February 22, 2021 - From the vault - Orlando Magic @ Chicago Bulls - December 31, 2008.

I remember watching this game between semesters while at home in Indianapolis. A lazy New Year’s Eve matinee, the Bulls were at home against the Orlando Magic; and I was at home, away from my first year of law school in Des Moines, Iowa. I think I had practiced guitar right before the game. The details grow less and less clear each day.

But I remember watching this game. I remember the Bulls trailing the entire game –––– pulling close, and then falling behind again –––– pulling close, and then falling behind again ––––– pulling close, and then falling behind again. But then after a while, the Magic just ran away with it. I remember being twenty-two and wondering what would happen with my life; and feeling as though anything and everything still remained possible.

The television in the kitchen of my parents’ house was so small, and that was where I watched this game. Nine years later they’d sell the place. But I remember seeing the crowd at the United Center –––– watching people shuffle out of the arena early as the Bulls fell farther and farther behind in the fourth quarter –––– and feeling as though I might one day live in Chicago as well –––– by the time I was twenty-five, perhaps. I remember watching this game. I remember thinking that I might be at one of those games, a few years from then.