The end of an era

Wrote this article on 14th April while watching the two big matches that were on TV. 

As I'm writing this, Stephen Curry just hit his 400th 3-point field goal this season. The Bulls' record of 72 wins in a season is finally going to be broken after 20 years. However, that's not what this article is about. Twenty years ago, something else legendary happened - something that Sports Illustrated described as the second best of its kind. I'm talking about the NBA draft. The 1996 NBA draft is considered second best only to the 1984 draft where 'His Airness' Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, John Stockton and Hakeem Olajuwon were drafted. 
As a 90's kid in India, I started watching basketball around the year 2000, and started playing it everyday in school. A lot of people from the '96 draft were already established players by then, while some were still blooming. All my friends were already talking about the killer crossovers by this guy called Iverson and tried to emulate his moves. Some were talking about this guy called Kobe who could score over anyone. I still hadn't found my calling, but it was because of these two guys and the likes of Vince Carter that my initial love for basketball began. Soon, I found myself making jump shots and telling people that I'm going to be the next Kobe Bryant one day. Luckily for me, I realized that passing the basketball was way more fun than shooting it. That's when I saw this guy called Steve Nash, who with his insane passing abilities and unorthodox one legged runners, impressed critics and fans alike. Yet another product of the 1996 draft. He and Jason Kidd changed the way I looked at basketball. I used to wake up early every morning just to watch these guys put on a display of creative magic day after day. You had to choose one of those styles as a kid. You're either a scorer or a passer. You can't choose both. 
I just changed the channel to the other game and saw Kobe hit a 3 against the Jazz in his final game. He now has 35 points. That's what this article is about. It's about how these guys changed my life. As Kobe retires today, I think it's fair to say that the 1996 draft era comes to an end. Iverson retired a few years ago, Nash retired last year and Kobe, today. A lot of players have come and gone. A lot of records broken. These guys came into the league when Jordan was still winning titles and they had huge shoes to fill when he retired. Though Iverson was Draft pick #1, Nash and Kobe were picks #15 and # 13 respectively. I don't know if anyone would have believed that those two would be the best of their class. Though, players like LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh came in pretty soon, they were no match for the likes of Kobe, Nash, Iverson and Ray Allen. One thing that stood out about these guys was their crazy work ethic. The number of 3's Allen practiced everyday, the number of hours that the undersized point guard from Canada spent working against his back problems and the number of hours that Kobe spent in the gym, were inspiring for all teenagers in my time. I read somewhere, that despite being the best player in the league, Kobe was the first player to enter practice and the last one to leave. Watching these guys play, helped me survive school and college. Today, I may not be a great basketball player, but the things that I learnt from all of them is what helps me at work and keeps me going in life. 
I hated Kobe and the Lakers as a child. The buzzer beater during game 4 of the 2006 playoffs against the Suns was heartbreaking. I remember being very upset all day. Luckily for us, we won games 5, 6 and 7 and went on to win the series. I remember chanting "Kobe sucks" to all my friends for the entire week after that. The 2007 playoffs was my favourite because we thrashed the Lakers 4-1 with Nash dishing out 23 assists in one of the games. But every single game, these guys brought their 'A' game to the court. Not once did they come in, as the best players in the world, but rather came in as underdogs. At least Nash and the Suns did. Allen and the Supersonics too. I think I have played every installment of the EA sports NBA 2K series. I always played as the Phoenix Suns and used to trade Dirk Nowitzki and Kobe into my team. I would then continue the Nashty and Dir(k)ty partnership in my virtual dreams. I intentionally would bench Kobe and did not let him play any game so that I could humiliate him in my virtual world, and also because if he played for the Lakers, he would score a lot and I would lose to them. 
I'm changing channels now, the Warriors have hit 120 and the Grizzlies are nearing 100. I now know that the Bulls record is surely going to be broken. Meanwhile, Kobe just hit 50. I am completely torn. I don't know which channel to watch. One channel has the past, that most of us choose to cling on to, while the other is telling me how the league is going to be, henceforth. As an NBA fan, it's time to move on. I saw the Warriors record-breaking win, and then changed the channel just in time to watch Kobe hit 60 and walk out of the court with his chest held high. I hated that guy through my childhood but all I'm left with now, is respect. 
It is truly the end of an era. My dad and I were animatedly watching the games. 
Me: Kobe hit 50
Dad: No, he hit 60
Me: I was talking about field goal attempts
#OneLastKobeTaunt #KobeSucks #GoodbyeMamba #GoodbyeChildhood

