Me, watching games

(it has been a while since i was really into sports. enjoyed the 4 NFL playoff games last weekend and remembered this old piece i wrote.)

I started to watch sports while staying in Oregon for a short period of time. It was approaching the NBA playoff. The Portland Trailblazers, the only sports team of the whole state, were doing well and Oregonians went wild with high expectations. I was infected and followed the games with the kind of feverish emotion one would have when encountering some new and exciting for the first time (that year, Michael Jordan won his first NBA championship). That emotion eventually faded away but I have learned one sports after another and could pass as a regular knowledgeable fan if not examined too closely.

There are always higher calls for athletic excellence and sports competition: national honor, ethnical pride and various moral causes. What touch me most, though, are simply the games and the individuals who play them. I enjoy football most when the two teams kick off and bump into each other with power and determination - the only thing I like which resembles a battle. I love basketball for its fluidity and elegance. Sports played on grass convey a sense of poetic beauty; those with long history carry the riches of culture; and summer games amplify the noises and restlessness only summer possesses.... One can also easily get caught up by the drama: an unexpected triumph over the powerful or a final shower of success for the long drought. I still remember my pure joy and satisfaction when Hollyfield beat Tyson (twice).

I also watch the players (in a broad sense). With my admiration for brilliance and individualism, I am particularly tolerant of those with odd yet distinguished personalities. Dennis Rodman brings about a kind of craziness and absurdity. Sam Cassell is super ugly yet equally bright. Bill Parcell abondons his team sooner than he adopts new ones, but isn't he masterful? And genius is not just found in the rank of Tiger Woods. I sighed with resignation when I read about Vince Carter saying that he saw the net become wider and wider with each 3-pointer he had made - wish I had that kind of vision for just once!

Talking about reading, I actually "watch" most of the sports events in newspapers, or nowadays on internet. A game in writing is in itself a new game from the one in motion, enriched by literary merits, personal perspectives and retrospectives. Besides, I get to choose to read only the games which go my way and skip altogether those which annoy me. Years have gone by but I still have the NYT sections covering the two Cowboy Superbowl championships.

For someone who rarely lifts a finger other than doing daily chores and who does not have much athletic skills whatsoever, I have been delighted constantly by those who do. And I appreciate it (6/2/01).