Urban Dictionary: bandwagoner — In sports, someone who shamelessly cheers for a particular team not because he likes them or follows them faithfully, but only because that particular team is the “popular” choice or has been or is the top team in their specific sport recently. When that team which bandwagoners follow falls from grace, they gleefully jump on the next team’s bandwagon and cheer for that team.
Example: All Lakers fans are bandwagoners, ALL OF THEM, except maybe Jack Nicholson.
Bandwagon fans exist in every sport… EVERY sport. Whether you became a “die-hard” Celtics fan in 2008, or a “die-hard” Yankees fan last season, or yes, even a “die-hard” Lakers fan last year. Your days and seasons are numbered because, quite simply, loyalty is an ever-evolving concept to you. You remember only the good and easy times, but never flinched or worried when the seasons became rough and the future of “your team” unknown.
Don’t claim the “die-hard” title unless you can remember what it felt like when your team was the dysfunctional black sheep of that league, your best player the laughing stock of the city. Die-hard Laker fans know ourselves well.
Bandwagon fans remember Kobe Bryant’s 81 points against Toronto and Derek Fisher’s 0.4 shot against San Antonio. Real fans remember the panic and disappointment when Kobe wanted to be traded, and we felt loss when Derek Fisher left for Golden State. Bandwagon fans remember the three-peat championship Lakers, but quickly cast the team aside after that Game 6 romping against Boston. Real fans waited… waited… and waited some more between that could’ve been title in Detroit and the 15th Championship in 2009.
Times like this call for the bandwagoners to step aside, even if real and loyal Laker fans have to push them out of the way. We’ve been called shallow, unforgiving and hypocritical. We threw foam fingers onto the court on Christmas Day instead of encouraging our team to a victory. This is not the time such idiocy.
As invincible as we thought our Lakers were, they’re human and their jobs out there — not easy, especially when they’re hurt. They don’t need fans shouting insults and criticism. They don’t need fans booing at their every mistake or deficit. They need fans who still believe in them, no matter how much the past season has disappointed our lofty expectations. The regular season has been done for weeks. It’s irrelevant. There’s more at stake NOW.
Urban Dictionary used US, Laker fans, as examples of bandwagoners! Maybe that applies to a group of you out there who are already making vacation plans for the team, but it doesn’t hold true for those of us who haven’t painted the Lakers into a corner just yet. That’s why this is a 7-game series.
Bandwagon fans, you can show your way out. I’m sure you’re familiar with the journey to the next hottest team. Loyal Laker fans, we’ve still got work to do. At Staples, in your homes, at bars and restaurants — show Oklahoma City that they have NOTHING on us!
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