There are three lasting memories for me of the 2008 National Championship Game. The first is Memphis's poor free throw shooting crippling them at the worst moment, the ultimate Achilles Heel showing up like never before. The second is the feeling throughout that we were seeing an NBA-level game being played in college. And the third, and most important, was that it was my 17th Birthday and the day I got my license. That is the way most important.
Driving is my life. Actually, that is a little too simplistic and haughty a statement to make. Driving is a large part of my life. From the day I got behind the wheel, and realized steering is a lot easier in real life than on Mario Kart. I got my license in 2008, during an oil shortage, where the price of a gallon of gas shot up to around $3.50 - $3.75 a gallon in New Jersey (NJ, for those who may not know, generally has rather cheap gas). Despite this, and despite my parents at the time paying for my gas bills, I drove a lot. I drove for no reason. Around the block, down to Philadelphia, cutting school for no reason (I had a system that there was no blowback). I drove and drove and drove.
Overtime, I became the defacto driver for our group, taking advantage of my parent's van which I started driving more or less full-time. I drove us everywhere, never honestly wanting anyone else. Not that I considered myself a better driver - to be sure, I didn't drive the fastest or craziest, but it felt peaceful. The first day I drove around the block to my heart's content, for no real reason other than enjoyment, was that day, April 7th, 2008, when Kansas beat Memphis in a game for the ages.
Like a few previous installments in this series, particularly the ones about the Villanova v. Duke game in 2009, and Super Bowl XLVII, this isn't as much about the game in mind, as the surrounding elements, but the game itself was fantastic. Kansas was my adopted team, mainly because I had picked them to win it all in 2007, and they did not, but I felt the criticisms of them were unfair - I had a soft spot for any team/coach/player that gets unfairly pinged for 'not winning the big one.'
Kansas in 2008 won the big one, for the only time up through today. It was probably their best team, they did go 30-3 heading into the tournament, but it was a loaded year where the Final 4 consisted of all four #1 seeds, including a 2-loss UNC team that was essentially the same group that would romp to the title the next year, a 1-loss Memphis team with Derek Rose, and a 3-loss UCLA team with Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love. Kansas ended up on top - and their best pro player ended up being Mario Chalmers.
What stuck out most about the game was how different it seemed from a normal college game. Both offenses seem, well, professional. The Jayhawks ran good plays that ended up with skilled front-court players getting low-post buckets. Memphis was the same, with Derrick Rose penetration feeding the rest of the team. The game slowed down in the 2nd half due to the defensive pressure being ratcheted up, but the game was the same - a more professional version of the normally spotty college game.
The Game ended because Memphis missed free throws - their big achilles heel all year, and Kansas hit the three pointer that will be christened in the college hall of fame. But this isn't about the game, it is about my best birthday because I got to watch this brilliance after I got the ability to drive freely.
Overtime, driving turned into a way of listening to podcasts, keeping up with the news, and more than anything, unwinding. Overtime, my favorite driving experience has been late night in New York, the closest thing to Mario Kart as possible. You can make aggressive moves because everyone else makes aggressive moves, and if you have to join the flow. It is a dog-eat-dog world of a little bit machismo, a little bit crazy, and where you need to keep your head on a swivel at all times.
Driving is my bloodline, my favorite pastime, and it was born on the day Mario Chalmers hit his shot, and Bill Self got his title. My love to drive was fostered in an environment of high gas prices, of needless long drives up, around, and through every part of Central New Jersey, all the while gas stayed at its highest rate in my sentient lifetime. It was not smart, but it was fun, it was memorable, and it has lasted a good 10 years; still on the road, still travelling, still driving.
