This is the best sports highlight compilation video I've seen. And I've seen it too many times: to the point where I was singing "Dream On" in the shower for what feels like a full week straight.
So many great and memorable plays. The '89 SF earthquake.. The Play in the Big Game.. The Shot Heard Round the World... I'm a bit of a Bay Area homer.
Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth were the shit.
Words can't describe how I feel sometimes out on the court. The more I try to put the feelings into words the worse I play. If I get a big head then I just end up putting pressure on myself to try to live up to this idea of how good I should be. I become easily frustrated and the game becomes a whole lot less fun.
But when I'm out there with no expectations other than to try to pay as much attention to the game as I can for as many moments as I can, the fun plays happen automatically. I try to be with each moment so I can make the unusual appear. Without that I get stuck with the same moves and the game gets stale. But it's when I do something like swat the shit out of a 10-year-old kid on the first play of the game because I forgot that he was on my team, then apologize and pass him the ball as to say play on, or I make a crazy one handed behind the head shot (with what technically is my off "non-shooting" hand) on a guy much more athletic than me, on a team that has been winning and talking talking talking non-stop, and I look over to the sidelines and realize a lot of people were watching that play, so I start playing to them and diverging from my own reserved nature to become a "flamboyant playboy", that's what makes the game come alive for me.
Anyway, I was watching this video with my buddy recently and I've seen it a few too many times now, so it's been stuck in my head on the court (that includes the crazy 80s music and the actual often-imitated highlight plays). This is my favorite part. Charles Barkley pre-TNT was actually one of the most savage big men to ever play the game (at only 6'4" according to my childhood memories). He throws down a few of the angriest dunks I've ever seen and also beats all five defenders on one phenomenal drive to the hoop.
