Remembering the most obnoxious bandwagon fanbases

Who likes bandwagon fans? They're everywhere you look, and one of my biggest pet peeves as a sports fan.

Wear their gear, openly root for them, watch their games, sure. But don't be annoying about it.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of bandwagoners don't abide by that part. If you follow sports at all, you probably know that there have been some insufferably obnoxious bandwagoners who have emerged, spewed a lot of nonsense, and promptly disappeared upon their team's decline, despite touting themselves as "diehard fans" at the time.

Ugh.

Not long ago, I was at a restaurant at Oklahoma City and saw a man wearing a Golden State Warriors jersey, loudly boasting about how much better the Warriors are than our local Thunder.

Now you KNOW that guy didn't even know where Golden State is two years ago. His shirt might even still have the tags on it. Don't be like that guy.

But enough of that; let's look at some of the rise and fall of notoriously obnoxious bandwagons over the last few years.

San Francisco 49ers bandwagon-- circa 2011-2014

The Kaepernick/Harbaugh era was short lived yet a truly glorious time for bandwagoners. "Hey, this team has won five Super Bowls and they're good again, this will be easy to jump right on!"

Harbaugh worked his Harbaugh magic and got the team to one Super Bowl and three NFC Championship games. Many a bandwagoner could be found in your school wearing a Kaepernick jersey shirt talking about how they had been a fan since a player they looked up on Wikipedia.

Or, you might have seen them in their natural habitat, drunkenly yelling at the TV in your local sports bar over a call that is "not roughing the passer" even though the replay clearly shows a 49ers player demolishing the quarterback helmet-to-helmet.

Not so sadly, the wheels started to come off when half of the team left in free agency or retired, and Jim Harbaugh was let go. Now Kaepernick wants out and the team is faced with the very real possibility of Blaine Gabbert starting games for them. Uh-oh. Where did all those "diehard fans" go?

Miami Heat bandwagon-- circa 2009-2014

Possibly the most notorious bandwagon of all. Lebron James took his talents to South Beach and the rest was history.

It was almost like a nightmare. Teenagers running around the country in Lebron Heat jerseys saying the Heat is the greatest team of all time and Lebron is better than Jordan. Former "diehard Cavaliers fans," of course.

The bandwagon took a big hit when the Heat choked against the Mavericks and the onslaught of memes and ringless jokes at Lebron's expense reached a fever pitch. The Heat bandwagon laid low for a season, but upon its victory over the Thunder in the Finals (sad face), Miami's bandwagon returned in greater numbers than ever.

However, Lebron decided to "go home" to Cleveland last season which led to a split-- some of the "LeGroupies," as they've been dubbed by some, followed him back to Cleveland. Others decided to stay as Miami fans, but even more  likely joined the Golden State Warriors bandwagon.

Los Angeles Lakers bandwagon-- on and off throughout Kobe Bryant era

When the Lakers were good (2000-2005, 2009-2012) you'd see Lakers fans everywhere, even here in the South and Midwest. When the Lakers have been bad (2006-2008, right now lol) you don't see them hardly anywhere.

This one is tricky because a lot of them could claim to be legacy fans due to the Lakers' past success. Or they jumped on the wagon long enough ago to where you couldn't really criticize them for it.

But most of all, they're fans of Kobe Bryant.

When he has a big game or plays well, they're fans. When the Lakers are winning championships, there are a boatload of obnoxious gloaters. But when Kwame Brown is their starting center, or D'Angelo Russell and Nick Young are acting like they're in high school, most "Lakers fans" are suddenly AWOL.

Now that Kobe is retiring and the Lakers stink, well, most of these people have also migrated to the Warriors bandwagon. I guess Lebron and Kobe fans finally have something in common.

Bandwagons still rolling: Seattle Seahawks, Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, Kansas City Royals, Chicago Cubs

When will the wheels come off for these bandwagons? Stay tuned.