Dzongri trek- Part 3

Hello. I know I have been very very poor with updating these posts on time, but here is the last and final edition of the Dzongri Trek journals. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed being there (Just kidding, you can't unless you really go there!!)

But yes, before you start reading this final edition, at least skim through the first two parts. 
Part 1: http://bratbigb.blogspot.in/2015/09/dzongri-trek-part-1.html
Part 2: http://bratbigb.blogspot.in/2015/10/dzongri-trek-part-2.html

Day 6

Woke up to light being flashed on my face. Puran tells me the sky is super clear. It's 3:45am. We left at 4:15ish on a super dark, super cold and super steep climb to the peak and the milestone. 45 minutes of huffing and puffing and WE WERE THERE!!!!! What a view. North kabru, south kabru, pandim, .... And the mighty Kanchenjunga. Took a billion pictures, screamed a lot. We had conquered what we came for. If there was rain and even today if we couldn't have seen the view point, I for one would have been very disappointed. I even planned another trip here within the next couple of years in my head. But we did it!!
Here are some breathtaking pics-

That's us at the peak.

Those colourful things that you see at the bottom were our tents in Dzongri. We scaled so high in less than an hour.

The view brought out the selfie bug in all of us.

After going back to the hut in tzongri, we ate some breakfast and quickly packed and started the steep walk back to tshoka. The weather was bad and it rained throughout. 95% of the walk was downhill and taking a look at the terrain I was so proud of myself that I actually climbed this in a day. Anyway, sliding and skidding and constantly slipping down, we reached tshoka before 1 o clock. So much relief. 12 of us sat in a bed and cracked jokes till most of us had stomachaches. We then had dinner where we ate rice with sprouts dal, aloo paneer and soya mushroom subji. I wanted to fall at our cook bhaiyya's feet. They all trekked with us all the way but each of them carried around 30kgs of supplies on them while walking. They also secretly baked a cake for Sanjay because it was his birthday. It was the most delicious cake ever. They made it with the little ingredients that they had. We cut the cake at 11:45 pm just before the day ended and went back to sleep. Tomorrow is the final day of the trek. Back to Yuksom. It is over 16 kms long and took us 2 days to trek from Yuksom to Tshoka. But a lot of it is downhill. Praying for no rains. Let's see how this goes.

Day 7

Last and final day of the trek. We woke up super early and were chit chatting. We were given pancakes and porridge for breakfast. We started walking down. Every step reminded me of human civilization. In the last 7-8 days the only thing that gave me comfort was the faces of these 12 people. But I could do with meeting more people. While walking down, suddenly we became the experts. People going up with their teams ask us how the climate was up there and how long would it take to get there. I gave confident answers as if I lived there all my life. Funny how people randomly expect you to know answers because you are in some position. Too many epiphanies on this trip. I'll spare you the details. I could sense the ending. I ran, I fell down, I picked myself up and ran again. Finally reached the restaurant and drank a bottle of water. Slowly others started getting there too. We hugged, shared victory screams, smiled and laughed that we did it. Our lives were never going to be the same again. 

Most of those smiles have a story. Everyone has their own victory. Someone gave up smoking and wanted to prove that their lungs could take it, someone wanted to push their body to new limits. As for me, I just want to say something to my 7 year old self who used to sit and watch his friends play. He had severe wheezing and asthma problem and his family had to move out of Delhi because of his health condition. Well my dear friend, you have a life time of playing basketball ahead. You will also scale a height of 4300m on foot without wheezing or breathing heavily even once. Life does get better. 

The End