Cuff!! Swoosh!! Swish!!

The final Buzzer sounds as the New Orleans Hornets win.

There is nothing better than winning a game through a buzzer beater three as the clock winds down. It is even better when the player who assisted that buzzer beater three is Chris Paul. 2010 was a remarkable year for me. A young boy, who only seen cable at other people’s houses witnessed his first finals in 2009, and had enough money to pick up “NBA live 09” and “NBA 10 The Inside” for Sony’s PlayStation Portable. With me not having any knowledge of the game of basketball other than the concept that the ball must go into a hoop in order to get a point, I opted to pick the coolest color and character to progress through the “pick your team” menu screen.

It was then when I first became fascinated with the game of basketball, more importantly the Hornets and Chris Paul, who to this day is still my favorite player.

Now to play my first season, I obviously picked the New York Knicks, not knowing how the other teams are, and because I lived in New York. I became familiar quickly with three players: Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, and Danilo Gallinari. Now don’t get me wrong, of course I was familiar with Kobe Bryant, and Dwight Howard, and Kevin Garnet; but I wanted to establish my own favorite player before jumping to whoever was on the commercials at the time. I ended up playing against the team I picked as “favorite team” on NBA live and realized I was having some trouble getting the win. This one bald headed (because of graphics) dude kept crossing me up and scoring without trouble.

His name was Chris Paul.

I immediately went into investigation mode, trying to find out who embarrassed me from this low seeded team. Come to find out I was looking at a MVP in the making, coming from Wake Forest College and practically averaging a double double the whole season. He was amazing to watch on YouTube, considering I had no cable at the time (and still don’t) and even more mesmerizing in the game. I immediately made up my mind to play a season as the New Orleans Hornets when the current season was over.

And that’s when I met Rasual Butler…

He wasn’t stocky, had a medium build, and was decent from the three. Along with Peja Stojakovic and Chris Paul, Rasual Butler was a force off the bench, and had enough potential for me to list him as a starter (sorry James Posey). There was something about him that made him special, and that was his defense. He was hard working, had good IQ, and always made me smile as a third option on the wing when Chris Paul or Peja was being double teamed. We made the playoffs the next season and after multiple tries (yes I’m a sore loser, the kind that will shut down the game if I losing), I finally pulled the Hornets to a championship.

NBA 10 The Inside was no different. We dominated on both sides of the court. I felt attached to the team, almost as if I was a hired personal. The more I played, the more research I conducted; filling up class books with defensive sets and substitution roster changes. I discovered that Chris Paul’s biggest strength was coming off the pick and pop combinations with Peja, or pick and roll options with Emeka Okafor and David West, so I made Butler the primary scorer off of plays that were made to attract the defensive towards the main stars.

I saw one game of the Hornets playing the Lakers in the playoffs, and never saw Rasual Butler play in that game. Time went on and I started to buy CP3 Jerseys and Shoes, and moved away from the Hornets after Chris Paul was traded to the Clippers. I lost track of Rasual, but never forgot the memories that came with me playing and believing in him from the start.

You ever get the feeling that when someone dies that is not family, you seem to hurt more than usual? It hurts even more when it’s a person you lost contact with. That’s exactly how I felt. I felt as if I didn’t spend more time with him. We lost contact with each other and I take the blame for that. So from the bottom of my heart…

I’m sorry.