With the NBA playoffs approaching quickly, I've been thinking a lot about how I became a basketball fan. And, how I re-became a basketball fan.
I grew up in Chicago in the '90s. What kid in Chicago was not a basketball fan in the '90s? Michael Jordan. The greatest basketball player ever. It was so great watching him as a kid. I used to play basketball in my backyard all the time. I was no Michael Jordan. I really was not even that good. But that was ok because I was a kid living in Chicago. Having Michael Jordan meant we were all great basketball players!
It was one of the saddest days EVER when Michael Jordan decided to retire in his prime. Everyone knew those Bulls would have won ten straight championships if they wanted to, no question. I think the whole city of Chicago decided, if only briefly, that basketball did not matter anymore when he left that first time. He was not just the Chicago Bulls, he was Chicago.
When he came back, it was probably one of the happiest days EVER. People celebrated as if they had just won the championship again. It was amazing the grasp he had over the team, the city, the country and, really, the world. And, somehow, it never seemed as if he was gone. From the first game back, he was still Michael Jordan. He lost nothing in his baseball stint.
Then there were more championships. If he never left, it would have been eight straight but we were just happy to have him back and be winning again. Six in eight was enough for us when we got Michael Jordan. He had more in him when he retired the second time as well. That man could have won more championships than anyone else in history if he played. He could have made every record impossible to break. And that was what was so great - he did not need to. A lot of time, when comparing athletes and deciding who is the best, the records and the championships and the stats are what gives someone an edge over someone else. With him, it will never matter if his records get completely shattered, he will always be the best ever.
When Jordan retired, I was a teenage girl and I really did just stop paying attention to basketball. It did not matter anymore. No Jordan, teenage stuff to attend to, that was that.
Through the next ten years, they really did absolutely nothing. I would check every once in a while, more out of nostalgia than anything else. I moved away from Chicago after a couple years as well so I was not as close to it anymore either. But then, ten years later, Derrick Rose - hometown kid, the next star for Chicago, so much hype, was drafted.
I did not start watching again right away. I would check scores occasionally his rookie season. His sophomore season, I started checking even more frequently. I was getting excited about basketball again. I had a husband who was never a big basketball fan though and was from Michigan so he said if he was going to be a fan, it would have to be of the Pistons. I told him that was not allowed in my house! I went with it and would start trying to talk about basketball with him here and there. Then the playoffs came. The Bulls were in the playoffs, Derrick Rose got them there. I still had not watched a game because my husband was still not fully into it yet. But, game 7, the Celtics, I was DYING. He took me out that night to watch the game. The Bulls lost. I won.
I was fully invested now. We started watching some games the next season. My Pistons fan husband knew nothing about Detroit but everything about the Bulls. He converted. We were fully invested that third season and the 10-11 season we just knew was ours. It was fun watching basketball again. I loved watching Rose play. It was so mesmerizing.
That 10-11 season we were SO close and Sam and I knew, we just knew that 11-12 was the Bulls season. It was finally there, no doubt. Thibodeau was the perfect coach for that team and they finally had everything they needed with the experience. Even being in Colorado at the time, and Sam not even being from Chicago, we mourned with the city in that series against the Sixers when Derrick went down for the first time. It just seemed so unfair; this quiet, humble, hometown kid doing everything and he just did not deserve it. It is so funny that feeling, no matter what kind of situation you are in personally as a fan, you feel for these rich kids that have everything when something like that happens and feel that that is what is unfair in the world.
Derrick Rose has had a lot of ups and downs since that time with all his injuries and trying to do everything he can and do it all the right way. I still love him and I still know he gave my husband and I this commonality and that will never change either. I saw flashes of him when he was playing through this season and he can do it. I know he works and I know I want to see him back in top form. I am starting to feel the same thing for (to a much lesser extent of course) Kevin Durant.
He will be back for the playoffs this season. And maybe that will be just what Chicago needs to find that push that they have not had this season. I would like to see Derrick Rose take my basketball fandom full circle. My life seems to have come full circle recently and that was such a big part of me then when I was living in Chicago and is such a big part of me again now that I am gone and have lost a lot of connection I had to the city with my mom's passing that a double full circle year sounds good.
