We all know we shouldn’t get too attached to players, but when you watch 162 games a season it can be difficult to follow that advice. You see the same guys day in and day out, you learn their personalities through how they deal with victory and defeat on the field, you get a sense through interviews of who they are: funny, serious, smart, sarcastic, goofy.
All this can create a parasocial bond that makes us like certain players more than others. It’s the reason that people buy jerseys for players who aren’t necessarily superstars (my first jersey was an Alex Avila one and I had to get it custom-lettered because the online store didn’t have any pre-made at the time).