From this Friday on, every Friday at NBA247365.COM will be NBA appreciation day. What does that mean? Well, it basically means that I’ll construct a post on something about the NBA that I appreciate, and hopefully you will read and enjoy it, encouraging you to appreciate the NBA just a little bit more yourself.
I’ve chosen Friday for two reasons: first of all, Thursday is the slowest day of the NBA week. There are normally two or three games, which doesn’t leave me with much to talk about on Friday mornings. The lack of action leaves me with extra time to make another post… so Friday simply makes the most sense for me. Secondly, Friday tends to be the busiest day of the NBA week. Sunday kind of takes over later on in the season, but Friday consistently comes with a massive selection of games, two of which are normally nationally televised. I guess if I had to pick one day, Friday has always been “NBA day” to me (well, actually, every day is NBA day for me, but you get my point).
I’ll be honest with you… I have no idea what this post is actually going to be about. This idea just popped into my head and I decided to roll with it, but I don’t actually have a topic in mind. I would go with “the slam dunk” or something, but my readers from InsideHoops have probably heard more than enough of my thoughts on that subject over the years. I’m trying to come up with something interesting that I’ve never really elaborated on before……….. hmmm………
I got it! I’d like to talk about the NBA on FSN theme song. I imagine that most of you know exactly what I’m talking about, but for those of you who don’t, behold:
Oh man, it gives me the same chills every single time as a montage of my favorite NBA moments along with memories of my entranced 16-year-old self flash through my head at 1,000 miles an hour. I remember thinking this music was only for Celtics games when I was young, and then I learned that they used the same jingle for all FSN broadcasts across the Nation upon getting League Pass. I recall tuning in to watch Stromile Swift play on LP for the first time during his season with the Rockets and just feeling like “oh man, it doesn’t get any better than this… I really get to watch Stro play 82 times this year? And watch anyone else I want, too?” It was like I’d died and gone to heaven, and this music was my welcome. Stromile went on to score just six points in that game, but one of his two buckets made the highlight reel, so I was ecstatic…
…those feelings of ecstacy resulted in this…
(believe or not, that isn’t even all of them)
…and ultimately this blog, along with every single bit of content you’ve ever read on it. My love of the league was suddenly taken to a whole other level, and that song is the soundtrack that goes along with the surreal experience. From that day on, the song had a whole new significance for me. It has no words, but it really speaks to me. It says (in a very serious, inspirational, dramatic-type of voice) ”it is time…” If I wasn’t in school, I used to sit around all day killing time on NBA forums and blogs waiting for a game to come on. Some days seemed to drag on forever… but finally, I’d hear that wonderful tune coming from the television, and I knew it was time. I’d often go prepare a snack (the best days were when my mom would go out to eat with her husband and bring me back some sort of tasty dinner, which often times was this delectable spicey chicken thing), grab a bottle of IBC root beer, and plop down on the couch in the basement and become immersed in a world entirely seperate from the one I was in just five minutes before. I swear, a f@ckin’ SWAT team couldn’t have removed me from that couch between 7:00 PM and 1:00 AM (or any other time a game happened to be on) during my highschool days. I’ve skipped everything from dinner to my senior prom to sit on that couch and watch a game. When I say that I’ve lived, breathed, and eaten NBA basketball… I’m not kidding. I’m totally crazy, you say? Old news.
I’m not quite as lost in my own little NBA world as I used to be… other aspects of life have caused me to pretty much snap out of it, unfortunately… but that song still has the same meaning to me, and it takes me back to what I imagine will always be my favorite period of NBA basketball (’05-’09). A lot of team’s local broadcasts are now on some network other than FSN, so I don’t hear the tune as much as I used to, but they still play it before every Clipper game, and it still lets me know “it is time…” …to watch Blake Griffin posterize a motherf@cker! Tonight at 8:30, be there!
