What a Game!!!!!

My friends arrived dressed impeccably; the ladies looked absolutely beautiful, as they always do. I immediately began to regret not being able to join them. I went into my room, and took out my book and knocked out a couple of chapters. My plan was to stay up to watch the US Men's Basketball team play Espania in the gold medal game. I felt my eyes getting heavy, I leaned over and turned off the lamp to take a brief nap. I got up, played my guitar and turned to NBC.

The game, what is there to say? It is the best basketball game I have ever seen in the last few years. A collection of NBA talent, full of bravado, chemistry and determination. The team was tested early and often as Espania, led by Pau Gasol, Ruby Reyes and Juan Carlos Navarro led a charge that put the U.S. team back on their heels. Lebron James and Kobe Bryant both found themselves in early foul trouble having to go to the bench midway through the first quarter with two fouls a piece. Enter Dwayne Wade, aka 'The Flash;' Wade putting the US team on his back made three's, got in the lane, made steals and ended the first half with 21 points. Lebron James, who was said to be the best player on the team was inexplicably absent in the final minutes when the reigning NBA MVP took over the game. Kobe drove the lane hitting runners, hitting clutch three's, blocking shots, and making timely passes as he was personally involved with 15 straight points. He stepped up in the final minutes hitting a three and coverting it into a four point play. The exuberation on the player's faces was matched by my own. Here I am, sitting in my home alone, I had an opportunity to spend time with them, but chose instead to watch the game. The game was a basketball fan's ultimate wish, I only wish that my brother was here to watch it with me. We would have gone "B - a - n - a - n - a - s" as Gwen Stefani says.

Well, I'll stay up a few more minutes and watch the medal ceremony. I'm a huge basketball fan. Kobe Bean Bryant is my favorite player in the league, and I'm amazed at the skill level of the atheletes; their remarkable talent, skill and inspiring play had me wishing again. It took me back to when I was a teenager watching ball games in the living room of our house, my holding a basketball, wearing baggy shorts and sleeveless t-shirts. My brother and I would cut the sleeves off of old shirts and use them do-rages to press our waves into place. My mom would make some snacks in the kitchen and my sister would even sit around the T.V. Inexplicably absent would be the one most families would assume would be watching the game, my pops. Instead he'd be in the garage tinkering away under the hood, or waxing his cadillac, or building a computer. He never took much interest in sports, but my mom - what's there to say. She was there hooping and hollering, give my brother and I high fives, trying to do chest bumps, jumping up and down and saying, "That's what I'm talking about," after every dunk or shot made by Michael Jordan or Scottie Pippen." She'd even call me and Charles from work to see when the game was coming on because she wanted to be there to watch it with us. I miss those times. Tonight, the competition being seen on the screen would have been the perfect backdrop to another evening of raucous excitement and exhuberant celebration if only my family had been there. What a game!