I have been a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Men’s Basketball
fan since before I could crawl. My dad has had season tickets to Tar Heels
basketball games my entire life. We are diehard. We got to cheer for one of the
winningest coaches in NCAA history and got to know some amazing players
as we watched them develop over their years at Carolina. We saw star players
in person before they were household names, Vince Carter and Michael Jordan
among others. One of my strongest childhood memories is being around 9
years old shooting basketball with my siblings in our backyard court while
listening to the games on an AM radio. We’d pretend we were the players (Phil
Ford was who I always pretended to be!) and make the winning shot as we
counted down the last 5 seconds of the clock.
When Angie and I founded NC Stage and started having kids it became
difficult to follow the games with our schedule and taking care of little ones.
But I followed as best I could, catching the occasional game on TV, always
listening to the radio broadcast on the Tar Heel Sports Network (by this point
on a streaming service) synced up with the television broadcast like we did
when I was a kid. When my son became a little older he would watch the games
with me; I think he was curious why I was screaming in the other room! One
day, when my son was around 9 years old, I came home to find him shooting
baskets in our driveway while listening to the game on the radio broadcast on
his iPod. The technology had changed since I was a kid but the thrill of being
a fan had not.
Fandom binds me and my family together. It’s a calling card to people I meet
at the games – people of different backgrounds bonding over the success and
failure of our team. Fandom has a particular way of connecting people with
some of the best attributes of community. It also has a dark side when the fans
feel entitled to certain behavior from these young athletes.
When I first read King James I fell in love with the idea of directing a play
about being a fan and about exploring Matt and Shawn’s relationship as it’s
forged through their love of LeBron and the Cavs. But it’s a story about much
more than that. I hope you end up being a fan of King James. (And maybe
watch a playoff game while you’re at it and see what the hype is all about!)
– Charlie Flynn-McIver, Director
