It's
a sport thing
Saturday 22 July 2000
It's film festival time in Wellington right now. In past years we've booked 15 films to go see in the two-week period it's on. This year, one. That's what babies do to ya, kiddos!
We went and saw it last night — The Filth and the Fury, a documentary on the Sex Pistols. It was wonderful. It focused on the band's perspective, and had interviews with them now, intercut with concert footage, archival footage from England in the late '70s, and interviews they'd done at the time. The context of the environment they formed in was shown vividly to us.
So many things stick in my mind from the film. Deb and I have been singing “God Save the Queen” all day. They had footage from a concert the Sex Pistols gave on Christmas Day 1997 to the kids of striking mine workers. They handed out cake and food to the kids before playing, and all these 8-12 year olds were dancing around as the band played, covering Johnny Rotten in cream and cake and he sang and smiled with them. And hearing “Anarchy in the UK” still makes the hairs rise up on the back of my neck. If you're at all interested in music and get the chance, see this movie.
Deb often asks me why I love playing basketball so much. I think she just plains struggles to understand why it means so much to me. It's so many things.
I love the feel of a basketball in my hands, twirling it around, then bouncing it on the floor, hearing the thud it makes as it bounces and the touch of it against my hand. I love when you shoot a perfect shot, and it arches into the net, falling sweetly into the bottom of the net, making a soft swishing sound. Some days I can almost will it into the basket. My legs jump and my arm crooks at the elbow, cradling the ball in one palm and balancing it with the other hand before shooting it, and following through with my arm and snapping my wrist and watching it arch perfectly into the net.
I love the nervous feeling I get before a game, and then the competitive spirit that comes over me out on the court. I love matching up against other teams and leading our team. I yell at the players and the refs and myself. I rarely play as I want to, but sometimes I pull off moves that seem almost magical. Sometimes I read the game better than anyone on the court. I love being part of a team, and watching it grow and feeling frustration and joy at the progress.
In the off-season I think about not playing next year, but once in the middle of a season, I can't imagine not playing. I divide the week up between practice and games. So many days till practice, then only two more sleeps until we play.
It's hard to explain all that to someone who doesn't play, or who hasn't really played any sports. It's a sport thing.
I bet Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones and Paul Cook would understand though.
And if you hadn't figured it out by now, we won our game today!