When Sports Moments Meant Something

Illustration by Thomas Dyson

I’ll end the debate now.

Michael Jordan or Lebron James?

Michael Jordan.

Not even close.

Yes…Lebron has had an illustrious career. He’s won numerous championships. He’s received plenty of accolades. Etc. Etc.

All that is well and good.

But I advise anyone to go search on YouTube (that’s where everything is nowadays) Michael Jordan. Finals. Utah Jazz.

Play it numerous times if you must.

Case closed. No further explanation needed, right?

When I first fell in love with the game of basketball, I was a young kid shooting hoops in my backyard with a mobile basket, held up by rocks. Counting every swish of the net. When I first fell in love with basketball, I took a pass from a classmate in gym class and heaved a ball into the air…and watched it go in. Score. When I first fell in love with basketball, I watched old games with Michael Jordan and saw what everyone else saw. Greatness. Even now, I could not accurately describe how great MJ was and I don’t think anyone truly can. He could do things on the basketball court that no one could even think about doing. I mean what did Larry Bird call him, “Jesus in sneakers?”

Finals. 1998. Utah Jazz. Last shot.

A moment.

How often do those moments happen now and how often are those moments taken for granted? Or underappreciated? Or sanitized throughout social media time and time again? If Michael Jordan made that shot now, would it have the same impact? In 1998, it just solidified more of MJ’s legend.

What has happened in the social media age? Are there just a bunch of random images in your phone’s gallery? Is it even really about sports moments? It seems these days it’s about where you were. Who you sat next to. Phones have allowed us the opportunity to capture some of our life’s most memorable times, but they have also allowed us to not just feel something for what it is. Scrambling to grab your phone from your pocket minimizes what is happening. Hours later, when you’re scrolling aimlessly through your phone because you cannot sleep or the rain is pounding against your window, you barely look at those pictures you took. And if you do, you spend 80 percent of your time applying so many filters to them that the moment loses its value. Like a caricature.

A few years ago, Steph Curry became all time three-point leader in the NBA. At Madison Square Garden. The mecca of basketball. I, like everyone else that was watching, felt anticipation every time Curry went up for a shot. When it finally happened, the moment was surreal. Most fans in the crowd were recording the moment on their phones. Most had been recording since Curry took his first shot that night. Though I wanted to as well, and eventually I did take my phone out, I sat in the moment. It was like Michael Jordan’s game six. It was like the first time I fell in love with the game of basketball. It was a young kid’s dream. I still have the video on my phone. December 14, 2021. I have gone back to it plenty of times and every time I watch it, I think to myself about how lucky I was to get to see something so historic.

Michael Jordan’s flu game.

David Tyree’s catch in the Super Bowl.

Joe Montana’s pass to Dwight Clark in the 1982 NFC championship game.

The Chicago Cubs winning their 2016 World Series.

Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 game.

Kobe’s 81.

In the age of social media and instant consumption, moments like these often seem to end up in the whirlpool, never to be seen again. Turning into a wild episode of the Twilight zone and conspiracy theories run rampant. Did MJ really have the flu? Tyree’s catch was merely a stroke of luck. NBA teams don’t really play defense anymore so couldn’t anyone score 81? Numerous things are taken apart and dissected as if they could happen every day. Like it’s nothing truly memorable. But…that is a wild misconception. Because of the social media age and the instant gratification, everything is just a few clicks away. So, need for actual emotional attachment. But what is a sports fan’s life without emotion? How does it even feel to be a fan of a sports team, if you never feel joy? If you never feel disappointed? If you never feel sadness? Clicking in a moment is nothing like living it. Almost feels like a betrayal in some way. Have we gotten so far off the path that we can’t understand the gravity of things? If you had the flu, could you play a game of basketball? Probably not. If you’re anything like me, you would attempt to take a hot shower, roll yourself in a blanket and shut off your phone notifications. Maybe eat some soup (personally, I would just sleep). Could you imagine if someone asked us to play a basketball game? We would think they had lost their minds. But MJ did it. Jordan laced up his sneakers and played one of the best games of his career. Game five. 38 points. Dehydrated. Exhausted. Collapsed in his teammate, Scottie Pippen’s arms.

Iconic.

Nowadays plenty of players feel a whiff of a cough and they don’t play. Think of the magnitude of that and then think of what Michael Jordan did.

I’ll say it again.

Iconic.

A few years ago, Luka was a Dallas Maverick. Remember that? Yeah, it doesn’t even seem real now. The Mavericks were playing the Minnesota Timberwolves. In most people’s eyes, the Timberwolves had the advantage. Yeah, the Mavs had Luka and Kyrie, but they were not, largely, picked to win the series. Then, something happened. One step back three from Luka Doncic and Rudy Gobert became just a bystander in the demise of the Timberwolves that season. When that shot went in, Luka said something. We may never actually know what it is because Luka never really confirmed it, but we do know what we all saw. Luka took one look at Gobert and decided it didn’t matter how tall he was or that he was defensive player of the year. He took the shot anyway.  I remember watching Luka make that shot and I laughed out loud. I laughed, not because it showed how great of a player Luka was; I laughed because I knew he had just broken every Timberwolves fan’s heart at that moment. The place was silent. Faces were awestruck. I didn’t reach for my phone and so many fans didn’t even have their phones in view. It was what a sports moment is supposed to do. Stop us in our tracks. Of course, later, you could have gone and found it on YouTube, but nothing compares to the actual moment it happened. It added to Luka’s legend. Now when Luka Doncic is at the same opportunity in a game, don’t you hope it’s not against your team?

When people talk of Michael Jordan’s flu game or that legendary game in 1998, they add to their stance that he is the best player that ever graced a basketball court. Even discussing Lebron James in the category seems outlandish to them. I, personally, will entertain the conversation but at the same time, I stand where I stand.

Michael Jordan. Iconic. End of conversation.

While having access to the internet and social media has had its benefits, we all can recognize the negativity it brings. While so much of that is discussed at nauseum, one of the less discussed ones it the lack of appreciation for the magnitude of a moment. What makes it even more difficult is it often leads to lack of education about the history of the game. The clickbait that finds their way on sports networks are because people no longer take the time to know the history of the sport they’re watching. Saying just anyone can score 40 plus points in a game is one thing but saying that we’ve never seen anything quite like it, diminishes what Wilt did for the game or what Kobe did for the game. Saying there has never been a winner as accomplished as Tom Brady might not sound too over the top until you realize that Bill Russell won 11 championships. Knowing the history of the game is what makes moments in time have the magnitude that they are supposed to have. It’s vital. So, while finding something fast on social media has its advantages; there is still detriment.

Watching Steph Curry set the record at Madison Square Garden was one of the best things I’ve ever seen in my life. Is it nice to have it recorded on my phone? Yes. It’s also nice to have made that a second thought and not the first one. Watching the crowd cheer, watching him hug his teammates, watching his mother and father celebrate him; those were all good things I could have easily missed. Watching that shot go in and knowing that we all knew what he had just done; that was unmatched. That’s what a basketball fan lives for.

We need sports moments. Without them…we truly have nothing to root for.