Soccer and Hope Solo paved the way for my aversion to Basketball


    My love for soccer started in 1997. Jose Thomas, my brothers best friend till this day, was a soccer fanatic as a naturalized Spaniard and talented soccer Center Back for our prestigious Belen Soccer Squad. Jose lived and breathed the sport of soccer. In the summer of 1997 he came to my house and introduced me to the FIFA video game on the Playstation. Jose is an unrelenting competitor and his motives where to embarrass my brother in a video game that he obviously had supreme confidence in. Luckily, Jose’s bravado required an audience and my attendance was not only requested but insisted. For the first time in my life my focus for the sport of soccer had gravitas. Jose’s confidence was justified, he defeated my brother with ease. However, he birthed in me an understanding of the sport while observing a video game. So I leveraged his unwavering confidence, and I challenged him in a video game I have never played of a sport I did not understand. I dismantled him 4-0 in what I can only describe as a manifestation of unforeseen tactical understanding. My love for Soccer was born.

    My understanding of the sport manifested into a top 300 player in the world in Fifa soccer. I can confidently conclude that my success was less about controller precision than tactical understanding. I realize that a video game is not an accurate barometer to reality, but it was a prevailing factor to my love of the sport. 

    Fast forward to 2011, in probably the greatest soccer match I have ever had rooting interest in, Brazil vs USA in the Women's World Cup. USA took an early 1-0 lead when Brazil was granted a PK. Hope Solo in a magnificent display of athleticism and anticipation successfully stopped Marta’s PK attempt. However, Solo was carded for moving forward on her approach and the PK was retaken to tie the game. This historic game went to extra time where Brazil took the lead and in probably the most iconic American display of excellence, with mere seconds left in extra time, Rapinoe to Wamback tied the game to push this epic match to PK’s. 

    Once again Hope Solo took center stage, and once again she displayed her elite athleticism to majestically reject a powerful shot from a talented opponent with full extension and elite competitive spirit. USA defeated Brazil in the greatest soccer match I have ever seen. Hope Solo educated me on the competitive nature of sports.

    I am sure you are asking how any of this is related to Basketball. Hope Solo revealed the glory of defying the odds by stopping 2 PK'a and refusing to be discouraged when one improbable stop was disqualified. It dawned on me that Basketball is the only team sport that can score points without the opponent contesting. No matter the percentage of success to stop a PK the opportunity for glory in the image of athletic greatness is always granted. In Basketball that opportunity is non existent, and points are rewarded while failure is a product of weakness not an expression of an individual defying the odds.

    Soccer and Hope Solo ultimately ruined my respect for basketball and I have never recovered from my disdain curtesy of Hope Solo’s magnificent display of  statistical defiance.

 

  

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