I can't remember the specific date or the specific moment. All I know is I was most likely in a big Philadelphia Public League gym, kind of like the one I'm sitting in right now, with my big brother Jon, known by many in the Philadelphia sports world as "Duck." It doesn't really matter when you fell in love or how but you will never forget the way that love made you feel then and makes you feel today. My brother has been covering high school sports for as long as I can remember and being almost ten years my senior, I've had the privilege of being "Duck's little sister." I know basketball means as much as it does to me because of him and I know that my start in the world of college athletics is due in large part to that love.
I stopped playing after 8th grade but basketball and sports in general have always been a major part of who I am and what I love.
Sometimes it's great to get back to the basics. To strip away all the "extraness" and spend your Friday night right where it all began, on the hardwood.
To my brother and my other dad, "Duck." Thank you for this love, it's as perfect and pure as the game.
To basketball.