just depends on how well that guy performs on the court, if he turns into a superstar, like Kobe, mostly everyone forgets, and doesn't care after a couple of years, regardless of the crime (to an extent).
I'd prefer not to go back to the Jail Blazer era. Talk about a PR nightmare with players and coaches having to answer questions about so and so's off-the-court troubles all the time, which can affect the team's play on the court. And I'm sure the team feels the same way after all of the sponsors it lost due to having a terrible image in the community, which they're still trying to recover from.
That's a good point. Even if a particular fan doesn't care about image, the sponors do. And if the image is bad and that leads to less sponsorship money, that in turn could hurts the overall product put on the floor . .. which all fans are concerned about.
Yes, just as I can enjoy movies with actors who have committed crimes in the past, or buy products from a company who's CEO has done bad things, etc. While I have an emotional connection to the team that is absent with a movie or multinational, the players, CEOs and actors I have no emotional connection to. I wouldn't like them personally, in your examples, but I can still enjoy watching them play basketball. Allegations of crimes would make me want them to stand trial for those crimes, but wouldn't affect my viewing experience of them in basketball games.
Oh... If I personally knew? I would turn him in and help ensure that he went to prison. I don't really understand why you have to make up ridiculous scenarios to try to prove why I'm wrong for not caring about how ESPN.com voters perceive the Blazers. Oh, no! Speeding!?! Getting into a fight at a bar?!?! Heavens to Betsy! I have done both of those things in the last 18 months. Smoking pot? It's done on a daily basis by people I consider friends. I don't do it, but don't consider it to be any big deal... although if someone gets arrested for it I have no problem with them being punished, either. Dog abuse is bad. But not that big of a deal. If I knew a Blazers player did it, I'd turn him in and let the law sort things out. I wouldn't let it impact how I root for the Blazers, though. Ed O.