REPORT: Every team in the NBA is interested in signing Kevin Durant

How many times have we seen some variation of the headline "REPORT: Team X is interested in signing Kevin Durant," and how many more times are we going to see it?

Not only is this "report" annoying in and of itself, but it has a trickle-down effect. Every sports radio host, journalist, blogger, TV analyst, and so on has to give his or her take on "Durant to Team X???"

Oh, and the report is always brought up by everyone's favorite, "anonymous sources." Isn't that convenient.

Most people around my way find these reports annoying because they don't want to think about Durant leaving Oklahoma City. For me though, I find the reports annoying for another reason.

You see, there's been a recent marketing campaign by a company that uses Captain Obvious to promote its services. I think Captain Obvious may also be the source behind all of these reports.

Reports that teams "are interested" in signing one of the three or four best basketballers in the world.

Let's do a quick rundown of Durant as a prospect using the sophisticated sources of common knowledge and Wikipedia, which should be available to every front office in the NBA:

-2014 NBA MVP
-Seven-time NBA All-Star
-Five-time All-NBA First Team
-Four-time scoring champion
-Olympic Gold Medalist
-Career averages of roughly 27 PPG, 7 RPG, 4 APG
-Member of the exclusive 50/40/90 shooting percentage club
-Height of 6'11, give or take, with roughly 7-foot wingspan
-Ability to play/guard every position 1-5
-No legal issues/trouble off the court
-Widely regarded as a great teammate, leader, person
-Just entering basketball prime at age 27

Yeah. I would imagine every team in the NBA might be interested in signing that guy.

So you heard it here first-- the "report" to end all "reports" is here:

 Bradley Jayroe of UCentral Sports is confirming that every team in the NBA "would be open" to signing Kevin Durant, per anonymous sources.

Which Thunder player do you miss the most?

This is a fun thing to think about: which player do you miss donning the Thunder blue the most?

For just about everyone, that player is James Harden, including me. But we won't get into that because I just wrote an article about some of the awful moves Sam Presti has made over the years, and that trade was the principal focus. (Check it out here on ucentralmedia.com).

No, let's think about other players who have departed over the years that we miss.

For me, it's Derek Fisher. For some reason I just loved that guy. Maybe it was his championship experience or the way he shot three pointers. I had actually hoped the Thunder would bring him back instead of Nazr Mohammed this season if we're looking for a "veteran presence." And I don't care for Matt Barnes at all, so there's no hard feelings from me there-- even though he probably violated the bro code in that ordeal.

What about Kendrick Perkins? People loved him here, whether it was the comedic relief his "Shaq'tin a Fool" moments brought or his scowl and attitude. I'll admit, as frustrated as I used to get with Perk, I do find myself strangely missing him sometimes.

But let's go even further into the past. I have a good friend who has a straight-up man crush on Jeff Green. Anytime he does something on the trade machine or completely overhauls the Thunder's roster, he always finds a way to sneak Uncle Jeff in there. He insists that Green is one of the best "stretch fours" in the league. I constantly have to remind him that his nostalgia is really overrating the most average player in the NBA.

I have a wacky friend in New York who loved Nenad Krstic in all of his midrange-shooting, chair-throwing glory. He played a half season for Boston before he was never heard from again (now he's overseas somewhere).

Sometimes I see stat lines from Reggie Jackson and I wonder how good the Thunder would have been last season with a healthy squad, or wonder how they might be if the team could have worked something out for him to stay. As bad as he was defensively, Kanter isn't any better and Jackson could actually push the pace and play along our two stars.

What about Perry Jones and Jeremy Lamb? I don't miss them so much as I miss pretending that they would be awesome players someday. Lamb is currently better than Waiters (who replaced him) but the man known as "PJ3" is somewhere in the D-League, last time I checked. Well at least we'll always have that game against the Clippers where we thought he could have FINALLY become the player we'd always hoped.





Did I miss anyone that you loved to see in Thunder blue? Comment below!

