Shaking the Lives of All

Last night, the Sixers' Dalembert delivered an amazing performance of 12 points and 21 rebounds. However those profound number of rebounds are not reason why I claim he played well; he played spectacular because he was on the court while dealing with one of the most traumatic experiences anyone can go through--death in the family (or in this case, paranoia of death).

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake killed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people while shaking the lives of everyone in this world--especially Dalembert. Unfortunately, Dalembert is unaware of whether or not his siblings and other relatives are alive.

I can't even fathom the pain he must be dealing with--it's one thing to find out that a family member died, but to not be able to contact a family member and not know whether he or she is dead/alive is just horrifying. It is not about just death but continuous paranoia and slight hope the person might be alive. Regardless of the situation, Dalembert's performance was above admirable and was truly exalting.

When companies such as Nike and Adidas or leagues such as the NBA or MLB or NFL claim that the sport is more than just a game--I never really took the phrases for what it meant. But time and time again we hear of tragedies that players go through and how they use basketball to elope the issues in their lives and try to maintain sanity.

Who can forget Derek Fisher's 2007 ESPY award nominee for Best Moment--when he ran through the tunnel of Utah's arena and won the game for the Jazz after watching his eleven-month-old daughter go through surgery for a rare eye cancer.

Fisher came and not only saved the Jazz in Game 2, nor did he only save the series as they went into the Western Conference Finals, but he did something that doesn't happen every playoff year--he showed the fans that there is a way to cope with such adversities. It is more than a basketball game, basketball was Fishers canvas to paint inspiration. Each shot was a color, each defensive stop was a brush, and the victory was the frame.

We could also look at Chris Paul when he was in high school and scored 61 points in honor of his grandfather who died by being beaten to death during a robbery. I remember seeing the video of Chris Paul in that game; he was on the free-throw line and made the first one to get to 61. Then he stopped and cried and purposely missed the next free-throw because his grandfather died at the age of 61.

Basketball was not just a sport to him but life. In this day and age, we can still see that basketball as well as any other sport is not just about the game but about the people. Just like when the Bengals dealt with Henry's death; it became a real community grief.

To me, this is what sports is all about. It's about dealing with trauma through another channel.