sometimes life is like this: april eighteen

Hello Goodbye

Yesterday I said goodbye to something that has been an intregal part of me for a very long time- the New Orleans Hornets. I know that I was only saying goodbye to a name but to me it was a lot more.

Last year, my first ever favorite basketball player retired from the game. It was hard to see Peja leave knowing that he was the reason I used to go to basketball games with my dad. To be honest, I didn't go for any other reason than to watch him play. I began to love more than just watching him play but the thing I loved the most was that feeling of watching him shoot a three-pointer and the seconds inbetween the ball leaving his hand and hitting the net. You could feel everyone in the arena take a deep breath and hold it in, their next action uncertain. In seconds everyone would either release with a loud sigh or rise up with cheers.

Those inbetween seconds are the reason I love basketball.

That seed that was planted years and years ago by Peja and that first feeling he gave me was painted teal and purple. I know that I can get that same feeling from any player and I still do, but there is something special about the person that first made you fall in love with something. And just as I hold a special place in my heart for the man who made me love something that is such a large part of who I am, a similar special place lives for the team that buried that seed so deep.

Saying goodbye to the name is not the part that brings me sadness. It is having to say goodbye to all the millions of memories I made in The Hive, in teal and purple, with my family and friends. I am excited and I look forward to making new memories with the Pelicans but I will forever hold in my heart a very special place for the Hornets and all of the ways they taught me to love basketball.