When Shams Charania broke the information that Victor Wembanyama would miss weeks with a left calf pressure, Pounding The Rock exploded. Inside hours, Jeje’s article turned one in all our most commented options this yr (outdoors sport threads), 253 feedback and counting, every another anguished than the final.
The feedback weren’t simply disappointing, they have been determined. Some declared Vic injury-prone after one calf pressure. Others demanded he change his total enjoying type, turn into extra “conservative,” shield his profession. Rational? Not significantly. However the depth was simple.
Over the next days, the lamentations stored pouring in. Each new rumor, 2 weeks absence turned 6, then 8, triggered recent waves of tension. And as I learn by way of remark after remark, I spotted one thing: these weren’t simply basketball takes. They have been psychological misery alerts.
The anxiousness wasn’t baseless. Calf accidents are not any joke for NBA gamers, particularly seven-footers. Over the previous two years, calf strains have been precursors to Achilles tears for a number of gamers, some of the devastating accidents in basketball. And the Spurs’ notoriously tight-lipped entrance workplace wasn’t serving to, sharing minimal info whereas days of absence stretched into weeks of uncertainty.
I’m no completely different from every other Spurs fan. I lived by way of the fantastic days of David and Timmy, the Massive Three championships. I adopted the staff by way of purgatory after Kawhi’s exit and endured the hellish tanking years. All as a result of we sensed the chance to land a generational expertise.
For this reason Vic represents extra than simply our greatest participant. He’s our path to redemption, our return to relevance. We’re not simply watching a gifted participant develop, we’re emotionally invested in our personal redemption story, and Vic is the protagonist. When he went down, it wasn’t simply his calf that was strained, it was our hope.
These psychological misery alerts are sometimes linked to the attachment idea and limerence.
When Vic went down, one thing primal kicked in. Star gamers aren’t simply entertainers; they turn into attachment figures. They supply constant excellence, which provides us safety. They assist us regulate our feelings; when the staff is struggling, we all know he can put it aside. They create a way of management in a basically uncontrollable world (strive controlling whether or not a basketball goes by way of a hoop out of your sofa).
When our attachment determine is all of the sudden unavailable, we expertise what Bowlby known as “separation anxiousness”—the identical protest, despair, and detachment that kids confirmed when separated from their dad and mom. Return and skim these 253 feedback. You’ll see all three levels.
Dorothy Tennov coined the time period “limerence” in her 1979 guide “Love and Limerence”. She interviewed a whole lot of individuals and described it as an involuntary romantic obsession characterised by intrusive ideas, concern of rejection, and bodily signs (coronary heart racing, butterflies). Superstar obsession circumstances usually contain limerence taken to extremes, however even ‘regular’ followers like us exhibit the identical patterns, simply dialed down just a few notches. We begin to consider we’ve got a particular reference to somebody we’ve got by no means met, we expertise intense anxiousness about our star participant’s actions or well being standing, and interpret impartial behaviors as significant indicators.
Right here’s the place it will get attention-grabbing: followers don’t simply connect, they limerentize. Right here’s a easy guidelines. See what number of apply to you:
The essential level right here is that limerence entails uncertainty. The harm creates ambiguity about Vic’s future. Will he return? When? At what stage? And this uncertainty intensifies the obsessive high quality of the attachment. The Spurs’ secrecy, nonetheless well-intentioned, truly makes it worse. Every single day with out info is one other day our minds fill the void with worst-case situations.
This might clarify why followers turn into not simply dissatisfied however genuinely emotionally dysregulated, irrational anger at coaches for enjoying their star participant within the final minute of a meaningless loss, determined “bargaining” on social media, even bodily signs of misery.
This isn’t nearly sports activities being leisure. These reactions reveal that:
However is that this wholesome? Does it matter if the attachment “isn’t actual” if the psychological expertise is?
Right here’s the uncomfortable reality: I don’t know Victor Wembanyama. I’ve by no means met him. We’ve no precise relationship. But my total Spurs fan expertise for the previous three years has revolved round him. This calf pressure is draining me emotionally. I’m torn between the determined need to see him again on the courtroom instantly and the concern that dashing him again will re-aggravate the harm, or worse.
That is what attachment and limerence seem like in sports activities fandom. It’s not rational. But it surely’s actual.
So, right here’s my query for the PTR neighborhood: Am I alone on this island? Or are all of us right here collectively, refreshing Twitter at 2 AM, checking for well being updates on a participant we’ve by no means met?
