IN LESS than two weeks, the 2018-2019 NBA Season opens. A good batch of rookies will try to impress, second-year players hope to improve and live up to the hype that came with them. Familiar faces in unfamiliar uniforms will have their first games with their new teams.
My age group belonged to the era where you have to agree on meeting for a date a week prior because landlines were only available for city residents. Because cellphones, electronic games and gadgets were nonexistent, our leisure times are spent outdoors playing real games. Yes, we indulged and got involved in sports and later on growing up had our favorite teams and players.
Old school types like me go for traditional teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks. I loved LA’s Showtime Era of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Byron Scott, AC Green, Michael Cooper, Kurt Rambis, and the rest. I don’t care if the Lakers lose to other teams but I badly want them to win over Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Danny Ainge, and Dennis Johnson.
But like it or not, all good things come to an end. Our hard court idols can’t outduel time and the abovementioned had long retired from the game. Basketball had evolved so much that we now see players doing jaw-dropping moves and having sick handles we can only shake our heads. Yet, for the love of the game, some chose to compete, defying accumulated mileage over the years. Two of them were top picks of the 1998 Draft and had breached 40 years but still they continue to play, although in limited minutes.
VINCE CARTER. Turning 43 in January of next year, VC in his prime flew better than Michael Jordan, also in his prime. He’s one of many exceptional players who had collected several individual awards but yet to win a league championship. Picked fifth in the 1998 Draft, VC is now on his eighth team in 21 seasons with the league. In some kind of irony, this year’s fifth pick is Trae Young, who was born three months after VC was picked. The two share a significant 1998 and they are now teammates with the Atlanta Hawks, and he will be coming off the bench in a reserve role.
DIRK NOWITZKI. Also on his 21st season, Germany’s most famous basketball import spent his entire basketball career with the Dallas Mavericks. He holds several of the franchise’s all-time records and helped the team to its first and only league championship in 2011. Picked four spots after VC, Nowitzki will be part of the bench mob. At 40 years old, he will be witness and tutor to a promising Slovenian import, Luca Doncic.
UDONIS HASLEM. Unlike Nowitzki and Carter, Haslem went undrafted in 2002 and, after playing for a year overseas, he was signed by the Miami Heat. At 38 years old, he enters into his 16th season, spending the whole of his playing career with the franchise. With the Heat, he won three NBA titles.
PAU GASOL. Also 38 years old, Pau is the San Antonio Spurs’ starting center, his fourth team in 17 seasons. Picked third by Memphis in 2001, Pau won two titles with the LA Lakers.
Carter, Nowitzki and Gasol went to multiple All-Star selections. Haslem was never an All-Star but he served the Miami franchise well.
Rounding out the senior citizens of the NBA are Kyle Korver (CLE, 37 years old), Zach Randolph (SAC, 37), Jose Calderon (DET, 37), Dwyane Wade (MIA, 36), Tony Parker (CHA, 36), and Nene Hilario (HOU, 36)./PN
