Booing your hometown team when they’re under-performing will always be a controversial practice. In many cases, fans frustration is perfectly understandable (here’s to you, Philly!). If a team’s on a major losing skid and/or not putting in the effort, then they reap what they sow, and that sort of backlash can sometimes even double as a nice little kick in the pants to help them get their act together.
But for basketball players, there’s a lot of pride/ego tied up in this endeavor, and they feed off the love from their home crowd, so it can be demoralizing to get pelted with jeers when you’re already down and out, especially if it isn’t necessarily warranted. That’s why Dwyane Wade has been feeling a certain about the boos he heard at the United Center on Friday night during their ugly loss to the Bucks.
Wade, unprompted, sort of, not happy about the fans booing last Friday pic.twitter.com/3n347zqPmH
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) December 21, 2016
Granted, the Bulls have been struggling a bit lately. Friday’s loss capped a three-game losing streak during which they dropped back-to-back games against the Bucks. They’re 4-6 in their last 10 and are hovering just above .500 for the season. But Wade has a point. It’s a little early in season to start booing a team that is still very much in position to make some noise in the Eastern Conference playoff race next spring.
(h/t Yahoo Sports)
