FanPost

Thank You, My Dear Sister

In celebration of Tony Parker's Retirement Ceremony, allow me to share a story of how I end up rooting for TP and the Spurs until he announced his retirement and still rooting for the Spurs. I know I'm not as dedicated and knowledgeable as the others here, but I hope you could bear with me. Also I hope you could understand my grammar and cohesion.

If there is someone I would like to thank for making me root for Tony and the Spurs, it's my late sister.

My sister, who is two years younger than me, was the one who was really into watching basketball while I prefer to play or watch girly stuffs and I really do not know anything about basketball or the NBA. My awareness in basketball started around late 2003 when my sister started to watch basketball replays at night with our dad instead of sleeping. As her roommate, I was either forced to sleep alone or decide to watch with them even if I do not have any idea about it. Being a Chinese living in the Philippines, it seemed like the only replays they are showing in the local television are that of the Houston Rockets (due to Yao Ming being an Asian and he is the closest thing that we can relate ourselves to in the NBA). I was not aware of cable television back then or even the Internet even if I was around 12 or 13 years old at that time.

During those times, the only thing I knew about the Spurs was that they were the defending champions since I heard my sister kept telling my dad even if her favorite player was Steve Francis (and the Houston Rockets). I just knew that the Rockets were good until one day I heard my sister told my dad that the Spurs beat the Rockets in a game (I don't know which game and what score). That's the time my curiosity for the Spurs arise. I asked myself thinking, I know they are defending champions, but how good are really they? So one time, I learned the channel on where to watch NBA in our cable, then it just happened that the Spurs are playing (I don't know who is the opponent). For some reason it is not Timmy nor Manu that caught my eye in the game they were playing, but it was Tony. It took me watching two Spurs-related games to convince myself that I will root for Tony; after that, I told my sister that Tony Parker will be my favorite basketball player.

My sister being curious started to surf the Internet about Tony, what we saw was like a slum-book type on Tony's page where they showed his favorite colors, least favorite vegetable, etc. What stroked my sister was when she saw Tony's favorite colors which are red, black and white.

Then around July 2004, my sister told me inside our room that on my 14th birthday, all I'll be seeing is red, black and white because Tony is my favorite player. In my mind, I laughed at my sister's statement thinking there is no way that she would be able to pull that off, especially when my sister is sort of lazy to do those kinds of stuff. Also, I was thinking how in the world would she do that, is she literally going to paint the room with those colors?

On the day of my 14th birthday (October 28, 2004), my dad told me early morning that my sister passed away the night before because of dengue. After a few weeks or months, I remembered what my sister told me back then about her promise that I will be seeing red, black and white colors on my birthday. I decided to share the story with my mom and she was like telling me your sister really did it. I just then realized that she indeed kept her promise. In our Chinese culture, red symbolizes birthday while black and white symbolize death or mourning. She may not have died on the day of my birthday, but I received the devastating news on my birthday.

For some reason after my sister's death, I decided to still root for Tony and the Spurs - until now. Of course, I already did my own research about Tony and the team. Perhaps the stability of the player staying in one team helped me continue learning from other players of the team despite Tony left Spurs for the Hornets last year.

She may have died not rooting for the Spurs or any member of the Big Three, but I'm very thankful that she was my instrument in unconsciously letting me decide to root for a team that is known for it's stability and have a foundation that focuses on growth - The San Antonio Spurs.

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