Every NBA team’s Super Fan

With the NBA season about to kick off, let’s do a Super Fan roll-call!

Twitter has unlocked a new arena for fans to jockey for position as their team’s number one fan. Before the Internet, we relegated that holy title to long-standing celebrities who sat courtside. And there is still a reverence for celebs like Spike Lee (Knicks), Jack Nicholson (Lakers), Penny Marshall (RIP) and Billy Crystal (Clippers), and Eva Longoria (Spurs). Some of them even show up on this list! But modern times for modern thinking when ranking the top NBA superfans for all 30 teams.

We’ve hand-selected the top fanatic for each franchise and included a mix between celebs, feel-good stories, decades-long loyalty, and a few fat, shirtless white dudes. These fans shall be honored for their lengths to support their teams through the good times and bad, some who have only known bad (ahem, Kings and Timberwolves fans). So let’s give props to those who represent the best of NBA fandom.

RIP Pauline Beasley, who passed away in May of this year. Ms. Beasley was 105 years old at the time of her passing, and the Hawks organization showed appreciation for her decades of fandom. In 2020, Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins presented her with a customized jersey for her birthday, Hawks mascot Harry the Hawk came by her house, and the team gifted her with seats to a game. Anyone younger than 100 can only wish to possess the level of loyalty Ms. Beasley showed her Hawks, especially given they hadn’t won a championship since 1958 when Ms. Beasley was a spry 40 years old.

It almost sounds too meme-worthy to be real. First, the superfans’ nickname is Black Leprechaun, which sounds like an early 90s low-budget horror film. But it gets weirder when you learn his real name is Bob Marley. Marley can usually be found in the stands of TD Gardenhouse, visible by his long black dreads, green velvet top hat, and signature green jacket, equipped with Bob Marley patches.

There’s nothing like seeing a devoted octogenarian from Brooklyn, whose real name is Bruce Reznick, put the hex aka The Whammy, on opposing players when they step to the foul line.

Thank goodness Sombrero Man is not a white guy in brownface and a large hat making a fool of himself for the sake of Hornets’ corporate branding. But, you never know these days. Weirder shit happens. Sombrero Man is Hector Cortes, a Mexican-American Hornets superfan. And yes, he wears a giant sombrero to every game, without fail. Cortes has been a fan of the Charlotte franchise since they were the short-lived Bobcats. Cortes came up with the kitschy hat idea during Latino heritage night in what was then Time Warner Cable Arena as a way to celebrate his Mexican culture.

The 44th President of the United States is a known hoops head. He’s even shown off a silky smooth jumper. During Jordan’s prime Bulls years, During Jordan’s prime Bulls years, Obama cut his teeth as a community organizer and law student in Chicago. As such, a fandom was formed. Obama is undoubtedly the Bulls’ most famous fan, as he had attended many home games in the past, even when they were losing pitifully post-Jordan.

He’s fat. He’s a Cavs superfan. He’s Fat Super Cav. The year he came on the scene, in 2016, the Cavs won their first championship. Nuff said.

Mike Fraler is obsessed with obscure Mavs history and celebrates forgotten Mavs on his podcast, Mavs Archives. Fraler has interviewed little-known players like Kyle Collinsworth (2017-18), Charlie Villanueva (2014-2016), Brandan Wright (2011-2014), Eddie Najera (2000-2004 & 2010), and Uwe Blab (1985-89). These insightful interviews provide Mavs fans with context to their team’s long and challenging road to their 2011 championship. Every team could use a fan like Fraler and a podcast like Mavs Archives.

According to Ray, she’s not been in attendance for just three Nuggets games in the past 30 decades. That’s seeing a lot of losses over the years. How devoted is she? When she couldn’t go to the arena during the pandemic, nor was she able to watch the Nuggets on TV, she followed each game, shot for shot, on her phone, gamecast style.

There are probably more heartwarming stories behind long-time fans of the Pistons, but we’re selecting Eminem for this spot just to ensure a much worse Michigan rapper and all-around right-wing lemming Kid Rock is nowhere near this spot. Eminem has lost a lot of street cred as he’s aged while still dressing like it’s 2002 and becoming a kind of a diluted, commercial shill. His jersey design collaboration with the team in 2016 was God-awful. But the fact that he was ride or die in 2016, during one of the worst eras in Pistons history, shows he’s no fair-weather fan. If anything, Slim Shady has always been loyal to Detroit, including the Pistons.

Once Kevin Durant joined the Warriors in 2016, bandwagon fans seeped out of the woodwork. A Durant/Warriors jersey might have the least amount of fan credibility possible. Even after the team has bounced back to win another championship post-Durant, it’s hard to tell the homers from the fair-weather fans. This spot could have easily gone to E-40, a dedicated Warrior fan since birth, but we gave it to the Mayor of Flavortown (and good friend of E-40) for being such a sweet and kind human being. Fieri was born in Ohio but moved to Northern California before his first birthday. So he can say he has been a fan since day 2, at the latest. Fieri has been a staple at Warriors games since the days of “Run TMC,” the Don Nelson-coached squad featuring Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin, and Mitch Richmond.

