New Orleans       Jet-lagged or not, my son and I dragged ourselves down to the Smoothie King Arena to see an NBA game between our New Orleans Pelicans and the legendary Golden State Warriors, formerly from Oakland, and now Santa Clara in the California Bay Area.  The NBA has a newish marketing and promo scheme where in the early part of a new season, teams play for the NBA Cup or some such.  It’s meaningless in terms of the standings or anything else, but it does trigger some level of intensity from the players for whom competition is always an adrenalin trigger that they can’t resist.

I wasn’t there on a hate watch.  I’ve rooted for the Warriors in the past when they were the last team standing for a championship.  Several times I was lucky enough to be in the Bay Area, watching with old friends and comrades, Gary Delgado and Drummond Pike, in their living rooms.  I’ve seen them in New Orleans before as well.  Once we played one of our greatest games and lost only by a hair, miraculously when they were at the height of their fame.  Other times, not so much.

Our Pelicans are in rough shape this season.  At different times, four of our five starters have been out with injuries, and even now six of our main rotation are still out.  We’ve only won four games thus far and in the powerful Western Conference, we are only one removed from the bottom in the rankings.  Nonetheless, we were up for the game.  Our team puts on a maximum effort, and because of this cup thing, the Warriors would likely not be resting the legendary Steph Curry, as they have sometimes done in New Orleans.

Even though we are ride-and-die Pelicans’ people, we love the game and cherish our time watching Steph Curry.  I have been a fan since he was a college player at Davidson and took them on a deep run in the NCAA finals.  Having laughed once at “Friends” and watched Curry’s heroics at the Olympics finals more than once, both come up way too often on Reels thanks to the blankety-blank Facebook algorithm.  Curry deserves to be acknowledged as the best shooter in the history of the NBA.  Years ago, I was able to watch Pistol Pete Maravich play for New Orleans in the Superdome, and he was lockdown amazing, but Curry as a pure shooter from outside and on the drive is incomparable.  In New Orleans, we respect that kind of greatness, whether on our team or from an opponent.  I was pleased to read several years ago that Curry loves coming to New Orleans because we do the best job of getting his favorite popcorn there for him before the game.  That says a lot about both Curry and New Orleans, sports fans.  I watched him warm up with interest.  He missed some, but mainly he was nothing but net from all points of the court.

Despite our depleted squad, we played well.  We were leading at the half by one point.  We had a chance to the end, finally losing by four points.  Curry’s stat line was OK, but somewhat mediocre from his standpoint probably.  Solid, but not spectacular.  He logged only 19 points, but somehow had 7 assists and 7 rebounds, making a contribution on all phases of the game.

Here’s what really interested me.  He made 6 of his 13 field goals and was 4 of 7 on 3-point attempts.  Two of his shots from behind the arc were airballs, and I don’t mean they were close calls to the basket that missed.  They missed by a mile, either short or wide of the mark, even as some of the 3’s that he made were jaw droppers.  If you’ve ever played basketball, there is nothing more embarrassing than an airball.  Our best 3-point shooters, Trey Murphy and Jordan Hawkins each threw up a brick as well at the game.  You kind of expect that once in a while, but Steph Curry?  No way, you’re thinking.  Not the great Curry.  How could that happen to him.  On the other hand, our star, Brandon Ingram, made a couple of 3s, but also seemed to be in position for several more, but instead passed on the shot and went with a floater or a drive to the basket and a pull-up.

There’s a lesson here from Curry for basketball players, like our hero Ingram, other players, and, just maybe, for life.  You have to keep taking the shot.  If you don’t take it, you can’t make it.  Every once in a while you might have the red ass or stink up the room, but that’s the price you pay for shooting more successfully than anyone has ever done before.  If you’re still with me, you won’t be surprised to hear me say, that’s true for organizing, and for the times we live in today.