What Sports Mean to Me

To get ATB kicked off again, here's a post by new staff writer Samhitha Muralidhar. Maybe she'll inspire me to write some more on the blog, or maybe not. At the very least you dedicated readers will get some great new content from Sam:

Admittedly, I am not a sports person. Don't take this the wrong way, I enjoy a good championship game party and of course, the Mecca, the Superbowl Party. But generally, I am not interested in sports. Give me an episode of The Real Housewives of New York over The Real WifeBeaters of the NBA anyday. Sports simply don't cross my radar. But lately, I've noticed a change. With sports, my past and my memories become intertwined inexplicably.

I moved to Washington, DC this last year to go to law school. Part of being a too-busy law student includes that age old adage of time management. What does that mean? Routines. I love them! My favorite routine is my morning ritual. The first thing I do is wake up and turn on Channel 12: ESPN 2. Usually, its a commercial. Then an up-and-coming ESPN anchor will tell me all about what happened in the world of sports the day before. Then! Mike and Mike. I love these guys! The entirety of anything I know about sports comes from the fifteen minutes of ESPN2 that I manage to snag in the morning. But thats enough. Thats perfect. I get enough to understand pop culture references. I get enough to understand why instant replay was a big deal in baseball. I get enough to know that women's basketball still doesn't matter. And lately, I've gotten enough to know how in the world my law education is at all relevant to sports -- I know why Plaxico Burrerss's attorneys cry themselves to sleep.

But there's more. I don't just love the news makers and shakers. My true love is the obscure, Rudy-type players that truck it out and really reward you for caring about them. In high school, the movie The Perfect Score changed my life. An up-and-coming Darius Miles stars in this feature film about students who steal the answers to the SATs. And so it started -- Darius Miles. I think of Darius Miles and I think of high school, laughing, and two quick fist bumps on the head. Years later, when I looked him up, I was devasted to see that he suffered a career ending injury. My link to high school memories was out of the game. Or so I thought. Darius Miles is back in it with the Grizzlies now. And his most notable teammate? The Number 2 Pick in the draft my junior year in high school -- Mr. Human Victory Cigar himself -- DARKO MILICIC. Bring the memories on.