Hero Worship

It is April 1980. I am 22 years old. I am in Boston watching the Boston Celtics play the Philadelphia 76’s in a playoff game. My hero is Larry Bird. It is his rookie year and he has turned around the Celtic franchise to its winning ways. The Celtics lost that year but I followed Bird’s whole career. Three NBA championships and his retirement in 1992. Forty years later as I reflect on that night in Boston it is hard to believe he hasn’t played basketball for 28 years but the memories of him playing and how he played are so vivid to me to this day. Bird celebrates his birthday in December as do I and as I turn 63 this year it dawns on me that we are only one year apart. When I was a kid heroes were always much older, wiser and stronger than me but Bird and I are practically the same age. It is a weird feeling that there is essentially no age gap. As Bruce Springsteen wrote “Glory days will pass you by” but the memories are still sweet. Not sure if it is stranger now to follow athletes who are over 30 years younger than me. Times waits for no one