I grew up in Chicago in the '90s. What kid in Chicago was not a basketball fan in the '90s? Michael Jordan. The greatest basketball player ever. It was so great watching him as a kid. I used to play basketball in my backyard all the time. I was no Michael Jordan. I really was not even that good. But that was ok because I was a kid living in Chicago. Having Michael Jordan meant we were all great basketball players!
It was one of the saddest days EVER when Michael Jordan decided to retire in his prime. Everyone knew those Bulls would have won ten straight championships if they wanted to, no question. I think the whole city of Chicago decided, if only briefly, that basketball did not matter anymore when he left that first time. He was not just the Chicago Bulls, he was Chicago.
When he came back, it was probably one of the happiest days EVER. People celebrated as if they had just won the championship again. It was amazing the grasp he had over the team, the city, the country and, really, the world. And, somehow, it never seemed as if he was gone. From the first game back, he was still Michael Jordan. He lost nothing in his baseball stint.
Then there were more championships. If he never left, it would have been eight straight but we were just happy to have him back and be winning again. Six in eight was enough for us when we got Michael Jordan. He had more in him when he retired the second time as well. That man could have won more championships than anyone else in history if he played. He could have made every record impossible to break. And that was what was so great - he did not need to. A lot of time, when comparing athletes and deciding who is the best, the records and the championships and the stats are what gives someone an edge over someone else. With him, it will never matter if his records get completely shattered, he will always be the best ever.
When Jordan retired, I was a teenage girl and I really did just stop paying attention to basketball. It did not matter anymore. No Jordan, teenage stuff to attend to, that was that.
Through the next ten years, they really did absolutely nothing. I would check every once in a while, more out of nostalgia than anything else. I moved away from Chicago after a couple years as well so I was not as close to it anymore either. But then, ten years later, Derrick Rose - hometown kid, the next star for Chicago, so much hype, was drafted.
I did not start watching again right away. I would check scores occasionally his rookie season. His sophomore season, I started checking even more frequently. I was getting excited about basketball again. I had a husband who was never a big basketball fan though and was from Michigan so he said if he was going to be a fan, it would have to be of the Pistons. I told him that was not allowed in my house! I went with it and would start trying to talk about basketball with him here and there. Then the playoffs came. The Bulls were in the playoffs, Derrick Rose got them there. I still had not watched a game because my husband was still not fully into it yet. But, game 7, the Celtics, I was DYING. He took me out that night to watch the game. The Bulls lost. I won.
I was fully invested now. We started watching some games the next season. My Pistons fan husband knew nothing about Detroit but everything about the Bulls. He converted. We were fully invested that third season and the 10-11 season we just knew was ours. It was fun watching basketball again. I loved watching Rose play. It was so mesmerizing.
That 10-11 season we were SO close and Sam and I knew, we just knew that 11-12 was the Bulls season. It was finally there, no doubt. Thibodeau was the perfect coach for that team and they finally had everything they needed with the experience. Even being in Colorado at the time, and Sam not even being from Chicago, we mourned with the city in that series against the Sixers when Derrick went down for the first time. It just seemed so unfair; this quiet, humble, hometown kid doing everything and he just did not deserve it. It is so funny that feeling, no matter what kind of situation you are in personally as a fan, you feel for these rich kids that have everything when something like that happens and feel that that is what is unfair in the world.
Derrick Rose has had a lot of ups and downs since that time with all his injuries and trying to do everything he can and do it all the right way. I still love him and I still know he gave my husband and I this commonality and that will never change either. I saw flashes of him when he was playing through this season and he can do it. I know he works and I know I want to see him back in top form. I am starting to feel the same thing for (to a much lesser extent of course) Kevin Durant.
He will be back for the playoffs this season. And maybe that will be just what Chicago needs to find that push that they have not had this season. I would like to see Derrick Rose take my basketball fandom full circle. My life seems to have come full circle recently and that was such a big part of me then when I was living in Chicago and is such a big part of me again now that I am gone and have lost a lot of connection I had to the city with my mom's passing that a double full circle year sounds good.