Of course this is based on my observation but still, I find it rather interesting and blog worthy. The Singapore Slingers experienced their first ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) loss at home to the KL Dragons today, 74-86. Apart from great plays by the visiting team and the Slingers being owned on the boards with strong rebounds from the Dragons’ Jamal Brown, who once donned a Slinger jersey (more of that in another article), the 1,000 if not more Singapore Slingers fans were completely owned by a small group of KL Dragons in team t-shirts cheering for their team and waving their flags. From what I gathered, they actually travelled all the way from KL to Singapore for the game (can anyone verify that?).
What seemed to be an home court advantage became an away game for the Singapore Slingers as cheers from the 50 or more strong KL Dragon fans drowned the somewhat quiet home fans. After the game, Singapore fans were taunted by Dragons’ fans rhythmically outside the Indoor Stadium entrance as they banged on drums and symbols (yes, they brought musical instruments down) in their bid to create more hype, which they did pretty well.
Nice sounding “Wicked Aura Batucada” like tunes aside (well I kinda liked it), I wished I could say that the Dragons’ fans are just celebrating the win, but with chants like “Who won today? KL Dragons!!”, followed by cheers by our visitors, I think that qualifies as taunting (hey…I could be wrong). As for the Singapore fans, they just stood there, watched and some even cheered after they stopped playing. Of course as friendly competition goes, in addition to Singapore being a safe country and the fact that there are really no super hardcore Slinger fans, there were no fights or incidents…thankfully ~wipes brow~.
Left: The small but strong KL Dragons fans cheering for their team | Right: I think the only time Singapore Slingers fans every stood up and cheered was for free t-shirts
Left: KL Dragons fans cheering after the game ended | Right: The celebration continues outside the Indoor Stadium
I know its not soccer and I have always wished for a strong Slinger fan base especially at home and a completely sell out crowd at the Indoor stadium chanting “Let’s go Slingers!! Let’s go!!”. But at the rate how things are going, I reckon that Singapore fans will continue to be owned by fans from visiting teams as the ASEAN Basketball League carries on until the end of season. Oddly, for a country that produces the loudest and proudest complainers, Singaporeans are rather quiet eh? 
My report on the game coming soon. Once I get the statistics… 
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Yes sir, we travel all the way down from KL to singapore. And the bus was late, we were only able to arrive at the end of the first quarter >.<
well, ur right on spot….we came all the way from KL (although a bit late due to the driver lost the way) but i woth it too cheer for our heroes there!!! a nice environment to see after the game that although slinger lost their games, no blood fight needed satisfy one anger…..same like when the dragon lost (to the Brunei and patriots) the game, everybody go to the court and greet the players either the the away or home….. a proud basketball fan as of myself when things like dogfight doesnt occur like football…..the games end, and have fun either ur team win or lost!!! lets go DRAGON lets GO!!!!
@mislan and azkam: Woah that was some fast response here and thanks for the visit. Guess ultimately we all had a great time and honestly, we (i.e. the Slingers and fans) could really use fans like u guys. I mean with you guys taking time off and travel a few hours just to catch a two hour match before heading back home. Hats off to you guys!! Hope you all had a good/safe trip. I love the atmosphere though and how ABL allows fans to greet players on court..all friendly.
Guess we Slinger fans really need a wake up call (I hope) after getting pwned by a small energetic crowd. Then again, its basketball and Singaporeans aren’t as passionate about it as compared to soccer (which btw, I’m not a fan of). All the best in the other games…till we meet again…
Like the part about cheering and getting up for free tees, but then again..the KL Dragon fans were also seen up and asking for free tees….haha..shall post one soon abt one slingers fan though..think i caught a pic of him swinging his tee..
maybe Bob should give out free flags or towels to swing and create atmosphere! Kudos to the passion and energy displayed by the KL Dragon fans!!
dude jason, i love ur photo man, hook me up with the photos, i wanna post in on my facebook!
len, i’m the kl dragons fan who asked for the free t-shirt and the rest of my frens follow lol. it was all fun tho, win or lost.
yup…me tooo!! we win or lost we must try to get the free bees….heheheh….. although the cheerio dont event take a look at us to give the t-shirt…huhuhuhh
@Len: I agree man, maybe if the tees, flags or towels (NBA Live 10 playoffs?) were free, more people will use it. And like you said man..Dragons fans were amazing
@mislan: No problem man, as long as you attribute it to me yah? And also if you are not selling the photos like say in magazines and such (of course I’m sure you won’t
). Len and I had photos stolen from us with no attribution before, which completely pissed us off.
Do you by any chance know how to disable the function that prevents photos from being saved in Flickr? I didn’t set it and it is by default. I’m still scratching my head on that. Once it is disabled, you can just right click and save…
@azkam: You know what? We photographers are usually left out for freebies too. Maybe I should speak to the cheerleaders and get a couple off their hands eh? They are usually beside us anyway
@jason, ya man of course i will attribute it to you.
btw, can u email it to me? i dont know how to save it to my computer >.<
@mislan: Sure thing man. Let me have ur email addy. The photos are quite big tho. Will compress it and send it via yousendit.com or something yah?