The Biggest Sports Moment of My Life, on a Great Day in My Life

Living in Southern California, you would think that I'd have ample amount of time to attend sporting events more often, especially when Southern California offers a plethora of professional teams like the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Anaheim Ducks, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Kings, and the Los Angeles Dodgers - all within 40 minutes to an hour of driving distance between Orange County and Los Angeles.

Yet, for the 21 years of my life I spent rooting for my favorite teams like the Angels, the Ducks, and the Lakers, I had not once attended a single game in person. Sure, I attended a Clippers game when I was seven, but it was a Clippers game, hardly exciting and worth remembering at the tender age of seven. I even attended a San Antonio Spurs game against the Portland Trail Blazers when my family visited San Antonio. So how in the blazes did I first attend a Spurs game, before I ever attended a Lakers game?

Simply because it was free. Nowadays, a Lakers game costs an arm and a leg to get good seats. Then there is the perpetual and never-ending traffic and throngs of people I knew I would have to rub elbows with if I attended a game. I didn't understand why anyone would want to drop a couple hundred dollars just to sit in mediocre seats and wait in long endless lines at the concession during halftime, when they could be watching the game for free on TV with all the comforts of home within arms reach.

On April 9th, 2009, I was given the biggest opportunity a Lakers fan could ask for.

I wasn't given front row seats or even a private box to view the game. What I was given was an opportunity to see my beloved and favorite team play in person. I wasn't sitting behind a computer monitor or a television screen, trying tune out the nonsensical droning of a play-by-play announcer or a color commentator. I was actually sitting with a bunch of other die hard, loud, and rowdy fans. And I liked it.

April 9th, was one day before my 22nd birthday. The Lakers were to play the Denver Nuggets at the Staples Center and then traveling up to Portland to play the Blazers at the Rose Garden on my birthday. Of course, on my birthday, the Lakers lose, but considering I was born in Taiwan on the 10th, technically I would have been born on the 9th had I been born in the States. Thus, I celebrate and consider both days to be my birthday.

The 9th also happen to coincide on a day, I was still stuck in class. My class didn't end until 6:30 pm and even if I had tickets to the game, leaving at 6:30 pm to attend a Lakers game, which always started at 7:30 pm on weekdays, meant I would have been stuck in traffic for an agonizing two hours from Orange County to Los Angeles.

An hour before class ended, a classmate of mine surprised me with tickets to the game, knowing I was a huge Lakers fan and that it was my birthday. I will forever be grateful to this friend because she presented me with an opportunity that even my parents refused to give me. Of course, the dilemma then was should I refuse her offer or take it and ditch the remainder of class? Being the cookie cutter model student, I abhor missing class and ditching, but it was the Lakers! To see Kobe Bryant play beautiful basketball and defying gravity, how could I miss that?

And so, with a considerable amount of guilt, I accepted her generous gift. Within minutes, we were hightailing it out of class and onto the 5 freeway up to Staples Center.

The tickets? They were for seats, high up in the rafter, worth around $25 to $40. But the experience? Not to use the tired and old Visa cliche, but it was indeed, priceless.

Being in a sports arena, especially attending a game like a Lakers game, is surreal. Even from my lofty perch close to the rafters, I could see Jack Nicholson on the JumboTron, Kobe Bryant warming up for the game, Pau Gasol practicing his freethrows, all the championship banners hanging on the wall, reminding me of the game I was about to witness live and in person. Nothing beats the rush of witnessing a game in person, with no highlights to tell you the end results, with no prattling from the TV announcers telling you something pointless, except for the game unfolding before your eyes and the support of the crowd with you.

And watching the game in person, gives you a whole new appreciation for Kobe Bean Bryant. I always felt it was a huge disservice, as not only a Lakers fan, but a basketball fan, to not have seen one of the greatest basketball players alive, play basketball. Whether you like him or not, Kobe Bryant's talent is transcendent, if anyone can place their dislike of him aside, and just watch him play, the man's talent is amazing and something worth watching. The irony of it was that I should never have seen him play in person and if I ever did get the chance, he was already retired.

But on April 9th, I got my chance. I finally got to see Kobe Bryant play basketball and astound me. Watching him play on TV is one thing, but to actually see that ball arch high up into the air and hit nothing but net, it's unbelievable. You can literally feel the entire crowd suck in its collective breaths as he launches the ball, and when it swishes through the net, the crowd exhales and cheers loudly in amazement. Because even in this game, a game where Andrew Bynum returned from his second knee injury, Kobe Bryant was making unbelievable shots.

I remember watching tip off with tremendous fear and hope. Hope because Andrew Bynum was returning and fear because I can't stomach the pressure of watching a Lakers game unfold before my eyes. I wanted a blowout victory to ease my nerves, but I knew, against a team like the Nuggets, that wasn't going to be the case. It was going to be a dragged out fight. Lo and behold, the Lakers had jumped out to a 11 point lead or so in the first quarter, Andrew Bynum was playing sluggishly, and by halftime, Denver's JR Smith had tied the game with a 3 pointer - extending my agony and fear of a close game.

By the third quarter, all my worries had ceased. Andrew Bynum broke out of his sluggish start and became a beast in the third quarter, Pau Gasol was the dominating and ever consistent presence the Lakers needed. Then in the fourth quarter, Kobe Bryant took over, as he always does, when his team needed him to. Pirouetting around defenders, driving down the lane, fading away for the tough jumper, he put on a clinic that night, displaying everything in his arsenal. And while it certainly wasn't a 81 point performance, it certainly was a performance worth every penny and minute I spent watching and eating overpriced stadium food.

In the end, to make what was already a sweet birthday present sweeter, the Lakers won, 116 to 102 and I learned that attending a game in person, is about the experience. I get to say, "I saw Kobe Bryant play basketball before me." All the cons I thought would prevent from enjoying the game, actually made me enjoy the game that much more. Hearing inappropriate trash talking amongst fans, eating mediocre stadium food, was all a part of sharing the experience with my friends.

No, the Lakers didn't win the Larry O'Brien on the ninth of April and neither did Kobe Bryant shoot a ridiculous 100 percent throughout the game. But what made April 9th, the biggest sports moment of my life, was the eye-opening experience and the appreciation of being a sports fan. April 9th made me remember why I love the game so much, why it's worth once in a while, to splurge on a Lakers game, or an Angels game, or any sporting event. Yelling and cheering is liberating. Hoping and fearing when the game is on the line, is cathartic. But most important of all, win or lose, tacos or no tacos, just being a sports fan is the best roller coaster ride there is.

Since April 9th, I've tried to attend as many live sports games as I could, from small town college games to big town professional sports games. And it is my hope, that my walk down memory lane is encouragement for those that also shied away from attending sports events to give it a try. You may not like sports or perhaps the drunken crowds, but that's the charm of a sporting event isn't it? To let lose a little, laugh at our contemporaries, watch other people under pressure perform miracle plays. And even if you still feel a live sporting event just isn't worth the hassle, that's alright, at least you got a glimpse of what it was like for me, on the greatest sporting moment of my life.