LOVE AND BASKETBALL

   Ok, so that title has been completely played out...  But originality isn't in the title, its in the content right?  I wanted to write a NBA playoff preview, but the playoffs have already started.  So instead I'm going to debunk a myth, about love and sports.

   I often wonder about the reality of love.  Does it really exist, is it just a romantic fantasy?  Does it have to be mutual, or can someone be hopelessly in love by their self?   Does everybody have 1 true love, or can you have many loves throughout your life...  And if either of those are true, how do so many people end up alone?  I also wonder if I've ever been in love, or if they were just young romances and I have yet to experience what love really is...

   I know that I have thought i was in love, or atleast i believe that is why I've done so many crazy things.  I was once in love with a girl for a year, and although she wouldn't date me i took her on a family vacation and on Christmas bought her $350 earrings (idiot...).  With another girl for love i commuted from Philadelphia to NYC on a weekly basis.  In high school for love I put together silly gifts, let a girl redo my entire wardrobe (like i was a Ken doll), and spent countless hours doing nothing but cuddle...  i'll understand if you no longer believe i'm straight.  I even once bought playoff tickets because as Matt Damon says best, "I had to See about a girl." just cause i was intrigued.  (and I'm talking Hockey... damn)

   So i believe in love, if simply for the crazy things it can make you do.  But my question today is "Is there Love in Sports?"  And i don't mean the Gay-Love connection...  (Rudy Gay and Kevin Love).  But can a person fall in love with their sports team?  You hear of die-hard fans, but can they emotionally and spiritually truly be in love with their team?

   When I was a little kid i began to follow basketball.  I didn't know much about the game, just that it was fun, fast, and people looked like they could fly when they dunked the ball.  Every kid wanted won of those 5 foot hoops that they could practice throwing down, and I couldn't get enough of mine.  And when I watched the game on TV, they inspired me with 360s and tomahawks that i wanted to do.  

Love Lil' Penny

   When it came to choosing a team, it was quite simple.  Everyone loved Michael Jordan and the Bulls.  There was Space Jam, the Championships, and he was simply the best.  I couldn't like the same team as everyone else, I was different.  All of a sudden there was a new kid in the league.  Lil' Penny was all over the commercials, and Penny Hardaway was the charismatic player with the potential to be the next Magic Johnson.  He could pass around his back, he could dribble between his legs, he was fast, and he could DUNK!  I was in love and you couldn't tell me anything different.

   I loved magic tricks, and my favorite color was blue.  It was a perfect match.  I don't even know if i picked my team or the Orlando Magic choose me.  During those early years I didn't watch many games.  I collected trading cards (trading all my Jordans for Pennys...), wore the Air Pennys, and only used the Magic in every video game.  It was a boyish love, where i knew the girl I liked, but i had no idea what to do with it.  

Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway

   Penny Hardaway got hurt and the Magic became forgetful, as did my interest.  Until i hit puberty and Orlando got smoking hot.  With Tracy McGrady on the team, the Magic became the Hottest team in high school.  They weren't winning championships, but they had the League leading scorer and everybody bought his Jersey.  When everybody thinks your girl is Hot, it only makes you like her more and puts you continually on your toes to defend her.  Those years i watched every game.  I played entire seasons on NBA2K and Live just to average 50 points per game with T-mac and go undefeated.  I wore his shoes, owned his Jersey, I even wanted his lazy eye!  

   But the biggest infatuation came with the game and the numbers.  I knew every stat, every player on the team.  I started Fantasy basketball leagues, of course rigging the draft so i could have T-Mac.  32.1 PPG and the prettiest stroke/kick of the leg I have ever seen.  I watched every nuance of the game.  I began playing basketball more than ever and the Magic inspired me to practice, work hard, and dream that I was part of the Magic too.  But as every high school sweetheart goes, Love is blind. 

   It was 2003 and the Magic were the 8 seed playing the superior Detroit Pistons, but with T-Mac anything was possible.  We went up 3 - 1 as the underdog against this Pistons team, but this was the first year that in the first round it was best of 7, as if the world was against us...  The next 3 games were a week of torture watching my team lose again and again and again.  After game 7 I cried alone in my room for hours, cursing God for intentionally torturing me with this pain.  Then I blamed my ex for the disaster, right then and there e and Orlando broke up.  I swore off basketball forever.  My first love broke my heart.

   I'm told over the next season the Magic bottomed out.  T-mac demanded a trade, Doc Rivers got fired, and  the Magic held the worst record in the NBA.  I wouldn't know, i didn't watch it.  I probably played alot of Video Games, chased girls, and tried playing Lacross.  Pathetic yes, but thats what love and a broken heart can do to you.

   But as with what usually happens, great things happen after great misfortunes.  As I was trying to stay away from the NBA, Orlando drafted a young stud by the name of Dwight Howard.  The new young stud was my age and intriguing.  He managed to pull my interest back.  While i college i even slept around with another girl (the Boston Celtics), but the Magic fought for me back.  In 2009, with me in attendance, the Orlando Magic came together as underdogs and B*tch slapped the Celtics right out of a repeat title.  Dwight Howard was like nothing I'd ever seen before, and I was head over heels in love.

   Sidenote:  The Boston Celtics were a college fling.  It was wild and exciting and swept me up in the Big Three.  It was mostly physical, and yes the sex was great.  They brought me places I'd never been before, and gave me a Championship.  It is a relationship of the past, to which I have only fond memories...  And I'm sorry if I can't help but to hop back in bed with the Celts (threesome) once in a while!

Best climax of my life!

   Dwight and the Magic brought me to an NBA Finals, but we weren't ready.  We choose to wait, but we hope someday soon it will be our time.  Is our love mutual?  Of course.  Its the fans love that gets these players paid and makes them a living.  Players have to give back their love for the relationship.  Fans know when a player puts out the effort and shows their respect and love for their fans.  Together the fans and the team become one.  Our love inspires the team to get better on the court as well as become the role models we need.  Our cheers can lift them up to feats that would otherwise seem impossible.  If the love is not there, the team falls apart and the player can quickly fade away...  For Orlando, just ask Steve Francis.

   So yes, there is Love in sports.  Only love can bring you on a rollercoaster of emotions like sports, and make you irrational with sports.  Fighting at a Bar, spending more money than you have to see a game, waiting all night in the rain to meet your favorite player, or crying because your team broke your heart.  I have had ups and down, loved and hated the Magic.  They make me cheer and they make me cry.  This year with Dwight I don't know whats next, maybe they will bring me the most coveted ring, maybe Dwight will leave me for Los Angeles.  All i know is the Magic will always be with me, through good and bad.  And if that ain't love, I don't know what is.  

**This article is dedicated to my first three loves:  Dwight, T-mac, and Penny...

 - Casey

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