Highway to Happy

I am a weird basketball fan. I do not have a favorite team in any league other than the UAAP only because it feels too weird to cheer for any color other than my school’s. But when it comes to other leagues, such as NBA and PBA, I am just never loyal to a single team. Most times I catch the game on TV and pick the team I’ll cheer for right there, celebrate/mourn for a few minutes depending on the result and move on to the next game afterwards.

In the recent NBA finals, I took the side of Dallas. I just hate James’ guts, I guess. Basketball is a team sport, so any player who doesn’t give importance to team loyalty can never be a great player in my eyes. He may possess all the skills, yes, but he’ll never have the heart of a genuine superstar. And in basketball, the toughest games are decided by that: the heart. So, I was cheering for Dallas the entire NBA Finals. I badly wanted a ring for Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki. I’ve been watching them for years and I’m tired of seeing their names under “The greatest players who never won a championship”. God forbid they be another Karl Malone and John Stockton who were unbelievably good players born in the wrong Era. Michael Jordan’s Era, that is.

I could never count how many times I’ve clicked the ‘refresh’ button to see the latest score in the NBA website. Games were played in the morning so, as expected, I was stuck in the office and couldn’t watch it live. However, I never missed a replay- from start to finish. I knew beforehand who won but it wasn’t merely about winning. Knowing who won is different from seeing who played better. I witnessed how Dallas made the greatest comeback from a 15 point- deficit. I saw how scared Lebron looked in the last quarter of every game. Or was that his default game face? I was amazed by Barea’s skills and bet on his immense potential. Who said a small guy has no place in basketball? He stands at 5’9” but was able to get an offensive foul against a giant like Lebron James in Game 6! And what about Terry. He sure is happy he didn’t have to get that tattoo removed. They succeeded, after all. Dallas got their very first championship.

"We had no champions on this team," Mavs center Tyson Chandler said. "And we walked away with a team full of champions."

So the season is now over. I’ll be waiting for the next one, pick a team to cheer for and do the drill all over again.

I am not like most basketball fans, you see. Because I am exactly, plainly that: a basketball fan. Not a Dallas fan or Celtics fan or any other team’s fan. I love the sport, itself. I don’t get satisfied knowing who won or who made the biggest numbers. I watch the game- from tip off up to the last seconds. I even almost missed an exam in grade school because of a Chicago- Utah finals game. Looking back, I can’t even remember who I wanted to win that time.

Anyway, if you think being a basketball fan without a basketball team is weird, then, by all means, feel free to call me weird.