It started out as a tough day for basketball in Seattle. The front page of the Seattle Times was almost all Sonics farewell articles. Sports radio was non-stop eulogies for the lost NBA team.
My first perk up of the day was when I picked up my oldest from his day camp at the neighborhood community center. The day camp is run by the city and they have a list of key activities for each week of camp. I was looking over the list and saw that next week was Storm week. Thursday is camp day at the Key and the city has bought tickets for the kids enrolled in the day camps. That, right off the bat, made me feel like the city has mad a first step towards backing up Mayor Nickels comment that he was dedicated to making sure that the Storm do well in Key Arena.
I was still a little testy, and my kids were a bit out of control, so I ended up a half hour late to the arena while I dealt with disciplinary (time out in your room until you are ready to treat everyone with more respect, young man!) measures at home. I get to my parking garage only to find that the pay meter is broken. I decide to pay the extra dollar to park at the arena parking garage (which turns out to be the best idea I had later on that evening.) As we are walking past the east box office a familiar woman walking by smiles and says "Nice shirt!" with regards to the Perfect Storm promotion shirt I have on. I stop and ask, "Are you one of the owners?" She smiles and replies, "Yes, I'm Lisa."
I walk over to shake her had and say with, likely more emotion than I intended, "Thank you so much!" I want to say more, but I realize that I will probably start balling. I introduce her to Eamon (who rolls his eyes and pretends to be asleep) and Connor (who is running around in circles) and tell them that this is one of women who saved us from going through what the Sonics are right now. Of course, I am so emotional, that I can't remember the name of the Sonics. I am in too much denial.
Finally, though, there was the game. Someone remembered that LJ is dominant on the block and decided to get her the ball there early and often. It was a vintage Storm night with LJ dominating down low, Bird penetrating and hitting pull up jumpers from the free throw line or busting through for a layup. I even saw a few pick and pops and pick and rolls thrown in there. As one fan's "GO DEATH!" sign reminded us, the NBA may be dead in Seattle, but Basketball is alive and kicking.
It makes me want to do the happy dance...
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