Today was a good day for me as a sports fan

"Sam Bradford and Demarco Murray on the same team, awesome!" They said. "They're gonna tear up the NFL in Chip Kelly's offense," they said.

Oops. Sorry bandwagon Eagles fans in Oklahoma. Looks like your crimson-and-cream dream was just that, a dream.

You see, as a fan of both OU and the Dallas Cowboys, Demarco Murray put me in a weird spot. He was one of my favorite players at OU; I was even at the game in Norman where he broke the all-time touchdown record at the school.

So imagine my excitement when he got drafted by my favorite NFL team. You could say I'm a hipster Murray fan, since I bought a custom jersey shirt before it was cool and before we knew he'd be good, not too long after he was drafted.

You can also imagine my delight and then heartbreak when he developed into an All-Pro, and then proceeded to sign with that Lombardi-less team in Philly. Grr.The only recompense was his complete lack of production with the Eagles.

So I'm glad he got traded to a different team that I don't despise with all of my being today. I can now maybe wear my old t-shirt without shame again, as much as a grown man wearing a jersey shirt can wear one without shame. Maybe, just maybe, Demarco will still be lackluster with a terrible Titans team and will come home. We'll see.

As for RG3 getting cut, I just love watching the Redskins drunkenly stumble along as an NFL franchise. Good job ruining the career of one of the most promising rookies of all time by playing him in a playoff game you weren't going to win anyway. I'm sure Kirk Cousins, he of the losing record against plus-.500 teams, will carry you to many Super Bowls. Congratulations on winning the NFC East last season, because hey, somebody had to win it.

OKC isn't on the level of Golden State, Cleveland, or San Antonio... and here's why

As I write this, OKC has a 20-point lead over another really good Western Conference team in the Clippers. (Err sorry, had to come back and edit. They've choked it away, we'll see what happens.)They look like they're well on their way to a quality 43-18 record or 42-19, good for fourth in the league behind the Warriors, Spurs, and Cavaliers.

Sometimes though, you're better than your record. Last year, for instance, the Hawks had a better record than the Cavaliers, only to get swept by them in the Eastern Conference Finals.

However, that isn't the case with the Thunder in this year's NBA. The Thunder is the fourth best team, and it's not particularly close.

OKC got swept by the Cavaliers in the regular season, including a blowout at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The Warriors beat the Thunder in two close games, and we'll see what happens tomorrow night in Oakland. And the Spurs lost a down-to-the-wire contest in the very first game of the season in OKC.

It's not luck that these teams have a better record. It's not luck that the Spurs and Cavs are 4-0 against them with a few games pending. There's a big difference between them.

The difference? Veteran role players in the rotation.

Say what you want about the old guys, but they've been around a long time for a reason. They know what they're doing, and you generally know what you're going to get from them on a game by game basis.

You don't see the Spurs building around their young stars with guys like Enes Kanter still trying to figure it out on defense. You don't see the Warriors signing a young gunner like Dion Waiters who's still trying to figure out how to contribute on a nightly basis without trying to upstage their stars.

Sam Presti seems obsessed with collected young talent. However, young teams simply don't win titles in the NBA- at least not very often. It's okay to have a young core- look at the Warriors- but surrounding them with veteran role players is the best course of action.

OKC made it to the finals with a bench of:
James Harden (Really good, but not Houston Harden)
Derek Fisher (Veteran)
Nazr Mohammed (Veteran)
Nick Collison (Veteran)
Daequan Cook (Younger guy, but 3-point specialist who barely played)

Not to mention its other role players outside of its core- Kendrick Perkins and Thabo Sefolosha- had been around for a while too.

It's not coincidence that a younger yet more talented (collectively) bench and grouping of role players hasn't been all that effective for OKC this year. Pending how the team does in the playoffs, the Thunder front office needs to take a long, hard look at the supporting cast around its superstars and consider a more veteran-laden group.