Photo by The Drum
September 20th, 2020. Last seconds of game two of the Western Conference Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers.
I’m watching the game in my roommate Ben’s room. Ben is a diehard Lakers fan, and as a fan of Lebron James myself, I was cheering on the Lakers in solidarity with Ben.
2.1 seconds left. Lakers down by 1 point.
Me and Ben are crowding the tiny laptop that can barely run the crappy stream we’re watching from. We’re silent. In the corner of my eye, I can see Ben clasp his hands together and mouth “come on.”
Rajon Rondo passes the ball in bounds to Anthony Davis.
Davis goes up, shoots the three.
I hear a gasp from Ben. I let out one myself.
The ball hangs in the air. Silence.
The buzzer beats. The ball still hangs.
Swish.
Madness. Me and Ben cry out “Oh my God!” simultaneously. We jump around before we find each other and hug. We’re hysterical.
I define myself as a sports person. It is a part of my character, I enjoy consuming the drama, the moments, the experience. Moments like that Anthony Davis buzzer beater reminds me why.
Because at the end of the day, I’m not even a Lakers fan. I could care less about who won that game, but I lived that moment the way I did because of one reason, the why I care about sports.
The chills, the goosebumps. The quiet, then the yells. That feeling of your heart clenching alongside your hands as the shot goes up, the breath you hold in for the everlasting 0.8 seconds that you eventually release with a gasp you will remember for the rest of your life.
It makes me feel alive.
Because most times, life just goes on. Things happen everyday, you wake up the next day and it all blurs together. What I’ve found out puts color into my life, distracts me from the shades of gray that define my days, my weeks, my months – among other things, sports lets me remember. I can’t explain it completely, you could only feel it – the emotion, the hysteria, the vivacity in a moment in time sports brings.
That’s why I care about sports, why I love it, why I live it.
Because Anthony Davis, someone I don’t know, on the Lakers, a team I don’t care for, in a game two of the Western Conference Finals, a game that’s not even that important, can bring me to something like this.
Truly lost in the moment. Feeling not happiness, sadness, any kind of specific emotion –
Alive.
Tenny Kim 