Becoming an NBA fan

I became a basketball fan in 2019 when I watched the Toronto Raptors win the NBA
Finals. Since then, many people have asked me why I am a basketball fan, and, to be honest, I
don’t have a good answer.
Many people become fans of a sport after participating in it for a while, but I never
played basketball growing up. I played baseball for a few years and then did fencing for one, and
I was terrible at both.
This might surprise you; you’re probably thinking, “How is that possible, Daniel? You’re
clearly so strong and athletic and good at everything, how could you not be good at sports?”
I have asked myself the same question many times, and the answer is that I have no
coordination whatsoever and a tendency to get dehydrated and pass out. So, I stopped
participating in sports as soon as I could, and I never even considered picking up basketball.
The other major way people get into a sport is through their family members’ fandom.
This would have made sense for me; my sibling played basketball during elementary and middle
school, my dad played when he was younger, and they would often go to Creighton women’s
basketball games together.
Except, when their attention on basketball was at its peak, I didn’t care about it at all. I
went to my sibling’s games when my parents brought me, but I never knew what was going on,
and I don’t think I went to more than one Creighton game until a couple years ago.
There is no clear reason to me, then, why I became an NBA fan. I was into sneakers prior
to becoming a fan, and many of the coolest sneakers are designed for basketball, but I didn’t
really care about that.
I only started watching the NBA Finals in 2019 because my mom and sibling were going
to college orientation, and my dad and I needed something to do.
We started watching the Finals that week, and I was hooked. By the next season, I had
decided I would follow the Milwaukee Bucks, in part because my sibling was going to college in
that city, and in part because the team was doing well.
Two years later, I’ve watched countless hours of basketball and learned way more than
anyone would ever need to know about the sport, and especially about the Bucks.
There’s no reason I should have an opinion on Bucks’ big man Sandro Mamukelashvili’s
defensive impact and passing ability, or be able to tell you why the team made the right decision
in waiving Mamadi Diakite.
I don’t know why I started watching the NBA or why I became such a super fan, but I’m
in far too deep now to stop. Besides, I have no doubts about why I keep watching—I need to
know if Jordan Nwora will stay in the rotation when the other back-up forwards return from injury.