We realize we're getting into the sort of hard and fast Fan Dude rules that we absolutely abhor. Live in Boston and want to root for the Lakers? Go ahead. Live in Los Angeles and can't stomach the ownership for either team — pick away, you've got 28 other NBA teams to choose from. Feel like ignoring your favorite team's Super Bowl chances because you loathe the team's starting quarterback, go ahead Kelly my friend. It's sports, it's silly, have fun with it.
Maybe, though, don't take a picture of a player's jersey from your favorite team stuck in a toilet just to get some free tickets. That's wrinkling this old prospector's nose a bit, as he reads a follow-up story about Zack Krupp, the self-proclaimed Bulls fan who earned two tickets to Monday's crushing Chicago loss to the Milwaukee Bucks by tweeting a picture of his toilet-submerged Kirk Hinrich jersey to former Bulls forward and current Bucks reserve Drew Gooden.
Gooden asked for as much over Twitter, declaring that the "first person that can twit pic me a Chicago Bulls jersey in the toilet will get my tickets for tonight's game." Home teams in every arena are kind enough to supply each opposing player with a pair of seats for that night's contest, Gooden apparently doesn't have any friends left in Chicago, and Krupp really wanted to see the game, so down Kirk went.
I don't like it, but I don't have a huge problem with it either. What is my issue is Krupp's favorite part of the evening, and his defense:
The ex-Bull left 14th-row tickets along with a postgame pass that enabled Krupp to mingle with some of the Bucks players. The highlight of Krupp's night, though, was meeting Stacey King, "my favorite announcer."
Krupp admitted that he caught a lot of grief for throwing the Hinrich jersey in the toilet, but he tried to explain his position via this tweet: "I wasnt about 2 put my Rose or Jordan jersey in there. If I had a boozer jersey i woulda flushed."
Krupp stepped outside his school library Tuesday to tell us: "For the record, I am a Bulls fan, and I do not dislike Kirk Hinrich. I feel bad it had to be his jersey. Still, I got to see the Bulls and was there to support them."
Stacey King is his favorite announcer. I'm guessing the second-best part of the experience was when he got to hear "Gangham Style" for the 400th time in the last seven weeks.
I get it, I get it. I'm being a prick. But he also reached out to one of the more loathed (professionally, because of his defensive miscues, not personally — we actually really dig Drew Gooden as a dude) Bulls over the last decade while shoving the jersey of Chicago's starting point guard down a toilet while saying that he actually likes Stacey King and still calling himself "a Bulls fan."
Whew.
I am a Bulls fan, and one of the few remaining longtime Hinrich fans even though I am more than aware that he is amongst the most offensively-challenged players in the NBA. Most readers here are aware of my loyalties, and are dismissing me currently -- as is their right.
But if some Milwaukee-area "Bucks fan" responded to a similar Twitpics = tickets challenge from Joakim Noah by submerging Gooden's jersey in the loo, I'd be just as "come on, guy" about the whole affair. And the defense that followed.
Just tell people you felt like havin' a goof, you're way into wading around with your arm submerged in a toilet, and that you probably wanted tickets from an athlete more than the undying respect of Chicago Bulls fandom.
And don't tell people you enjoy Stacey King's work. Yeesh.
(Just kidding — love you, Stace. Now go ahead and roll it!)
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