Keeping things in perspective

Today, I saw something that changed the way I look at sports. Not only did it increase my understanding of why sports are so important, but it also further validated my decision to continue my basketball career in college.

I read a tweet that Dan Dakich, an ESPN college basketball analyst, talk-show host, and former Indiana University basketball player, sent out a few days ago. It contained a link to a YouTube video that someone named Kimberly had posted in February.

The video was essentially an audio clip (with pictures) of Kimberly’s call into Dakich’s radio show that February. It was an extremely emotional call.

Kimberly explained how she was thirteen years old when Dakich and the Hoosiers faced Michael Jordan and North Carolina in the 1984 East Regional Semifinal game of the NCAA Tournament. She recalls watching the game with her parents and seeing Dakich shut down Michael Jordan like no one had ever done before. Her father, an Indiana fanatic, was thrilled.

She was not allowed to stay up to watch the whole game, so she went to bed, listening to her father cheer Dakich and the Hoosiers on in joy. Kimberly’s father died three hours later. That joyous sound was the last that Kimberly would hear of her father.

The call was emotional, for Dakich and Kimberly. Kimberly said, “that game meant as much to me as it did to you,” and I wouldn’t doubt it for a second. Then, Dakich referred to something that his former Indiana University coach Bob Knight always told his players. Knight would say, “You don’t know how much Indiana basketball means to people you don’t even know.”

This hit home to me because I play basketball. I realize that Indiana basketball and Ohio Northern basketball are two completely different atmospheres, levels and types, but it is still relevant. There are people, like the Joe and Margaret Campoli, who have put their livelihoods into Ohio Northern basketball.

Listening to that call made me so glad that I decided to play in college. It made me think about the real reasons why people love sports, and how important it is that the athletes take things seriously; because to a certain extent, everything that we do affects someone.

There are certain things that you think about when you don’t think you have anything left in the tank. These things motivate you to push through whatever you think might be difficult in the present. This call is now one of those things for me.

This is another classic example of how ‘sports’ aren’t just ‘sports.’ If Dakich hadn’t worked his tail off to shut Michael Jordan down that night, maybe Kimberly’s father would have had different emotions in his last hours. Maybe Kimberly would have pictured her father slightly differently.

Thank goodness I chose to play basketball at Ohio Northern. There are so many positives that sports bring to one’s life, and one of them is perspective; I think I gained a little more of that today.