When did you fall in love with basketball?

Do all remember that movie Brown Sugar? You know the one with Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan. Well besides the love story the one thing that always stuck out for me was everytime Sanaa Lathan's character gave an interview she started with the same question. "When did you fall in love with Hip-Hop?" Well I can't say that I have ever fallen in love with Hip-Hop. I like it to a point but give me R & B any day of the week and I'm there. Earlier this week while watching this movie I wondered if anyone had ever asked the same question about basketball. I mean I know they ask it to the players. It's a must right. But what about us. The every day fans that scream and holler right along with the crowds. We may never have even come close to playing at the level where any school would look at us but we are still die hard fans through and through. While I can't tell you when and where I feel in love with football. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I did. I can tell you that I love the Dallas Cowboys most of all and don't care that the last won super bowl was 1995. I still believe every year we can and will go to the super bowl. No matter how good or bad we are. (I would also like to say that it was a catch. Go Dez!). But I can tell you with great conviction that I know exactly when I fell in love with Basketball. It was in March of 1998. I was sitting at home with my 14 month old son six months pregnant with my second son and on bed rest. My husband asked that I do one thing for him record the games for that day. This was way back in the day when there was no DVR. I'm sure Tivo was out but it wasn't something we had. So I had to do it old school style, the VCR. There would be no watching anything else, going to the bathroom or taking breaks, and oh yeah because he didn't know how long the games would be I had to be sure and take out as many commercials as possible. So yes I had to sit there and watch every single play. I'm sure when he first asked me I pitched a fit. Come on I was pregnant with a toddler I NEEDED to be able to put some cartoons on right. Only not this day. My son and I sat down to watch an all day marathon of nothing but basketball. I was a fan of basketball sure. I had seen the Lakers play, I screamed for them and you couldn't tell me there was a better team. I hated the Celtics because as a Laker's fan that's what your supposed to do its some where in our DNA I'm sure. It might even be on the contract when you agree to being a Lakers Fan for Life which I know I signed at some point. Even through all this I can tell you I liked it a lot but love not quite. But real actual fall down screaming, heart-hammering, oh God please go in, please go in, don't foul love of basketball was watching March Madness. Anyone who watches it knows what I mean. The buzzer beaters the double or sometimes triple overtimes. Every minute that has you sitting on the end of your seat crossing your heart even if you aren't catholic. Those boys put their hearts on the line every single time they get on the court. They fight, they play they give it their all. Every game. I see it. I feel their pain in every upset. I feel their joy in every victory. Their sportmanship is tremendous. They play the game every play down to the last. Even when they are down by too many points to ever come back they never, ever quit. They finish with conviction and poise. They make me proud and I don't even know them. My hat goes off to all the parents and coaches of every player. I will never know how hard it is for them carrying the weight of their teams, school, city coaches, family and yes me the unnamed fan. They hold their heads up and they finish the fight. Some of them knowing this may be the last time they will ever pick up a basketball and some of them with hopes of moving on to the pinnacle of their dreams the NBA. They leave it on the floor. They take ownership for every lose. While wishing the other teams well on their journey to the next round. These players carry themselves better than some of the professionals that make the big bucks. I fell freely. I wasn't pressured or even asked. There was never a promise of easy roads or no upsets. There was never even a promise that I would see the same team for one year too the next. There was never even a promise of a ring at the end. But still I'm here every year in love knowing my love will never be returned and I'm super ok with it. So yes I fell in love with basketball during March Madness in 1998 and I'm pretty sure that's when my son did too! So my final question to you is when did you fall in love with basketball?