Blog: Playoffs

Written by: Dr. Joel Hunter

Posted on Apr 26, 2011

The Magic play tonight. That is the type of factoid I could never have spouted off a couple years ago. While my brothers have always loved sports in every form, I was born with a defect of character that gave me a complete lack of interest. For years, the men of our family would gather around the TV to watch a football game, and I would have to wait for cues from them to groan or cheer in order to jump in with agreement a fraction of a second later to say something like, “Ugghh, what a terrible fall down,” or, “Wow! What a terrific ball throw!”

I don’t know why I never cared about sports. Perhaps it was a lack of coordination in every sport I played. My parents had a rule that we had to participate in organized sports until high school and so, over the years I tried baseball, basketball, cross country, tennis, wrestling, swimming, and weight lifting. With each new sport, we were all pretty sure I was narrowing in on the one in which I would excel…we were wrong. For example, my clearest cross country memory is burning my feet by spilling my dad’s coffee all over my shoes 15 minutes before a race. In swimming, I was known only because of my refusal to wear a speedo.

But I live in Orlando now, and I have a “team” that I care about, and I am starting to understand that for which my brothers had an inherent appreciation. For a couple thousand years, huge crowds of people have gathered to watch great athletes battle in arenas. There is a love of competition and an admiration of greatness that is universal to humanity. It’s why a group of a dozen guys on a basketball team can represent a city of two million.

Yeah, we’re down 3-1 in the series, but I’ve got a good feeling about the next three games. Now that I’ve caught on to what devotees to sports have understood for years, I’ve become a loyal fan. I’m not even a fair weather fan, which I believe is usually an intermediate step. I love the Magic. And even though I won’t wear a fake beard (that is the next step in Magic fan loyalty) I’m going to cheer hard for them tonight. Final score prediction: Magic win 112-92.