Neither Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball fans nor Betar Jerusalem soccer fans might care to acknowledge it, but in sports no one has a "God-given right" to be a winner. This is, however, a country which loves winners, only winners, and almost isn't prepared to recognize the possibility that in sports contests you sometimes ought to see things from the loser's perspective.
A man visits his doctor. He has a small koala bear growing out of the top of his head. "My goodness!" exclaims the doctor, "How on earth did that begin?" Comes the response: "Pardon my language, but it started as a big pimple on my backside." Pardon the bluntness, but the point of the story perhaps needs to be spelled out: We automatically imagine it's the man's problem, but it's the bear talking - his point of view.
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Ah, point of view - just like for viewers of news, and reporters of news especially in conflict situations, point of view is the bane of sports viewers and sports fans.
Refusing to acknowledge two points of view in a contest generally lands us in the world of fair-weathered friends who then, more often than not, turn out to be foul fans. On Channel 2, I heard Orly Federbush doing a terrific job taxing the fickle Chelsea fans about their unfair treatment of Avram. Unwisely, she badgered one Chelsea T-shirt salesman into giving a pledge that he'd "take off all my clothes and run naked around Stamford Bridge yelling Avram Grant is the greatest" - provided he leads Chelsea to glory in Moscow next Wednesday night.
What a mistake - the nauseating thought of watching old beer-belly trudging around the Bridge in the altogether was altogether enough to turn any neutral into a genuine Man United addict.
United's Sir Ferguson (as some Israeli reporters insist on calling him) - now there's someone who really believes winning is everything. For all Sir Alex has done for United, that's clearly not a lesson he learned at Old Trafford. United loyalists are made of sterner stuff. Fair-feathered fans are given short shrift. I was forged into a true United fan at Wembley, 1979, the one occasion I've had the privilege to be at the Cup Final.
It's 10 minutes to go and United are trailing Arsenal by two goals to nil. Suddenly, from the depths of the north end where the United faithful are located, the most glorious bout of singing erupts, cheers and delight as if United are winning, not losing, by two goals. Commitment to the cause pays dividends. United draw level only for Gary Bailey to commit a howler in misjudging a cross from the left that allows Alan Sunderland to blast in the winner in the dying seconds. Even in defeat, the United fans sing on.
Chelsea fans are unlikely to be that fair to Avram even if they should lose only on penalties which, given Grant's penchant for draws, is a fairly likely outcome of Wednesday's giant rumble in the Luzhniki Stadium.
Right now, it's beloved tennis stars who're putting loyalties seriously to the test. We're all still in a state of shock after Justine Henin's staggering decision to turn tail on the game. But I suspend judgment until we've had time to consider the whole question of how to handle superstars - especially young women - who ditch their faithful fans.
"Roger and us" - now that's a more pressing matter. "He's finished, he's finished" a once good friend whom I'd always imagined a devotee has been saying at every awkward moment during this year's dramatic Federer slump (Some slump - who exactly is No. 1 in the world?!). This faithless friend tries to justify his spluttering support as bravado. He says it's actually hiding his burning desire to generate exactly the opposite. The explanation is that if he says "finished" sufficiently loudly and frequently enough, the mantra will eventually envelop Roger and he'll begin a stunning recovery of form.
The Swiss wonder always appears so self-composed, so self-possessed, so needless of the adulation and awe which he enjoys from fans all over the globe. Andy Murray expanded on that, saying that whenever he gets into trouble during a match, he takes his "emotional cue" from Federer and Nadal: "They are always calm and in control, don't get down on themselves, and stay level whether they are down or in front - that's the image you have to get across to your opponent."
But I believe Roger's calmness is only a front: Deep down he's really hurting. What our champ needs is the embracing comfort of faithful fans ready to be with him through every nasty bit of red European clay, prompting him too to believe that this time he will beat Rafa at Roland Garros. Roger needs the support - this is no time to lose faith.
Sergio Garcia this week paid tribute neither to fair friends nor foul but to absent friends. The Spanish wunderkind golfer, who went astray but now looks like he's on the way back, proved that if you're on the verge of losing faith, rely on a decent sense of humor. Capturing his first title for three years - the Players championship in Florida - Sergio celebrated with a joke: "First of all, I want to thank Tiger Woods for not being here."
Still in jovial mood when asked what was the best part of the playoff victory over American journeyman golfer Paul Goydos, he told reporters grinning: "Not having to listen to you guys, I mean you're going to criticize probably the best player in the history of golf, so how are you not going to criticize somebody else who is much smaller than that? I guess it's part of your job. The only thing I can do is try to keep getting better so I make your job harder to be able to criticize."
Commenting on what happened to the bubbling cheeky teenager who since turning pro a decade ago has never quite justified the ardor of his supporters, and last year literally threw away the British Open at the last gasp, The Observer's Lawrence Donegan wrote: "Like an enthusiastic suitor who finds the ardor fading after being stood up for the umpteenth time, the public has gone from enrapture to disappointment and, finally, to detached indifference. What went wrong? What went wrong, first and foremost, as the Spaniard acknowledged in his victory speech, was Tiger Woods."
Sergio still has his loyal backers, though. Tiger, however, won't stay away from the other big tournaments of the year just to keep him smiling. The Spaniard's supporters must steel themselves for that.
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