Not bad when you can claim the greatest female pop star and perhaps the top three greatest pop stars of all time as your superfan. Beyoncé was born and raised in Houston’s Third Ward and has shouted her Rockets in multiple songs of hers. There have even been rumors of her interest in buying an ownership stake in the team. But, until then, Rockets fans can enjoy her many head-turning fashion statements sitting courtside with Jay-Z and Blue Ivy.

David Letterman’s “Top Ten Reasons I Love the Indiana Pacers,” was originally posted in 2004 on Pacers.com.

10: An 82-game season gives me 82 reasons to drink.

9: With the addition of Larry Bird, the front office could beat anybody’s front office in a pick-up game.

8: If you rearrange the letters in Pacers, you get capers ... and, by God, who doesn’t love capers?

7: Delicious Pacer dogs contain bits of actual basketballs.

6: Fun to watch Bobby Leonard broadcast a game without pants.

5: Some teams give 100 percent, others 110 percent and the Pacers give 114 percent.

4: It’s still fun to say Detlef Schrempf.

3: They’re very close to signing Barry Bonds.

2: Team was nice enough to look the other way when Mom ran on the court and tried to kiss Reggie Miller.

1: After tonight’s game, Jermaine O’Neal is having everyone over for dessert and coffee.

V. Stiviano probably doesn’t even root for the Clippers anymore. She might have never been a fan in the first place. But the former girlfriend of Donald Sterling is a fan favorite of Clippers fans, as her secret recordings of Sterling’s racist rants led to the forced removal of Sterling as Clippers owner. Sterling is the worst owner in NBA history. He was an awful, racist curmudgeon who was horrible to his players and saw owning a basketball team as a sick form of power dominance. Thanks to Stiviano, he’s banned for life from the NBA. And for that, she will forever be loved and appreciated by Clipper fandom.

It’s essential to recognize the OG superfans for posterity’s sake. There is perhaps no bigger or more famous fan than Jack Nicholson with his beloved Lakers. His time cheering for the team is well documented and goes beyond the Showtime era to when he was the king of Los Angeles. We wanted to use this space to give the youngheads and neophytes a brief list of must-watch Nicholson performances during his prime years as an actor when his courtside seats helped bring relevance back to The Forum and the crumbling Lakers franchise: Chinatown, The Shining, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Passenger, Carnal Knowledge, and The Last Detail.

Before Ja Morant and the current young core, and even before the bruising half-court styling of the Grit n grind era, Justin Timberlake was rocking with his hometown Grizzlies. Timberlake made it official and became a minority owner back in 2012. Timberlake has been accused of sharing loyalty with the Los Angeles Lakers, as he has been seen rocking their gear in years past. But Timberlake has maintained his stance that he is 100% about his hometown team. Hard to argue with someone who put their money where their mouth is and bought a portion of the team way before they were cool. #wigsnatch

Another One!

When you’re a small-market team, having an iconic rapper as a fan can be a pipedream. Imagine Andre 3000 in a Thunder jersey with Bruams and Loves patches? Or Kendrick Lamar rocking a throwback Rasho Nesterović Timberwolves uni? Even though Gucci Mane is from Alabama, he has recently been converted, or at least willing to gamble on being a Bucks fan. In 2019 he was so confident in Giannis Antetokounmpo that he wagered six figures in a bet with Drake over the Eastern Conference Finals. Guwop got his revenge in 2021 when the bucks went all the way and won the championship. IT’s currently undisclosed if he won back his small fortune in wagers on the Bucks’ title run.

Here’s another small market team with another large white guy as their unofficial mascot. It feels like taking your shirt off and showing off your XXL dad bod is enough criteria to win you recognition on this list. But John Sweeney’s ties to the downtrodden TWolves runs deep. Sweeney, aka “Jiggly Boy,” is a comedy club owner and former friend of comedy legend Chris Farley. Jiggly Boy was created in tandem with the Wolves’ front office in the early 2000s as a promotional tool to show how “wacky” Timberwolves fans could be. During the Kevin Garnett era, Jiggly Boy often matched the franchise star’s emotional intensity. So when Garnett returned to the team in 2015, the franchise ensured Jiggle Boy was there to welcome him home.

While MSG brings in plenty of famous faces for celebrity row, none have the passion or loyalty as cinema auteur Spike Lee. Lee has incorporated the Knicks into almost every film he’s made. He’s claimed to have been in the nosebleed seat at The Garden during the championship days of the early 70s and his devotion has never wavered, even during these James Dolan years. But even Spike is not immune to Dolan’s ire. In 2020, Spike was involved in an incident at the tunnel entrance over his credentials, a custom Spike had been accustomed to for over a decade. Like most hardcore Knicks fans, Spike is willing to suffer for his Knicks.

