…The End. Cue The Doors music. Maybe even the swirling ceiling fan reminiscent of the beginning of Apocalypse Now. Consider Jeff Bower our Francis Ford Coppola. Besides, it’s plenty hot and humid now in the Big Easy. And for Hornets fans, the NBA season is over. It’s a hard pill to swallow. All I know is that somehow, over the course of the season, I became a lot more invested in this team than I ever expected to. Somehow, they made me believe.
I attended every home game this year, and watched every televised road game, while catching a few of the rest on the internet, falling just short of catching all of them in one way or another. I screamed my throat raw in pretty much every regard, home or away, watching in a crowded bar or on my couch. I got yelled at once by a neighbor below me for jumping up and down too much during a game. A stranger next to me at a game once told me I needed anger management. It’s been emotional.
Then, somewhere along the way, ticktock6 started this blog and a passion became an obsession. Suddenly watching all the games, garnering support around town, and spending my money at the Arena to help the team weren’t enough. Suddenly I was surfing the internet compulsively, looking for stats, stories, and scoops, all while trying to keep up with tt6’s incomparable wit. And now it’s come to an end. For this season. And it hurts. It hurts bad.
It doesn’t help that I leave the season with the sincere belief that my team was more talented than the one that moved past us in the second round. Fuck, I felt they were as good as any team in the league. Really, I still do. So far, I haven’t managed to watch a third round game; this after watching part of every single Playoff game up to this point–other than the one that was simulcast with a Hornets game that I attended. I guess I don’t know how to deal with it yet. How to deal with such a surprising end. How do deal with the end at all. Or how to deal with a league that for some reason never really embraced the success story that was the Hornets.
I wondered why a lot. The country loved the story of the Saints returning to the Dome a year ago. But then again, that was a redemptory moment, one that symbolically effaced the pain and suffering of a destroyed city. I guess it’s a lot harder for the country to accept that the Hornets have done just as much, if not more, for the revival of New Orleans than the Saints, when no one even wants to acknowledge that this city is still rebuilding. America likes quick fixes and happy endings. Only it’s not that easy here.
And so it becomes about free agency and draft picks and moving on. So I guess that’s what I’ll do. But it’s obvious that I put a little too much of my soul into the team this year. I need to step back. Not that I don’t want to be a fan, or even an ardent one at that. But I need to remind myself that at the end of the day this is just a game. And for now, it’s The End.
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I’ll never look into your eyes…againCan you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need…of some…stranger’s hand
In a…desperate land
HornetsHype isn’t going anywhere. But for now, the Playoffs are over. The season is over.
The End.
Entries (RSS)
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Here’s hoping you get over that tough ending soon… : /
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:58 am
You’re not missing anything in the third round. I don’t have any personal attachment to the teams, so it’s comparable to watching junior varsity teams play: boring.
Personally, I don’t know why they counted us out either. Barring injuries, the Hornets would have been more than capable of entering the playoffs LAST year, so it’s rather distressing seeing the media counting us out throughout this year, and even still. I’ve been one of those hardcore-Hornets-fan for years now (a dying breed and seemingly endangered), and I have to say, HornetsHype truly helped establish an untapped (rabid, even) appreciation for this team that I never thought I could experience. Hailing from Dallas, I’ve never been able to really associate with other giddy Hornets fans, so for this, I tip my virtual hat to you all.
But I remember a conversation I had with a friend regarding basketball that resulted in some pretty funny one-liners and this case-in-point: “NBA players are people paid for their ability to throw balls effectively and accurately”.
It’s our emotional attachment that truly makes the game ‘fan-tastic’ (c) National Basketball Association.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 am
I watched a Hornet crawl along the edge of a straight razor towards the NBA Finals. That’s my dream. That’s my nightmare. Crawling, buzzing, along the edge of a straight… razor… and surviving to the Finals…
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Don’t be saaaaad!
I do have to say, I’ve been almost this crazy about the NHL in the past. But NOTHING COMPARES to having season tickets. This is the first time I’ve really been part of something like this. I missed 3 games out of 90+ (if you include preseason). mW missed none. We were there All. The. Time. It becomes a huge part of your life… and this week is just weird. I assume it’ll get less weird, but I almost came on here and compulsively posted a couple of random NBA YouTubes just because. And then I remembered it was only 2 days since I said I was done for at least a week. Riiiiight.
I hope we managed to get across a little of what it’s been like in the Arena this season, for those who weren’t able to be there! That was the whole idea!
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I’m still trying to figure how to get the knife thats stuck in my chest out.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Thanks mate. For the growing strong.
May 24th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
What I didn’t say is above is that I’ve had a great time helping ticktock run this blog. It’s been a lot of fun, and we’ve really liked being able to create an alternate forum for Hornets’ fans, that is part random, part emotional, and a lot not the stats you see everywhere else. (Although we compulsively surf those sites in our spare time!) And we certainly appreciate everyone who comes here and comments. You’ve made it fun.
Except for Spurs Trolls.