YBC and the Weird Genesis of Learned Sport in a Non-Sporting Family (part 1)

My immediate family never really followed sports growing up. We'd watch the Olympics, my mom loved the Blue Jays, and my Dad could pop dingers at will in our family softball tournaments (which took place every 3-5 years). We were more an All Creatures Great and Small \ Victory Garden type of family. How I became such a passionate basketball fan, both on the court and off, is somewhat of a mystery.

Personally, I don't remember having a strong desire to play sports in my earliest years of rec league action. I played soccer for much of my early childhood but it never really caught on (ie I sucked really badly and never could improve enough to develop an early love for it). I then started playing baseball. Summer sports were all sewn up, but thinking back that is not where my athletic passion was born.

Most kids growing up in the 80s in Canada played hockey. Not coming from a typically Canadian family we had no allegiance to the sport. When it came time to pick a winter sport, basketball got the call. I'm guessing the decision had it's genesis with a neighbor of ours. His son was a classmate of mine and a heck of a good basketball player. He was also the coach of a local rec team in the YBC, or Youth Basketball Clinic, and had tried out for the Detroit Pistons (I believe) in his earlier years. I suppose after talking to my mom he invited me to play on his team ... chock full of ringers.

I was HORRIBLE in my first year of play (roughly grade 4), but I loved it. I remember the highlight of the season was the pizza party at the end in which the entire league and their parents packed a local school auditorium and watched the latest NBA videos on the big screen. I can still recall the goose bumps I'd get watching Isiah, Bird, Magic, Dominique and Jordan doing their thing while eating pizza with my friends and teammates. The memory has stuck and is still one of my favourites to look back upon.

Anyway, that's enough for this instalment. I'll check back later with another post in this series.

Wassup Blogosphere?!

What can I say? My dreams have been fulfilled, I finally have a blog on the world wide web and it's about basketball. And life. I hope to turn around a few lives and really make a difference while I'm here, all accomplished through my writing about basketball. Prepare to get your respective heads blown, every last one of you.

I'd like to thank my man NC for hooking me up with an invite to the blog. NC, thank you for taking 2.34 seconds out of your busy schedule to click your mouse a couple of times. You're a real stand-up guy. You will regret this decision, I hereby make my solemn promise to you and yours.

So, basketball. I like it, you like it. It's why we're all here. Why should you care about what I have to say about it? Because I'm badass, and you'll find out why soon enough.

I'm currently a pretty hardcore Raps fan, but first and foremost I'm a basketball fan. I like it so much that I subject my 5'5" frame to a fairly regular schedule of ball, and if you're a smaller player you know how sadistic that can be sometimes. I get blocked a lot. Stuffed, whatever. You name it. But I keep coming back for more, and if that's not true passion you can all eat it. I have a few jerseys from more recent eras (mid 90s recent) and I currently have my eye on a Chauncy Billups Nuggets jersey.

So while this blog will focus on the Raps, it'll be in perspective with the rest of the NBA. I follow the league as tenaciously as our local squad, so this isn't written by someone who only watches the Raps with their head in the sand regarding the bigger picture. With that in mind, I have to say that overall I feel pretty positively about this team. Conversely, I feel pretty damn negatively about the doom and gloom that seems to have already arrived in our great city.

Bosh's pending free agency. Turkoglu's hurt and played like crap at the Eurobasket. Possible inability to gel as a group. Still can't play defense. Tough schedule early on. Inexperienced coach. The rest of the conference got a lot better.

Guess what? It's September 22nd and the season is still 6 weeks away. All of these comments are pointless. We won't know any answers until they hit the court.

Know what? I'll bet that Turkoglu suffers a catastrophic injury and the rest of the team doesn't get along and we wind up with a 32 win season. Worse than last year by one game. Ouch.

Know what else? I'll wager that the Raps are going to have an excellent year, both Bosh and Turk make the all-star team, we get past the 1st round of the playoffs, and hell, maybe we'll even challenge for the conference title.

Who knows? I sure don't, so I'm going to sit back and try and catch some classic games on TV until the season actually starts. It's called chilling the fuck out, and I think some of you need to try it.

Now I am off to get NC to lend me his Celtics and Knicks DVDs. He owes me for writing this blog after all.

Ask and you shall receive

BAM!