Comedian Chris Trew is a New Orleans native who earned the title of “superfan” by writing a book on his experience over three seasons sitting behind the visitor’s bench during Pelicans home games. He collected all the good, bad, and weird interactions with opposing players and turned it into a hilarious and insightful read. Trew is a regular on podcasts as a Pelicans superfan.

Dennis “The Fat Guy” Salvagio is precious. He loves to read, has a warm sense of humor, and doesn’t take himself too seriously. Roots for the little guy, even though he’s a big guy. And is a die-hard fan of one of the most misbegotten franchises in the league. So protect The Fat Guy at all costs.

Oklahoma City Thunder fans are an annoying bunch. They’ve only had a team since 2008, so they know very little about the NBA before they almost instantly became a contender, just to squander a team of four MVP winners. And be careful about critiquing anything General Manager Sam Presti does. These people worship that nerd like a God. All that to say, Nanae Yamano (r.) is a breath of fresh air for a Thunder fan. She traveled from her Japanese hometown to watch her beloved Thunder in person. She went viral for her amateur portraits of Thunder players. But her humble, innocent approach to the game she loves is a lesson for all of us, Thunder fans or not.

Alan Horwitz has been a Philadelphia 76ers season ticket holder for over four decades and started in the 1960s rooting for legends Wilt Chamberlian and Hal Greer in the old Convention Hall stadium. The 79-year-old might get senior discounts, but he’s no pushover. After engaging in back-and-forths with various Celtics players during the 2012 playoffs, he was escorted out of his seats by area police. Being the beloved fan he is, he watched the rest of the game in Sixers CEO Adam Aron’s press box. What a boss move.

Who can forget this punching, prognosticating Suns fan named Nick McKellar, who pummeled two Jazz fans while predicting a sweep for the team from Phoenix. This was certainly one of the most memorable moments from last season’s playoffs. The Suns, of course, went on to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Bucks.

You would think the Portland Trailblazers would be known for having a more hipster fanbase, considering what state they play in. Comedian and former SNL cast member Fred Armisen raised the cultural capital of Portland tenfold with the show Portlandia, which he co-created with Carrie Brownstein. Armisen is a longtime Blazers fan and even featured Damian Lillard and former Blazer LaMarcus Aldridge as guest stars in older seasons. Unfortunately, that cache hasn’t helped the team performs beyond expectations. Or improve upon the city’s racist history or current image as overly segregated and the whitest city in America.

If you are still a Kings fan in 2022, you deserve to be included in any and all “superfan” designations. In the last 20 years, no team has had more dysfunction, public humiliation, and turnover at every level, from ownership to the regular roster. The Kings have the longest playoff drought, as they last made the playoffs in the 2005 - 2006 season. The team is an absolute mess in every facet imaginable. Players don’t want to be there. Draft hopefuls don’t want to be drafted there. Since Rik Adelman left the team in 2006, no coach has lasted longer than three seasons. Anyone who was ringing a cowbell during the days of Chris Webber and Peja Stojaković, and still ringing it today, deserves to be noted for their unyielding loyalty in the face of utter despair.

The San Antonio Spurs are the only NBA franchise whose city residents are overwhelmingly Mexican. Going to a Spurs game is a beautiful thing to witness, Mexican Americans of all ages, styles, and shades of brown enjoying basketball and rooting for their beloved Spurs. This is why we bestow the title of the best fan for the Spurs on the entire Mexican-American population of San Antonio, as they have been die-hard loyalists since even before Tim Duncan’s rookie year.

Nav Bhatia is way less annoying than Drake. He’s also the definition of a personal success story. Bhatia migrated to Canada during the anti-Sikh riots in India during the 1980s. He started as a car salesman and built his way up to own one of Canada’s top-selling Hyundai car dealerships. He has used his wealth to secure home-court Raptors seats for every home game while spending $300K annually to pay for thousands of Toronto kids to attend Raptors games. A true Canadian legend!

Bring your tissues for this one. Nate Carter proves not every Jazz fan is abhorrent.

To our knowledge, Mia Khalifa is the first person to go from porn star to sports podcast host. And she did it with style and grace. Khalifa partnered with Gilbert Arenas as co-host on the podcast “Out of Bounds” for Complex before joining “Sportsball” alongside Tyler Coe on Rooster Teeth. Khalifa was specifically a huge John Wall fan. Once he was traded to the Rockets, she has been relatively quiet on the Wizards front. But in a city dominated by corrupt politicians only interested in partisan war games, Khalifa is the Mother Theresa of Wizards fans.