4. The catharsis of rooting for the other team
There’s something oddly liberating about following a tanking team. In those scenarios, you can watch basketball and open your eyes to the wealth of talent that just happens not to be on your team.
Embrace the garbage fire, Charlotte Hornets fans. Let it warm your heart and give you some laughs like the team in any sports movie before the “they got better” montage midway through the film.
The Hornets will be a whipping post, but they’ll occasionally win some games too. When that happens, you get to go on social media and act like you just won the NBA Finals, brutally razzing the other team’s fans like “how bad is your team that they lost to us?”
It’s that whole “liking something ironically” thing that all the trend pieces these days say the kids get a kick out of, so lean into it. Watch college games and talk about how you’ll draft the next Zion Williamson.
Which reminds me…