I don't know if I blog posted about my thoughts during the Game before, but even if I have, I'll do it again. I still remember the sense of foreboding that came on the early days of the pandemic. It seemed as though things on the surface were normal, but that only made me and probably others think that things definitely were not normal, and that this invisible monster was cackling at our ignorance and indifference to thrive and ravage humanity. Everybody was in a panic, even though to this day I don't know how many people will admit they didn't know what they were doing then. As a result, sporting events were changing conditions on the fly -- going from barring fans except family to barring everyone except essential team members to, eventually, cancelling Games. For example, before the Semifinals I watched (and I think this was announced in the late morning or early afternoon), the Minnesota State High School League said that the following days' Games would be played behind closed doors. The next/Friday morning, the MSHSL announced they were cancelling the tournament altogether.
So why did I go to the Game? The re-calculating of risk was coming at break-neck speed, for everyone involved in sports. The evening before, Rudy Gobert of The Bastard New Orleans Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus and so the whole NBA season would be postponed. To many people, that was the day Everything Changed. And if I recall correctly, that/Wednesday afternoon it was revealed that Tom Hanks came down with COVID-19; for many non-sports people, that was the day Everything Changed. However, I and the MSHSL probably were intent on staging the Games, at least the Games that were going on for that day. While experts said the risks of catching this virus, especially in its ominous, mysterious early days, could cause rampant death, it still appeared to be a menace in the distance, whereas this relatively important basketball tournament was happening now. And I told my folks that I had to stay at work for overtime. In other words, we all had plans. And even in the face of a pandemic, we didn't want to change them. Well, the MSHSL and other sports leagues were going to change what they could change relatively easily, most notably preventing down large crowds. But the show must go on. And until the MSHSL reconsidered, I went ahead with my plans, too ... even though I had a feeling even back then that would be the last sporting event I would attend in person in 2020.
While watching not necessarily the Hopkins-Stillwater Game so much as Bueckers herself, I had to admit that more than half the time I was thinking to myself, "Should I even be here?" The crowd at Williams Arena wasn't big. There was no one in the upper deck. Just more than the upper half of the lower deck was empty, too. There was room to spread around, but probably because we didn't entertain the concept of "social distancing" seriously (although I don't know if we entertained COVID-19 seriously a year ago), all the fans who were there sat together, filling up the closest several rows all around The Barn's court. Because why not? You're at a Game with friends, you want to sit together. I, going to the Game without friends, sat by myself, sorta; I hung back a couple rows from the rest. I thought I established a bubble no one would penetrate, but then during the Game a couple high school dicks sat within six feet of me for no reason. I think I shot them a couple looks; they didn't leave until the first Semifinal was over.
I didn't feel sick after that night. I have signed up to give a blood sample to the National Institute of Health for an antibody sample, twice, and I tested negative both times. I dodged a bullet, even though it was possible no one in the arena had the virus. But after having the fun I insisted on having that evening, it was my turn to hold my end of the bargain I made by myself, and I accepted the world shutting down after Thursday, March 12, 2020.
Crazy year, huh?
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