The Agony of Being a Bucks Fan

In order to follow this year's Milwaukee Bucks I'm convinced you have to be at least partially masochistic. Why else would you willfully choose to endure this kind of torture? I'm doing it because I started this weblog and I intend to see it through to the bitter end (and it will be bitter, trust me). Otherwise, believe me, I probably would have followed my brother's lead and just stopped watching the Bucks altogether.

Sports is about winning and losing, I accept that, but it should also be about fun. Otherwise why bother? But how has this season been any fun at all? You can tolerate the losing if you feel like the team is playing at or above its potential, or is at least improving for the future. Neither can be said of this team. They haven't gotten on any winning streak to speak of since November, and I don't think they've gotten one bit better over the course of the year. They rarely outperform expectations, and every time they do (Memphis win, Phoenix win) they cancel it out with a gross underperformance (home loss to New York, home loss to Houston).

Believe me, I don't want to rip the Bucks. I want to be optimistic about the team. But every time I go out of my way to praise someone on the Bucks they end up making me look like a complete fool. TJ Ford, case in point. In my last post, and against my own common sense, I tried to portray his game against Orlando as a watershed in his basketball career, the game that would finally put him on the right path. What was I smoking? Last night he went 2 for 8 with a whopping 3 assists. That's how he follows up a 34 point, 11 assist game? Same old TJ! Example Two: Coach Stotts. Last month I caught a lot of hell for defending his abilities, and I still think he is an intelligent guy, but what planet has he been on lately? I mean, did you read his comments after last night's game? The season is slipping away and he sounds like he's analyzing stocks or running an IBM meeting or something. Where's the passion? Where's the sense of urgency? Where's the fire? Start kicking ass man!!

The guy at Deadspin.com called this site "Diary of a Mad Bucks Fan". Trust me, I never wanted it to be. But if it serves a cathartic purpose for any suffering Bucks fan, then I guess its worth it after all.