Wear the damn shirt

With the NBA Playoffs well underway, one thing has been notably absent from the playoff games that we have seen this year, fans aren’t really wearing the shirts.

What do I mean by that? Typically, at playoff games, NBA teams drape shirts over every seat in the arena for their fans to wear, so fans can be loud and proud as one.

Many of the greatest moments in NBA playoff history have been accompanied by the roar of hungry fans all clad in the same color. 

From Stephen Curry’s “flurry of threes” at the former “Roaracle” Arena, to Ray Allen’s heroics in a sea of Heat fans in white (at the expense of my San Antonio Spurs), to Sean Elliot’s miracle on Memorial Day and many more moments.

However, we really haven’t seen that this year outside of a couple of games and fan bases. Fans really aren’t wearing the shirts at playoff games.

The best atmospheres so far that we’ve seen are in Oklahoma City and in Detroit, where Thunder and Pistons fans have worn the shirts and have been loud (also helps that OKC has the deepest team in the West).

Although we really haven’t seen fans at the TD Garden or Madison Square Garden all wearing the shirts, they still produce some of the best and most intimidating postseason atmospheres in the NBA.

The worst offender is the Los Angeles Lakers. High-ticket prices and fans going there to be seen rather than see the game result in Crypto.com Arena’s atmosphere feeling almost like a regular season game. 

It’s not great to see, especially since we’ve seen how loud the Lakers fan base can be. Back when it was known as the Staples Center, no one wanted to play four out of seven in front of a loud sea of Laker gold.

Playoff games are the most important of the season. These are the games where you want to be loud and create as intimidating of an atmosphere for the opposing team as possible.

So if any of you readers are fortunate enough to go to a playoff game, as I hopefully will when the Spurs make it next year, get there early, enjoy responsibly, be loud and wear the damn shirt!