I recently went to my first professional basketball game and part of my childhood was satiated.
For as long as I can remember, I have been in love with basketball.
Actually, that statement is a lie. I can remember before the time I first learned what basketball was.
But regardless, I have loved basketball for a long time.
I started playing when I was in the fourth grade and started watching the NBA when I was in the fifth.
Back then, my favourite players were Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Charles Barkley… you know, just the best players from the nineties.
But my favourite team, oddly enough, was the Vancouver Grizzlies.
The first reason is that they had a cool logo (it was a menacingly looking Grizzly with huge paws gripping a basketball).
The second reason -and this probably played a bigger factor- is that they were my hometown team.
The Grizzlies came in with the Toronto Raptors back in 1995 when the NBA decided to expand their brand into Canada.
And basketball fans in the city were elated…until they learned that the team was horrible.
In the Vancouver Grizzlies’ entire existence, they never made it into the playoffs and never came close. The closest they came was in 2000-01 with 23 wins and 59 losses.
The team lasted six seasons in the league before relocating to Memphis.
Regardless, I was a fan.
They were bad but they were my team. They were representing the city I was living in.
And as a 10-year-old kid, I badly wanted to go to one of their games.
But I never got the chance. My family and I lived the stereotypical immigrant life and you know how that story goes -my mom and dad came over with nothing but love and had to work menial jobs to make ends meet.
We were nowhere near rich and they couldn’t afford how-ever-many-dollars tickets were back then to take me to a basketball game when they had to pay for rent and food and toys (ya know, the necessary stuff).
And as time went by, my hopes of ever going to a game dwindled.
I moved to a different city and the cost of going to a game got more and more expensive.
I would say ”one day” every year but deep down I knew that that day wasn’t coming.
It was just too expensive for me to go to.
But then late last year (maybe earlier this year), I came across an announcement on Instagram from one of my favourite actors -Andrew Phung- saying that a Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) team was coming to Calgary.
I didn’t know much about this league at the time because I’m a basketball snob and only follow the NBA.
But after going down a rabbit hole, I became a fan.
I started following the Calgary Surge on social media and watching highlights and learning about their history and their players.
Now, going to one of these games was a goal of mine. It was realistic as the games were in my city and ticket prices were reasonable because the CEBL was a young league.
I planned on going to a game next season but this past weekend, my brother-in-law got free tickets and invited me to go. I jumped at the opportunity (I mean, who wouldn’t? The tickets were free).
Anywhoo, the game was incredible.
It’s not what kid me imagined a professional game would be (because kid me wanted to go to an NBA game) but it was fun and exciting nonetheless.
There were some sick plays that I still think about and the Surge won the game. And the winning play was electric. You can’t ask for a better first-game outing.
I had a fantastic time and the experience definitely satisfied a part of me and I intend on going to more of their games in the future.
However, I still want to go to an NBA game -don’t get it twisted.
But if I were to die tomorrow, I could do so being pretty satisfied that at least I got to go to a professional basketball game while I was still breathing.
(But I don’t intend on dying tomorrow and my desire to go to an NBA game lives on…)