Your feelings about Wizards fans

[Wyclefdoug]

I've been to a few Wizards games, all during the Jordan era. I've also been to a game in Chigago, and a few in Cleveland.

Sad to say, but the fan support in DC was rather pathetic when compared to the other cities I visited. I remember going to the game, being all amped to see my first NBA game, and then sitting there during the game wondering why the crowd was so damn quiet.

Both times I went it was withing the first 5 home games of the year, so there was reason to be excited, but still the crowd kept quiet.

The one game against the 6'ers, there was not a peep until there was 3 minutes left and the fans were trying to amp the team up for a come back.

It just didn't seem like the people at the game were real fans. It was a sale out too.

So my questions is this. Are all the games like this, or did I just pick two bad games to go too?

[steve]

Which Jordan era was it?  Was he playing or was it when he was just president of basketball operations.  Because I remember the games being sold out most nights when Jordan was there (although the fan base wasn't really there).  The thing is, the Bullets/Wizards had been such a bad team for so long (from 1988 to 2006, the Clippers have made more playoff appearances in that span) that the local fans have been sort of beat down so to speak and there wasn't really any hope in sight.  Keep in mind that they traded our best player (and one of the young and up coming stars at the time) Chris Webber for Mitch Richmond and Otis Thorpe, who used to be very good players but this point might as well have been corpses.  They were stuck with Juwan Howard's contract because Pat Riley signed him to an illegal deal that they matched.  There wasn't much hope for this team until Polin got rid of Jordan and brought in Eddie Jordan and Ernie Grunfeld, signed Arenas and traded for Jamison and Butler (among other good moves).  There's a lot more noise in the DC area now about this team than there has been in years.

[Wyclefdoug]

It was while he was playing. Actually, I think it was his 2nd home game as a Wizard I saw. True, both games I attended were sale outs, but the crowd was very quiet and seemed disinterested.

Compared to my experiences in Chicago and Cleveland, it seemed to me like the people at these games were only there to say they were there, and not really fans of the team. There was no "rooting the team on" type of stuff going on.

Is it always like that, and have things changed as the team has made the playoffs?

[steve]

That was definitely a product of Jordan playing on the team, but yeah, things have changed since then.  The area does love its basketball and finally has a team they can actually pull for.