"True Blue fan." That phrase is thrown around as much as any in the Big Blue Nation. For a Kentucky fan, it ranks right up there with hearing the phrases "I bleed blue" and "we need to sign more white boys". But what is a "True Blue fan"? And I don’t mean that in the sense of how many games we go to, or how our labradoodle is named Jamal Mashbark. What I mean is, when do our opinions get in the way of our fanhood?
I ask this question because of a Twitter conversation I had today with one of my mutual follows, Lacey. Some of you may know her as @nvisibly_shaken, and she is not afraid to say what’s on her mind. She took offense to some remarks made (not by me) about how Darius Miller doesn’t assert himself enough. Since she is friends with Darius, she made it a point to stick up for him, understandably. Wanting a good quasi-argument/discussion, I took up for the guy who made the remarks (we’ll call him Terry). What followed was a good back-and-forth on the line between supporting your team and its players, and the desire to "kick them while they’re down", as Lacey put it. (If you want the full transcript, go to my Twitter page. The link is at the bottom of this post).
[I][SIZE=1]God bless you and your endless wisdom, Charles Schulz.[/SIZE][/I]
Let’s get to the meat of this: It is a known fact that Darius Miller doesn’t always play to his ability. That’s to say nothing bad of him, because he is a great kid by all accounts. But it has been a point of frustration over the last couple seasons regarding the fans’ expectations for him versus his inconsistent level of production. A lot of the frustration comes from the fact that we fans know, as does Darius, what he is capable of. Watch this year’s SEC Tournament again if you don’t. But it seems more often than not that he disappears for stretches in games, and in the case of the Ole Miss game last year, wasn’t willing to take the big shot when it mattered most.
Again, this is not a pick-on-Darius post. It’s just a little backstory to help frame my question. Lacey’s complaint is that Terry doesn’t have anything to say about Darius in the times when he is the best player on the floor, but rather that he is quick to make a negative remark in the games where "Disappearious" plays. As she put it, "Everyone has opinions. But…say the positive, too. That’s my problem." The only negative thing I’ve seen Terry say is that Darius needs to toughen up, in a roundabout way, and that he may be better served on the bench at the start of games. Doesn’t mean he hasn’t said anything else good or bad, that’s just all I’ve seen. But that’s not the point here. The point is, even John Calipari has said on numerous occasions that Darius needs to toughen up. Darius knows this, and we all know he is trying his absolute hardest to represent the school he loves.
We also all know how the fan mentality is, especially when it comes to a team like UK, where the expectations are always sky-high, reasonably or not. Those same expectations also apply to the young men wearing "Kentucky" across their chests. So at what point are we as fans unjustified in speaking our minds? Lacey says "if you’re a UK fan, support our team." I say while that’s true in theory, there are often situations where blind faith alone doesn’t cut it. I then brought up Saul Smith. He seemed to be a good guy who played hard for a title team, but the fanbase was relentless on him, even when he had good games. I’d hate to see what it would’ve been like if Twitter was around back then. Lacey then mentioned Tony Woods, saying she supported him in spite of his recent history. I said I was for him too, but if he wasn’t helping the team, he should be on the bench. She agreed.
[I][SIZE=1]Screw you if you don’t get this.[/SIZE][/I]
Still with me? Wow, what a trooper you are. I told you all of that to ask you this: At what point does supporting the team interfere with airing grievances about a particular player? If a player isn’t doing well, isn’t the team better off with someone else in the game?
That question leads to this question: If I make publically disparaging remarks about a player, am I a bad fan? Not anything insulting or slanderous, but just complaining about his ability or effort. Seems to me if everyone who complained about a player wasn’t a "true" fan, there would only be about 17 "true" fans in the state. In Lacey’s defense, she doesn’t so much have a problem with criticism as she does people only mentioning the bad and never the good. For the most part, I agree with her on this. But in Terry’s defense, he didn’t say anything over the top or out of the way. His harshest remark was that Darius "needs to grow a set", which is simply a cruder, more blunt way of saying he needs to better assert himself.
Personally, I have no problem with someone complaining about a player, as long as they keep it civil. I’ve heard a few UK fans say some very insulting things about a player, but thankfully I don’t hear that much. Terry is not one of those people. I also don’t necessarily think a person has to be both positive and negative, but there needs to be some sort of balance in all of this. If I go around constantly saying Darius Miller needs to grow a set, it doesn’t make me a bad fan, but it would give people reason to call me a bitter person. If I was always saying how UK was going to undefeated every year, and that everyone always played the best game ever, it wouldn’t make me a bad fan, but it would make me unreasonable.
[I][SIZE=1]Wanna prove you’re a fan? Shop here. *shameless plug*[/SIZE][/I]
Here’s the bottom line the way I see it: There is a lot of gray area in between the black-and-white of being a good fan or a bad fan (and in life for that matter, but that’s a different story). A good fan is someone who doesn’t give up on the team, regardless of how bad they play. It is not giving up on a player, regardless of how bad they play. In my eyes, Lacey and Terry are both great fans, they just see things differently. People are going to complain, it’s human nature. At the end of the day, we are all going to have different opinions regarding the Cats. But as long as we cheer for the Cats through thick and thin, we are all True Blue fans.
[B][I]Follow @chris_minton on Twitter for a little UK talk, and lots of random thoughts and crude words.[/I][/B]
