn’t make much sense, so when non-sports people tell us that our love for a team or an athlete strikes them as odd, we admit it. They are correct.
We have families. We have futures. We have an entire world of disease and war and famine to consider. There are babies and jobs and weddings and funerals.
So, how can we possibly get so worked up about a guy “who throws a ball through a hoop?”, especially if that is someone we have never actually met? How can a team losing a game ruin our week? How can a team trading away our guy possibly destroy a relationship that we thought would never end?
THAT is what I want to ponder this morning, if you don’t mind.