We’re off to see the Wizards or YUCK!

So I see that Jay has taken over the site and has been shoveling Philly at you all week-long while I’m on a business trip in DC. That’s ok, Philly is a solid town and their fans are as good as it gets, despite popular belief. DC on the other hand, I’m not so sure. See I always thought that Washington DC had some solid fans. The Redskins have hit some hard times, but they have a solid tradition and in the NFL you can bounce back in a year or two. The Capitals are perennial playoff contenders and the Washington area should be excited about the potential the Nationals are showing these days with some good off-season moves. Let’s put those fandoms aside and let me tell you what I witnessed last night.

Last night I went to the Verizon Center in downtown DC to see the Wizards take on the Sacramento Kings. Now let’s just put this out there right now; these teams stink.  I mean, they are the 2nd and 3rd worst teams in the league (only the Bobcats are worse), so I wasn’t expecting a sellout or anything but what I saw was ridiculous. 

First off, the place was almost less than half full. I know it’s a Wednesday night, a terrible team and a bad economy, but I got tickets for $14 and was sitting near the floor by the time the 2nd half started; that’s how empty it was.  I would’ve been happy with the seats I paid for, but since it was so empty I needed to take advantage of that. At $14 to $35 a pop for decent seats, they’re should’ve been more fans there, that’s number one.

Secondly, half of the fans there were either Jimmer Fredette fans or Kings fans (I even came across Seattle Supersonics fans, more to come on that) which is fine usually. However, you absolutely, as a fan, cannot let a oppossing team’s fans come into your building and out cheer you; it’s unacceptable. I could see if the King’s were blowing the Wiz out, being a little quiet as a Wiz fan, but the Wizards were up for most of the game (the King’s wound up winning by 8). I mean every time Jimmer Fredette touched the ball, the place erupted like Jordan had shown up; it was bad.

Thirdly, let’s take some pressure off of the Wizards fans for one second and let me ask this question, what is up with the Jimmer Fredette contingency that was in DC last night? I mean he’s a New York native, he played college ball in Utah and plays for the Kings. WTF? Maybe he’s an inspirational guy or something? I don’t know about that, but what I do know is that the Jimmer Fredette fandom was way more impressive than the Washington Wizards fandom and that is just flat-out sad. Jimmer Fredette is a bench player who last night, in a game that the Kings won and put up 115 points in, played roughly 10 minutes and put up 8 points. The Wizards (formerly known as the Bullets) are an NBA franchise with a pretty good history, and were up for most of the game, should have better fans than Jimmer Fredette has. Based on what I saw last night, that is just not the case.

So in conclusion, I’m not one to slam fandoms, but what I saw last night was gross negligence on the part of the Wizards fans in DC. But I will say, it was only one game and your sports talk radio covers the Wiz pretty extensively, so you must care on some level, I just didn’t see it last night. I’m willingly to let this slide but just know Wizards fans, I’m watching you.  You need to support your team, no matter how bad they currently are. Trust me I know, I’m a Mets fan staring down the barrel of a 100 loss season in 2012.