Everyday I hear a new friend talking about the new TV show they’re onto next, or why reality TV is so addicting, and what I take from the national need to binge watch is that it’s all for the drama. Drama is pure entertainment. It’s the surprise of it, the twists and turns it entails… Most importantly, its the idea that you can invest into someone else’s life and try to predict what is going to happen in it. It makes people go crazy! But of course, I too, am a victim to it. These kinds of tactics implemented on television are undeniably amusing. But what I feel like most of my friends sitting in their apartment on a Netflix bender don’t realize, is the fact that these tactics also happen to be the DEFINITION of sports television.
Oh, the drama!
Basketball is my favorite. You can theorize all you want, and root for one team all you want, but nobody truly knows the outcome of the game. What is going to happen in between those four quarters, let alone in the season, let alone in the Championship Playoffs, is a complete mystery. And being invested in your special team makes all the difference when taking part in the journey of each season. Growing up in LA, I can reminisce on the glory of having Kobe Bryant on the Lakers. The memories of success for our team in the 2010 Finals when we gruesomely battled the Boston Celtics. I want to remember it like it was yesterday. This game–Game 7–meant everything, because it was yet another Lakers-Celtics Finals battle, one that Kobe was more desperate to win than ever. He needed to win to stick it to the Celtics team that had embarrassed him two years earlier with a 4-2 series win, and a brutal 39-point victory in Game 6. He also needed to show that he could beat his personal demons and hatred of the Celtics by winning it all himself. No Shaq, no nothing. Black Mamba only…he was such a devil. Nobody has ever before seen such power, motivation, control, driven by such a force of hatred and evil. He wanted to be the bad guy and he was.
But despite this drive, the Lakers were struggling in the first half. Kobe especially, with a horrid 6-for-24 shooting performance. Los Angeles needed an answer and we needed it fast.
And there, in the blink of an eye, with only 60 seconds left in the final round, we saw a fucking miracle. In what I would call a defining moment of my childhood, and simultaneously the defining moment of Ron Artest’s career, he rescued Kobe like Hercules and SUNK a 3-pointer over the outstretched hand of Paul Pierce. This was everything we needed to secure our second straight championship. 79-73.
Moving to New York makes watching the game different. This is because moving from home to anywhere for that matter, sort of just makes things different. But of course, a natural and necessary part of life is adjustment. With adjustment comes a familiarity to the new, and with this familiarity comes a comfortability.
Now, the Lakers are the third to last standing in performance this season. Have been for a few now.
Now, I have to watch west coast games at 10pm because of the time difference, which makes for a 1 AM night, depending on overtime.
Now, the city that I live in represents two of the least interesting teams in my opinion.
But! I wouldn’t change a thing. Things just might change for me…and that’s okay.
Firstly. “Now, the city that I live in represents two of the least interesting teams in my opinion.” Ouch! That stings.
Secondly, really lovely piece of sports writing. What what makes it work for me is the sense of drama through the childhood recollection of that Lakers game, as well as the very crystal clear recollections of what player did what, when, and how. The writer’s passion and obsession for the game is clearly obvious, and so it quickly rubs off onto the reader.
-Alex
Alana, I really enjoyed the perspective you used in this piece. Coming from other places and carrying your history, your passions, your interests, is how everyone in New Yorker truly exists and I like how you didn’t neglect that. The connections you make between the consumption of realtity TV and sports TV are great and I’d be curious to see more of the connections you see between the two. Your description of the 2010 Lakers is my favorite part. It feels deeply rooted in memory and nostalgia (not that that’s a bad thing).
I like how this piece manages to defend, celebrate and mourn your experience of sports TV in just a few short paragraphs. You really communicate the drama/intrigue of the big game, and despite being only an occasional sports TV-watcher, I can completely relate. The only thing I’m missing was how the drama of the Lakers win affected you– you said it was a defining moment of your childhood, I want to know how you/your family reacted!