As a kid growing up in Wisconsin, I rooted for players on Wisconsin teams. Be they Bucks, Packers, Brewers, or Badgers, I watched them on TV and read about them in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. My awareness of the players was restricted to their on-court/field abilities, and my awareness of the teams was restricted to a general desire to seem them win (alongside a general resignation that they probably wouldn’t).
As I grew up, though, the focus of my fandom shifted. Although there is a certain sense of bean-counting ecstasy that emerges from following players and teams, most of the thrills of fandom - for better and for worse - come from following people and narratives.