I Waited Too Long to Get Into Basketball

I have a habit of picking up hobbies when they're going out of style. Take professional basketball, for example: earlier this year I took a keen interest in the sport, fueled primarily by DS's enthusiasm. I got to know the players, downloaded some playoff games to see what all of the fuss is about, and even started to understand the rules. My son and I now go to a local court and shoot hoops when weather permits (alas, not all that often in Washington), and we just watched with some heartbreak as our WNBA team, the Storm, got knocked out of the Playoffs by the down-and-dirty Los Angeles Sparks.

Now, with the NBA season right around the corner...oh, wait. No basketball team here. Bummer.

No worries: the Seattle Sonics/Oklahoma City Thunder are at the bottom of my watch list for this season, though I must admit it would have been fun having a local team to root for. CURSE YOU, CLAY BENNETT! MAY YOUR PROSTATE ENLARGE TO UNFATHOMABLE PROPORTIONS!

I'm not sure what fostered this recent interest...growing up, I was about as far removed from interest in sports as one could possibly get. I ran track, briefly, in the 7th grade, where I also participated in lunchtime games of football and soccer, but there's where my sports involvement/interest ended. Now, for reasons i can't completely understand or condone, I've turned into a veritable NBA fiend. I can tell you all about a 3-second defensive violation or sprout off the shooting averages for a good 2-dozen players from last season. I play NBA 2K with my invented Seattle Sonics team every night (just started the season, actually...we had lots of pre-season games to practice...). I grab snippets of highlights from last season on my breaks at work, and I just joined a fantasy league.

What the Hell?

Oh, well, no sense in fighting it, even if my behaviors as I get old(er) do just tend to confuse me.

So, here I sit, anxiously awaiting a sports season to begin with no local team to cheer for, but with no small amount of enthusiasm nevertheless. Go Spurs/Suns/Clippers/Blazers (west) Celtics/Pistons/Cavs/Bulls/Bobcats (east)!

(It's easier to enjoy the games, i find, if you have lots of different teams to support. ;)