For many people watching March Madness, Virginia was the story of the tournament. A 10-seed that played in the First Four before making it to the Sweet Sixteen. Led by Kymora Johnson, a super star who could have gone anywhere but chose to stay home and play for the school she grew up watching, believing in the vision before there was anything tangible to see.
I also loved watching Virginia’s run. For all of those reasons, plus one more. If you happened to glance at press row during UVA’s Sweet Sixteen contest with TCU, you might have noticed a reporter sometimes glancing at her phone duringthe game. That reporter was me. That’s because basketball is about far more than what is happening on the court. It’s about connection.
So yes, I was on my phone, texting during a Sweet Sixteen game. But I had a good reason: My favorite UVA fan was on the receiving end, watching on his couch in Colorado.
Growing up I was lucky. I have great parents and sisters – you’ve heard me talk about them – but I was also blessed to have extended family living just minutes down the road. Among them was my uncle Andy, someone I’ve always had a great relationship with. He took me to baseball games, told the worst jokes and never missed one of my various sporting events, from youth soccer to high school basketball. Sometimes, if I had a particularly tough game and didn’t want to talk about it, he would drive me home. No one could make me laugh and forget about my problems quite like my uncle Andy.
He also had the best stories. Among them were his adventures at the University of Virginia. He sometimes ate lunch with Ralph Sampson in the dining hall. He lived with Rick Carlise after he transferred in from the University of Maine, and was always annoyed (OK, jealous) of the fact that Carlise was good at everything. As a freshman, my uncle couldn’t wait to find out if the Virginia men’s team was going to earn a spot in the NIT, so he got out the student phone book and called Jeff Lamp – who he had never met – to find out. Lamp was “very polite,” he says.
Me, Spike and the best uncle in the world!
Watching the Virginia women’s team make its run made me nostalgic for those days. Like most kids, I spent a lot of my childhood dreaming about growing up. Wondering what I would do, where I would live and who I would be. Then, of course, when you are grown, it’s hard not to miss the things you had as a kid.
I’m lucky enough to be living the dreams I cooked up as a kid. I’m a sportswriter, my goal since age 10, and I live in Boston, the city my sisters and I always imagined we would end up in. I go home and visit my hometown in Colorado, but of course, those visits don’t happen often enough. There’s not enough time to replicate the moments I had as a kid. And even if there was, it wouldn’t be the same. That’s a hard realization to have.
But I had another as I kept one eye on Virginia and one on my phone. Things don’t have to stay the same to be special. Basketball isn’t the same for Kymora Johnson as it was when she was a kid. But she still plays with the same joy. I don’t see my uncle every day, but our connection will never change. Virginia basketball reminded me of that.