My great-grandfather was persona-non-grata back in the beginning of the 1900’s. He couldn’t find a job anywhere. He was a bricklayer, and a good one at that, but he was also sick and tired of working 12 hours a day, six days a week in a job that was often dangerous, for a pay that could barely sustain his family. So he decided to try and make a difference, change things, and try to improve working conditions. He became what’s known as an agitator and spoke to everyone who would listen, about things like how a worker should have the right to eight hours of rest, eight hours of leisure and eight hours of sleep. Just like the people in charge, the employers, the workers deserved to have a life, too.
That cost him his job, but over time, more and more workers stood together to ask for better conditions. In 1919, that led to the arrival of the new eight-hour work day in Denmark. I often think about him with pride. I think about my heritage of saying “no” to injustice. Of how he had the courage and sense of justice to tarnish his own reputation because he felt something was more important than himself. It is in the face of injustice that we see what we’re really made of. And maybe that’s also when we find out what really matters.
At a time in history, when so many things and places are on the brink – of upheaval, division, misunderstanding and maybe breakdown – the way Mavs fans never gave up in Dallas is extraordinary. It’s inspirational and it makes me proud, too.
It’s easy to say, oh well, new franchise player, new start. Oh well, our lives are busy, who has the time to worry about a sports team. Oh well, the Luka trade, the Grimes trade, the Brunson situation, the pressure to return from injury too fast, the poor results – sometimes things are unfair. Let’s move on, we don’t have energy for this, so let’s just cheer them on.
And to be honest, that’s how most people handle unfairness and injustice. They turn away – if it doesn’t affect them, it’s not really a problem.
But not Mavs fans. Not Dallas fans in the arena, not Mavs fans online, not international fans who got up in the middle of the night to root for the Dallas underdog and its underrated superstar to finally prove everybody wrong.
For seven years, and before that 21, the Dallas Mavericks was a special place. The fans, the players, the culture, even the local media. In Dallas, you may not get a lot of national media attention, but you get heart. And for seven years, a superstar built something here, which you couldn’t buy for money. Heart, emotion, loyalty. The thought of that being gone, no matter what happens now, is heartbreaking. It will never return, and was broken up because of one man’s ego.
The good news is that that man is now gone. It feels like a sigh of relief, like that rock in your shoe disappeared. Nico Harrison’s departure helps us turn the page, look forward and start to dream again. And Mavs fans have a part in that happening.
Sports fans, in particular smaller franchises with loyal players and loyal fans, do not forget. They are not casuals, they are personally invested in their team.
Sometimes people like to infer that sports fans are less intelligent, or less educated, maybe simpler folk than let’s say people who go to the opera. But if you think that, it says more about your lack of knowledge than it does about them. Sports fans are deeply knowledgeable about an incredibly long list of complicated things like cap space and NBA history, offensive schemes and defensive ratings.
On top of that, the best sports fans, and in this case a myriad of Dallas fans, have this thing in their lives called
meaning. They find joy in caring about their team, they get excited about the small things and upset about losses. But then they find a fellow fan to vent with and things feel ok again. It’s exhilarating and upsetting all at once, and extremely meaningful.
Sports fandom is one of the best examples of what life is about. Finding something to get excited and passionate about is one of the points of being alive. Not all people have that and they’re all the worse for it. When you have something to give you joy and perspective in your daily life, a community of people where you belong, that’s meaningful.
In sports, we all have our groups where we belong, and we also have our enemies. It’s easy, because you can see who they are from the color they wear on their jerseys. As opposed to in real life, we all agree to dislike each other at times, but no one’s livelihoods are affected. Here, we are backed by a group of our own. Our community, the fans of
our team.
As human beings, for thousands of years we have been used to living in groups of around 100 people. That was our community, the people we counted on through hard times, the people that would help us when we were sick, and protect us when we were weak. All people have a deep need to belong somewhere biologically, and in these times finding a community around a sports team and its fandom is a great replacement and antidote for loneliness.
The fact that fans cared so much about this team and its culture that they never gave up and kept voicing their concerns and unhappiness shows that sports are more meaningful to people than most realize.
And it reminds us that we all have the power to stand up and say no when there’s something we don’t agree with. That if we don’t give up, if we stick together and don’t let others divide us, we have a voice that can’t be ignored. That’s the power of community.
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