My Date with.... NBA

I recently came across one article, which talked about author’s encounter with College Basketball, well I had my college (university in India) basketball encounters in childhood and then school basketball and then again some engineering college basketball competitions. My first experience was All India inter-university basketball competition and I faintly recall I was 7-8 year old and at that time even fiberglass boards had arrived and matches were played in floodlit open arena. There was enthusiasm and excitement and that was it. I remember I knew the rules are somewhat different from what’s played in US and I would go there to watch, wearing a black colored t-shirt with Portland Blazers written on front with the logo as well.

Then came school basketball in 11-12th standard. And there were 2 aspects, one whole enthusiasm and cheering our own team against our rivals in inter public school meet. Second was to see girls playing and frankly I hardly remember anything about it but I remember people always being excited about watching girlies playing, though I guess watched the final, maybe I was more interested in game than any thing I should have been interesting in. The shy-introvert me. Welham’s boys beat the MNSS, Rai in the finals before beating our arch rivals DPS, Mathura Road and we supported Welham’s as Mathura Road had beaten us the dipsites from RK Puram and we were so glad that they didn’t disappoint us. I was totally awed by how the coach opened new strategies to counter the lanky guys and attack and defense.

Coming to NBA for a while - Defense .. defense .. defense .., the sheer cheer for home defense as Lebron James lead the Cavaliers, sounds new live from the sound that comes from TV sets, gives me goose bumps still as whole stadia stand up for defense.
Same sound was so erratic and shrill but evoked same feeling as we cheered our college team (weak by any standards and technique) and still managed to frustrate the opposite team, as if they also got carried away by the non-smoothness of defense cries and remarks coming from front benches and receive huge comments (abuses) laughters from us again. I sometimes wondered how players could control themselves against such fierce criticism. I’m learning now that goes as one of the chapters of Sports Psychology. Sometimes we used to win and most of the times on the losing side but we cheered.

Case was similar here as I was too flabbergasted to even cheer. I was more awed by Lebron James than getting onto the Bucks cheering bus. I was one of the few ones who had seen the next great, next Jordan, next air, next kid on the charts, next millionaire rookie and all the euphoria that surrounds the next great…. LIVE in Cleveland Cavaliers Red jersey as they played the purple Bucks.. the Milwaukee Bucks. I knew them through childhood by remembering the glass and the cap, which were their souvenirs.

I was relatively very new, less than 40 days old in land of milk and honey and had the chance of tasting what –11F (-27F with wind chill) means and I got the feeling of wind chill as well as I moved towards my uncle’s car from the Chicago Midway exit doors. The air felt cool and wet and refreshing, but I got the real feel when I had walked about 10 metres and entered the door and instead of listening to some nice welcome words, I heard why didn’t I wait as suddenly I felt chill engulfing me. Thanks to a new overcoat and woolen gloves and cap that I survived. The same overcoat made me survive the cold as we entered the Bradley Center for the game night.
Before reaching there, I was witnessing the snow filled expressway and whitish brown trees all the way. As we took an exit from I-94 to meet my other uncles and all cousins with a gas station as meeting point and then all followed together towards Bradley Center.

I had no clue what waited there. I was not excited, more confused as how it could get so cold ever and what lay ahead. As we came out of parking area, I felt the same chilly wind but hardly anything as we laughed our way into the arena. Whole flock of people from different sizes and shapes were entering the arena. I was absolutely in zombie state as sometime I was awed by the whole euphoria. I’m not sure what I did in that zombie state and I hope I did not let myself be sloppy than I am.

Through the gates after showing the pass I followed everyone more silently than ever as we moved up towards higher floors. I’m not sure if I even thought about I not getting to watch the game from the benches near the chairs. But I was facing more surprises as was entered into a suite room. I do not remember the suite number, but it belonged to my uncle and I came to know that this was something.

We welcomed the teams with claps as whole stadia became vociferous with rock kind of music cheering followed. This was it. I wanted to hear all this. The view from up there was not so close as I wanted it to be but I was great. But I was kind of disappointed by the slow game. I could not imagine how come this was so different from the game I watched in childhood between two universities. But then game clicked and reached its desired level. The baskets, 3-pointers, blocks, assists, blocks, turnovers all came alive as crowd also boomed as game flowed.

We were served with snacks and some drinks and some other food but I was more interested in the game. I heard more and more about phenomenon called Lebron James and I watched him more and more as he led cavaliers all the way. I was kind of feeling sorry sitting at bucks home but still awed by the new prodigy.

Quarters ended, half time came and time outs taken and I followed the cheerleaders and the fillers that came in between. The aerobics performed or the show was good. In between I got introduced to some known and mostly unknown faces. One of my uncle’s colleague took me by surprise, I’m not sure what picture she had of me, but I was taken by her to another suite and I had never been this bemused and by the time I could think of any thing about what might lay ahead, I was led by her into a room full of unknown faces. And just then she called her daughter (I’m not sure really) and got introduced to her (and I forgot her name as soon as she said that) and I don’t even remember how I introduced myself. Maybe they understood my perplexed state or they themselves were feeling at odds, and I was back to out suite as soon as possible. And just then I was taken out as we were supposed to go somewhere. This was getting totally confusing and I calmed myself down and then I understood we were going to Locker Rooms. I was not sure how interesting it could get. Whole of our group by led by a guide of the arena and we entered guest’s Locker Room as well Home team’s and we were more interested in guest’s as we saw the shoe stack of Lebron James and others. Shoe sizes were as huge as possible and their gowns said about their heights and sizes. I could imagine the coach giving few tips and players pumping themselves before the final show down. Going over their anthems with some sitting on the wooden benches, some standing over and laying back along the wooden stacks. Then the walkway which would lead them towards playing area and the same way where after winning they would come back all cheered up, exhausted and elated. Then we also managed to see the medical room attached to the Locker Room and I for the first time saw how advanced technology there was present in that same arena. It was more for physiotherapy massages as well as handling any muscle tears or even handling the first aid of bone fractures etc. There were some medical gadgetry and we moved further back to the game.
The pace and the heat notched up quite a bit in second half and was at its pick in final quarter. I’m damn sure Lebron must have kept everyone in awe but no one really appreciated the visitor’s but Lebron had everyone awestruck and had the attention and appreciation a few times as he took Cavaliers to different level all by him self. Bucks had more of team play but Cavaliers rode on sheer brilliance of Lebron. Final few minutes made contest really close but bucks missed the crucial 3-pointer as Cavaliers took final lead and with they putting in from the line even though home supporters had all distractions in store for them, it didn’t matter any more. This “shutting it off” thing hit me really as how players in that arena could shun tens of cameras, hundreds of lights, thousands of howls and cries of support or against and still manage to play as if outside world are fools and just make them mesmerize with skills. Cavaliers had the win as crowd started departing even before the clock was showing the final 24 on shot clock.

I was among few ones who were interested in the watching the arena till last team member moves towards the locker room so that I could soak it all in as I never knew if there is going to be second time or not. (Already I’m somewhat convinced that NBA threw this shy guy out !!). People watched a good decent scoring game and were not sad really. As everyone faced cool chill of late night and blew colder in the parking lot where it was frantic search for our car, made more to wait as one of relatives completely forgot how his car looked. Regular laughter in shivering cold made it more fun as we finally came out of arena and I having finished my first date with NBA with all cheering embedded in core.