Viable Visions

By:
Published: October 29, 2008

As I sit down to watch the season kickoff show on TNT I find myself in a mixed wave of emotion. Coming off a seeming endless wave of negative situations in the long anticipated Saints season it seemed as though nothing could go well. Not only do we, a city who lost a whole season, lose a home game to London, but we also have a win tarnished by the aftermath of reports of water pills and violations. We see a team being lead by a shining star barely visible through the fog of dismay, injuries and confusion.

It’s been rough to be a sports fan in New Orleans.

I’ve always said fans here are the Charlie Brown of sports fans. We keep losing hope that we’re going to be allowed to kick that football, but we keep getting sweet talked back in to giving it another go. We get so close to kicking that ball, but always it seems it’s pulled away at the last second as we stumble and fall to the ground, swearing that we’ll never fall for it again….

…Until next time…

I’m the type of person where out of sight is out of mind. You could hear the faint hum of a distant buzz on the horizon, but news about the Hornets has been few and far between.

They went undefeated in the pre-season you say? You wouldn’t know it from the coverage.

There’s been a paragraph here and there talking about the different formations, but unlike the Saints there really is no coverage, and certainly no television coverage. To me, and I’m sure to many, until you can see a game on TV, the season is non-existent.

As I stated earlier I sat down to watch the debut of the NBA season. What do I see in the opening montage but Chris Paul and the New Orleans Arena full of fans buzzing like the crazy hive they are. The vision of an impending season comes rushing to mind. As the show continues you actually hear the words contender and Hornets in the same sentence, and they aren’t laughing. The same people who wouldn’t give the Hornets the time of day last year are talking up the power duo of West and Paul. Yes, the vision is getting clearer.

The first vision is that of a newly acquired charter bus, you see the bandwagon took on so much weight last season we had to upgrade, and we still have people climbing on the roof and trying to come in through the windows.  We might need a whole fleet if the trend continues.

The second vision comes as they are presenting the rings to Boston. Each player called out and handed their ring, they then group around and raise their banner to the rafters and all I can see is Chris Paul and David West on one rope with Coach Scott and Chandler on the other, the roar of a city experiencing its very first championship almost painful, as if decades of sports dreams that had long since been shattered suddenly exorcised in one shining moment.

For once this doesn’t seem like a dream. This season brings with it true hope. Hope that for once, we may finally get to experience what so many others have, and what some have experienced so much they take for granted. The experience of a championship. A championship earned by players that personify words such as character, team, determination, and dedication. Maybe, just maybe, this is the time we finally connect on that kick. Only instead of a football it’s a basketball.

 

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