I didn’t think it could happen ever again- but it did. After 12 long years, I’ve finally caught the NBA fever one more time. I used to be crazy over the NBA.

I was introduced to basketball by way of trading cards, which started as a fad during my grade school years (like that deep wrinkle treatment my mom was so obsessed with). I remember back in grade 3, me and a number of my friends would sneak up and out over the heavily guarded school fence, cross rush hour traffic, and into Filbar’s along Mango Avenue. There we’d grab a handful of packs of NBA trading cards and traded them off right then and there. My idol was- yep, his Airness- Micheal Jordan.

I didn’t know anything about basketball then. I just loved how they depicted this cool dude literally defying gravity and the way the cards shimmered and glowed underneath the harsh fluorescent lights. Pretty soon, I found out that the guy wearing that number 23 jersey was famous and that I could make money selling his cards. So started my obsession of collecting Jordan cards, in the process learning about basketball.

Pretty soon I was in high school and the famous Utah Jazz-Chicago Bulls rivalry began. Needless to say, I got caught up in the thick of it. I won- and lost hundreds in bets with cousins, classmates, and even jeepney drivers. Those were the good ol’ days of basketball, where people from all walks of life were glued to their TV screens the moment the Playoffs started. Of course,  a lot of the hype surrounding the game could be attributed to Jordan. His seeming defiance of the laws of physics awed people to no end.

When his Airness suddenly went into retirement, so did the magic, the rivalry, that seemed to make fans out of ordinary folk. College life soon caught up with me and I lost all interest in basketball.

Flash forward 12 years later. The finals started last week with the Boston Celtics clashing with their bitter longtime rivals the LA Lakers. I was at home channel surfing and I happened to chance upon a game. Suddenly, that spark that I thought was lost when Mike called it quits came rushing back. I found myself cheering for the Celtics.

In school last Friday, a TV set was stationed out in the walkway. A throng of students, parents and faculty crowded round the TV. It was game 4 of the Celtics-Lakers game. Despite the heat and the sweat and the crowd, I stood there and cheered as my team won that match. And that was when it hit me- I’ve gotten my love for the game back.

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