Boo Boo 3

Many people enjoy watching sports, and those folks who really get into their favorite sport will participate in a variety of ways, involving their family and friends if they can do that. The thrill of the game results in a rush of cheering, laughing, and crying during the pulse of competition, wrong calls, and the nail-biting suspense of evenly matched opponents. Some people offer game time parties at their homes. Others travel far, at great expense, to see a game live, and party before and after the event.

Especially those who have put on a uniform to play their favorite sport, cherished memories come alive on game day. By tracking specific players, fans can live vicariously by sharing the hopes and triumphs of those players, and they can commiserate with them when those players’ dreams shatter by injury or scandal. I have a friend who comes from a family four generations deep in living and breathing the sport of basketball. He has told me that as a kid, he got immersed in basketball and it did not occur to him that he had a choice about playing the game. He loved it and he loves it still. Plus, he went far in the game: a high school starter shooting guard and a point guard on his college basketball team.

The first-born son in his family, my friend understood the teasing about his responsibility to produce a progeny of basketball heroes – the next generation. He has two brothers who were also given that responsibility, but my friend’s wife got pregnant first. All generations of the family buzzed about my friend and his wife, who refused the doctor’s offers to identify the gender of their child before birth, just to keep everyone on a knife-edge of suspense. Assumed as a boy, many gifts colored in blue were sent in advance of the birth.

My friend saw his newborn placed in his wife’s arms, and she glowed in that moment. Then she looked at her husband and said something memorable to him. She said, “I made a boo boo.” And, he told me that she said the same thing to him for the next two births, with Boo Boo 3, being the latest and final edition to their family. All three of those girls are beloved by their family across generations. They also happen to be great basketball players. Boo Boo 3 won a college scholarship to play the game! I love this story. Such a blessed family my friend has, and the family tradition of loving the game of basketball will pass on to the next generation. #TAG1writer