9:51 p.m. Wednesday night. New Years Eve, 2008.
I am surrounded
with arms engulfing my path of vision, people pressed against
me as I try not to fall forward, No, I am not in a bar, nor club or
house party. I am standing in the media scrum surrounding Coach George
Karl as he reminisces about his coaching career thus far, from that
first W to the 900th one that was earned tonight.
On an eve where we reflect on the year that has come and gone,
after a coach has just achieved a feat he hadn't dared to imagine in
all of his wildest dreams, one of the greatest moments of my 2008 was
born.
I love this game. I love the players, plays, coaches
and hype. I love the athleticism, grace, beauty in motion, momentum,
momentum-shifters and heartbreaking-punch-you-in-the-stomach-sickness, that dull ache that can come from losing.
I want to be as close to it as I possibly can, to see it in
it's purest form. This is something George Karl has done, for these
past 14 years. It is something he is entirely grateful for and you can
see and feel the love and appreciation he has for this game.
The game that we both love.
Hearing him speak (Full transcript
here), about the path
he has taken to get to this point, sitting on an old, patterned chair
with armrests that are so low they allow him to slump with a purpose,
pouring one full cup of cola into another paper cup, you know the only
thing that truly matters to him is that he is giving his all. His
respect for basketball, the people who play it, the people who
entrust him to do his best night in and night out, it's a rarity.
It
echoes how I myself feel about this game.
While I will never lace up my shoes to take to the court (and never
have), while I won't be drawing plays on whiteboards or making
split-second decisions late into a game to prevent a game from going
into overtime, I share that love and burning desire to somehow try to
give back something to this thing that has given me the world.
George Karl is a humble man in this world of professional sports.
He talks unapologetically, he is unbelievably open, often on the
verge of rambling and yet he is perfectly elegant in his expression of
reverence towards the game.
Being able to watch a man who has just recorded win number 900 look
as in love and in awe of the same game that I love so much was one of
the coolest things I've gotten to see since I've started this whole sports writing thing. It ranks up there with talking about Barack Obama
and growing up in the south with Alex English.
Those are the moments, that as the games stack up against one
another, I cling to and cherish. The simple, subtle reminder that at
the end of the day, whether player, fan, writer, coach, we are all the
same, people who have fallen for basketball and cannot live without it.
Congratulations to Coach Karl on his coaching accomplishment in
this league, but above all else, congratulations to him for staying
true to the game and in the process giving back more than
he had ever owed.