Healthy Addictions
I grew up a basketball kid. I would play for 7 or 8 hours every day in my backyard, trying to emulate my favorite player, Dominique Wilkins. Of course, I was white and couldn’t jump very well, but that didn’t matter to me. All I knew was that I wanted to be able to play just like him.
Well, that didn’t quite happen. I mean, I was close mind you, but I didn’t quite get to the level of Dominique. I still played though. All through my twenties even, I just wanted to play some pick up ball whenever I could.
But something changed.
I don’t know what it is, but I’m tired of hoops. The whining on the court and the bickering in what I think used to be a much more entertaining game has just caused me to lose interest. Whenever I played, I found myself not caring. And trust me, those that know me understand that this is profound. I’m VERY competitive. Hell, my wife and I can’t even be on the same team in board games as a result. It’s bad.
So enter my new addiction: Tennis. Yes, tennis. The sport that most people think about as often as they do their local congress. Tennis.
Now I grew up watching tennis. I remember that I didn’t love it, and didn’t always understand what was going on, but man, my father did. He never missed a major tournament. We would go on vacation in Florida, and Wimbledon would be on the TV the entire week.
And now I find myself with the same obsession. It took a while, but now I find more joy in watching tennis than perhaps any other sports outside of college football, but that’s more a religion for me than a sport (see: unhealthy addictions). I watch all the majors, which I usually have to DVR (I think that’s been officially verb-alized now) about 6 hours a day for an entire week, which my wife doesn’t love, but I don’t miss it.
There’s something about the fact that this sport still holds it’s values and traditions to a certain standard that attracts me to it. The level of competition is high, and the gentlemen or lady-like fashion in which the players conduct themselves is like a breath of fresh air in today’s sports world.
And yeah, it’s really the only thing I get enjoyment out of playing as well. Just so fun to hit. I didn’t play for years, so I lost a lot of what might have been decent years before, but it’s coming back to me.
The sad thing is, I don’t ever watch basketball anymore. From a kid who didn’t miss ANY games, radio or TV, to an adult who’d rather paint the living room than have to endure the current state of the NBA. Kinda sad if you think about it. Or if I do, I guess.
So I guess I’ll stick to the racket and the balls, no matter how phallic that sounds.
