The author with Dalas Mavericks star Luka Doncic last February at the NBA All-Star Game at the United Center in Chicago. (photo@phlboxing).
CHICAGO -- As a ruthless respiratory disease halts the NBA season into an indefinite pause, the diehards among us are relegated to watching old games and highlights on YouTube and other platforms.
The practice injects a feeling of fierce nostalgia. brightening millions of darkened souls. But watching these old clips is also sad because it reminds us of what we no longer have.
It's like sifting through the wreckage of the treasures we lost on a fire.
At age 51, I am fading slowly into the hue of middle age. Having covered the NBA since 1993, credentialed here in the U.S. since 2001, I thought I had seen it all.
Obviously, I have not.
I've lived through a couple of labor related lockouts that shortened two NBA seasons, one in 1999 and the other in 2011. But I've never seen an unseen virus bring the entire sports world helplessly unto its crying knees.
And so wait.
We reminisce.
We hope.
Of the several performers that has wowed the basketball universe this season, I miss watching watching Dallas Mavericks sensation Luka Doncic the most.
The kid, 6-foot-7 long and 218 pounds strong, averaged 28.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 8.7 assists per through 54 games when the NBA was suspended last March 12.
He was easy on the eyes. A complete package who made others around him better. Selfless at heart, he can also be selfish and take over a game when the occasion demands.
He can finish in traffic, nail a 3, and wreak havoc at mid-range. He could do it all. And he is just 21 years and 41 days old.
Imagine the potential, the possibilities.
A triple-double threat every time he steps on the floor ( he already has 14 of those gems this season), Doncic has guided the Mavericks to a 40-27 record, seventh place in the power-laden Western Conference.
So instead of seeing him elevate his greatness even more in the crucible of what would haven been the 2020 NBA playoffs beginning in mid-April, he stays at home.
Luka is just like the rest of us now. Negative for coronavirus. Positive with boredom.
It's a weird world we currently live in, wrapped in a bubble of fear, uncertainty, and economic turmoil. But the science and the scientists will eventually come up with a vaccine to stop this COVID-19 plague.
In the end, the sun will rise.
It always does.
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