Five Here Now

Photo Credit: Ethan Hyman, Raleigh News & Observer. 

The Wolfpack beat St. Augustine’s during a rainy Election night, 87-76. Gavin, Ben, Courtney and Bryan put on scoring exhibitions and Engin started – awesome. I was jazzed to see the guys playing hard, playing together and quickly bouncing back from mistakes and miscues. That’s what this time of year is . . . learning on the court. Seeing Atsür running the floor was great. He took command right from the pre-game drills, and when he was on the court there was no doubt who was the boss.

The only thing that downgraded my stellar North Carolina State basketball experience was listening to the people behind me. If there were visual aids next to the word "fogey" in the dictionary, the three alumni behind us would qualify. Every shot, every pass, every step was another reason to blow negative sparks all over. By the half, I thought I was going to lose it, and was considering shoving one of them in the knee with my ballpoint, but then I had a revelation. So bear with me while I rant a bit. Because the five guys pictured here deserve more than the following pearls of wisdom:

• "This is an inexperienced team. They’ll be lucky to finish last."
• "This is a young team. They’ll do the best they can."
• "This is Sidney’s first year. Nobody expects anything."
• "NIT."

It never ceases to amaze me why people put down perfectly good money to have a miserable time. The entire game, these people were unhappy. If Gavin made a pass, he should have kept the ball. If he drove, he was hot-dogging. If Ben missed a rebound, we were destined to lose to Carolina by 30 points. If Shuler snuck by Horner, Dennis isn’t strong enough for the ACC. I wish I was kidding about this kind of garbage. Sadly, I’m not. At one point they even complained that there was "no atmosphere here." Not once did I hear this trio clap, cheer or yell. I got louder just to friggin’ drown them out!

Be here now. It’s a simple sentiment from Eastern spirituality. It’s about the search for an agile mind. It’s about living in the present and recognizing what actually is. It’s about seeing and being aware instead of labeling, postulating, presuming, or dreaming.

The human mind is built to assemble information on very little data. That’s what makes us so adept at survival. From very little data, we can piece together plans, get ourselves out of the worst messes, and figure out ways to hope when there is nothing but despair. This is the singular human gift. It is also a singular curse, because it makes us narrow, unfocused, desparate, and completely unable to recognize the truth when we see it. While it may seem like a stretch to compare a bit of budh to basketball, bear with me.

I buy season tickets because I want to see a season of basketball. Our season of basketball depends upon the five guys who start the game: Atsür, Grant, McCauley, Costner and Fells. This is my team. There are other teams, but this is the team I chose. This is the team they chose. February will take care of itself. Today is Wednesday and they have to take care of today. Friday is Friday and they have to take care of that on Friday. When they step out on that court again, they have to decide what they want at that moment, and then they have to execute it, moment to moment. They are the ones spending hours, days, years of their lives preparing for these moments. They should have them. And we should have them too. We should watch, cheer, hope, and cheer some more. Not postulate, speculate, downgrade, and give up.

I left that game happy that I paid attention to these five guys and the rest of the guys who also gave what they had for the now: the time they were on that court. I’m pretty sure the people behind me will be waking up in about twenty years, wishing they had more time to live in the now, when they could have been cheering for the guys playing in the now. Instead of dreaming up and breaking down their million possible futures.

Tags: wolfpack basketball, north carolina state, engin atsur, gavin grant, ben mccauley, brandon costner, courtney fells