Many people enjoy watching sports, and those people who really get into their favorite sport will participate in a variety of ways, involving their family and friends if they can. The excitement of the game results in an avalanche of cheers, laughter, and tears during the pulse of competition, wrong calls, and the scathing suspense of evenly matched opponents. Some people host game-time parties at their homes. Others travel far, at great expense, to watch a game live and party before and after the event.
Especially for those who have donned a uniform to play their favorite sport, cherished memories come alive on game day. By tracking specific players, fans can vicariously live by sharing those players’ hopes and triumphs, and can sympathize with them when those players’ dreams are shattered by injury or scandal. I have a friend who comes from a family of four generations of living and breathing the sport of basketball. He has told me that when he was a child, he was immersed in basketball and it didn’t occur to him that he had the option of playing the game. He loved it and still loves it. Plus, he’s come a long way in the game: a starting guard in high school and a point guard on his college basketball team.
The eldest in his family, my friend understood the taunts about his responsibility to produce a progeny of basketball heroes: the next generation. He has two brothers who were also given that responsibility, but my friend’s wife got pregnant first. All generations of the family talked about my friend and his wife, who refused the doctor’s offers to identify the gender of their child before birth, just to keep everyone on a razor’s edge of suspense. Assumed as a child, many blue gifts were sent before the birth.
My friend saw his newborn being placed in his wife’s arms, and she glowed at that moment. She then looked at her husband and said something memorable. She said, “I did a boo boo.” And she told me that she told him the same thing for the next two births, with Boo Boo 3 being the last and last issue from her to her family. All three of those girls are loved by their families for generations. They also happen to be great basketball players. Boo Boo 3 won a college scholarship to play! I love this story. Such a blessed family has my friend, and the family tradition of loving the game of basketball will be passed down to the next generation. #TAG1writer
