Good, Old-Fashioned kiddie fun at the Dean Dome

...So of course the same day I post about awesomeness in the NBA, college basketball made sure to steal my heart right back.

In game 2 of the 2009 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Lebron James hit a buzzer-beater to win the game. It was cool in the way that all buzzer-beaters are cool, but even more fun for me was watching the replays. From several different angles, knowing what had happened, you could look at what was going on around Lebron before and during the shot: fans, teammates, coaches, opponents, etc. For, me the best angle shown in the aftermath is the one from the opposite end of the court, with Lebron's back to you. He hits the three, then turns around, mouth open wide, screaming, and extends his arm upward, fist clenched. Of course, all the fans going bonkers in the background was cool, but none of it captured me the way the look on Lebron's face did. He looks like a little kid celebrating. The way he's screaming and how wide his eyes are, he can't believe he made the shot. And he couldn't be happier. Just like all the fans that night in Quicken Loans Arena. For me, it's cool to see an athlete, a guy who is usually all business on the court, look the way that I feel when I see a buzzer beater.

So, as you might imagine, it was about 100,000,000 times cooler to see Austin Rivers smile like a 10-year-old as he turned around to jump into the arms of Andre Dawkins and be mobbed by his teammates after hitting the game-winner (two links there, a 50-second and two-minute clip. I'd recommend the two-minuter of course) at North Carolina. Rivers is usually so serious that it seems to me he's working hard to put on the persona. But last night, as time ticked down with the ball in his hands and I was screaming, "Do something!" as Seth Curry was screaming, "Go! Go!" (see? the angles after the fact are cool), Rivers hit a shot that means he will always be remembered fondly by Duke fans. And then he turned around and shouted out loud just like I did (except he was on the court and I was on a couch). Then he ran down the court fired up, turned around and smiled the biggest smile I've ever seen on his face before being mobbed by his teammates.

As Rivers fell to the floor, he extended one arm and continued smiling, as if to say, "Thank God. Yes!" It was the same way his dad and sister and Dell Curry felt, as cameras showed them jumping around out of their seats like they had won the lottery. I had already managed to scream out loud, run up the stairs, keep screaming, and then run back downstairs and rehash every second of the game with my brother on the phone.

Both the Lebron shot and the Rivers one are amazing to watch. But what made the Duke buzzer-beater last night really special is that I felt justified in my irrational love for sports and Duke basketball. For as long as I can remember watching basketball, I've had days made or ruined by the exploits of the Duke Blue Devils (and eventually the Dayton Flyers as well). I've cried more times than I'd care to admit about Duke losses (or in some cases, wins Duke shouldn't have gotten) I know it doesn't make sense. Sports shouldn't matter this much. But I can't help it; they do. And Wednesday night, it was special to see in Rivers' face that jumper mattered even more to him than it did to me.