As a young boy my favorite player on my favorite team left and it caused me to lose all faith in that team and I have almost never cared for them or followed them again until briefly this winter. That was 1975 when Bobby Orr left the Bruins. This was little way for me to follow Bobby on the Blackhawks back then as there were only like 5 stations in all of Boston and you just never knew when Chicago would make national TV so I basically turned my attention at baseball.
Since then I have always been a team first guy and very rarely have I cared much for the players other than to cheer them on. If they left, so be it, my lesson had been learned. So although I became a giant John Havlicek, Jim Rice, Roger Clemens, Larry Bird and Rajon Rondo fanatic, they never came in front of the team. If any of those guys had to go to make the team better, so be it. Lucky for me Clemens has been the only one to go elsewhere, so far, but if they had to go, then see ya.
Team first. Always.