Game of the Week: Basketball

Of the "big three" traditional American team sports of baseball, football, and basketball, it's basketball that I have always most personally identified with.  No, my daddy wasn't a professional basketball coach and I had neither the dribbling and shooting talent nor the height needed to pursue the sport at a higher level...not even in high school.  And surprise, surprise...my elementary and high school physical education "teachers" never once gave any instruction on how to better play the game (at least when I was around).  Still, I managed to pick up on the rules pretty well by the time I was in the sixth grade and for a while my hustle and enthusiasm...especially on defense...made up for my many other shortcomings in the game.  One crucial element of basketball, from both personal experience as well as later observing my own children play it in their respective leagues and watching college and pro hoops, is passing the ball around quickly and accurately. Except for one almost magical game my makeshift team played in 9th grade P.E. class when we worked as a completely unselfish unit (with a lot of passing) and demolished our opponent, I had to continually suffer through games playing with self-appointed ball hogs...whenever I did find myself in possession of the ball from time to time those hogs would instantly yell at me to throw it to them...as if all of life in the universe hinged in the balance as to whether we won the stupid game or not.  I remember the movie Ordinary People in which a kid grieving over the loss of his brother isn't into his swimming team workouts...his coach comes up to him and says...I'm paraphrasing here...you gotta have fun, it's no good if you're not having fun.  And for some reason, the kids I played basketball with in school for the most part didn't know how to have fun with it (or any other sport for that matter).  Now as an adult I have lots of fun watching others play the sport...I enjoyed the recent NCAA tournament and follow the NBA as well.  It's been a while...let's see, about 7 years...since I just went to a court and threw baskets and did some one-on-one playing.  My local gym has a court on which games spontaneously spring up (at least before the pandemic, that is)...players come and go and practice their dribbling, passing, shooting and defense: I think that's pretty cool and they, unlike that kid in the movie and my former classmates, seem to be having a lot of fun (well, at least they were before COVID).  As for the spectator aspect of the sport, the greatest moments for me came when the University of Florida won the NCAA national championship tournaments in 2006 and 2007...I also vividly remember following the American Basketball Association's Miami Floridians on the radio (1450/WOCN) during their rollercoaster 1968-69 debut season.  And the year the Jacksonville Dolphins with their high scoring fast break strategy and standout Artis Gilmore got to the NCAA finale against UCLA in 1970: that was something to behold. When Jim Valvano's North Carolina State team came from nowhere to win the national championship in 1983...that was special, too.  More recently in the NBA I followed Steve Nash and his Phoenix Suns, later switching my allegiance to Gregg Popovich's San Antonio Spurs with its trio of stars Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginóbili...right now, other than pulling for Jimmy Butler's Miami Heat, I'm not partial to any particular team...