Most of you who read this blog take a very keen interest in advanced statistics. If you don't fully understand what goes into the win shares per 48 minutes statistic, you at least know that .200 is really good. Points don't matter unless they're supplemented by low shot attempts and cashing in from the line and behind the arc. You probably can't listen to WIP, can't talk to your friendly but ignorant barber about the Sixers, and will never be able to publicly discuss Andre Iguodala and his contract without first ingesting a heavy dose of psychotropic ethanol. Odds are, you're a basketball elitist.
Jason Concepcion, at SB Nation explains it better:
Those of us that follow the league like a religion; who have used advanced stats to illustrate a point; who discuss the league on Twitter or have a basketball blog...we represent maybe two percent of sports fans with an interest in the NBA. The rest of the world does not think of the game as we do nor do they perceive the league as we do. We are the clerks in High Fidelity and everyone else just wants to buy the latest LMFAO album.
Respect. But there's hope! Of the few reasons he gives, this hits closest to home.
Understand who you arguing with and where the arguments with which you are countering come from. The discord arises from the hoopheads' use of stats and analysis and the casual fans can simply, inexplicably, illogically and very humanly be drawn to a player for any number of reasons not having to do with stats. Don't penalize players because a great number of people think differently then you.
Have you found that, since becoming a more active NBA fan (i.e. not just watching ESPN and most of the games), you've been unable to talk to other, less knowledgeable people about it? This spans across the board for me. I can have an actual person-to-person conversation about basketball, baseball, and football with less people than I can feel comfortable getting naked in front of. How's your conversational fandom?