The NBA is BACK!!

After being shut down almost three months, the NBA announced that it will return on July 31! Teams will play eight games to close out the regular season, then move into a full post-season. This means that the Utah Jazz have officially clinched a playoff birth! I'm so excited, not just about the good news for the Jazz, but also just having basketball back, that I decided to celebrate with some simple nail art! 

I let the City Edition Jazz jerseys be my muse as I painted a modern ombre look. To achieve this look, I used the following nail polish paints. The white polish was used as a base coat under the yellow polish. I also used the base coat/top coat combo by LA Color.

L-R: Revlon Colorstay in French Roast, Sinful Colors in Rorange, Pure Ice in Siren, Water Colors by Color Club in I Have a Sea-Cret, Pure Ice in Super Star, and New York Color in Midtown Mimosa

They lost!

When your team loses you go through a range of emotions.  Whether they lose the championship game (*cough* ), or they lose the game that would have kept them in the playoff race (*cough* ), or they can't win a game to save their lives (*cough* ) the cycle remains the same.

The first phase is pure, uninhibited anger.

If they played a particularly frustrating game, or one of great significance, or a game against a rival, this anger is often accompanied by:

Once the anger has subsided you're ready to move into the next phase.

Reasoning

You begin to make excuses for your team.  You say, "Well, if our star player hadn't gotten that paper cut before the game he would have scored more points."  Or, "If the refs hadn't been so biased, we easily could have won."

After reasoning, you realize it doesn't matter what could have happened because your team still lost.  You then move into the third phase.

Depression

The reality of the loss hits, and the sadness sinks in.  

 

You wallow, you moan, you drive your co-workers crazy, then one day you wake up and realize there's still the next season or the next game, and you're ready to move into phase four.

Acceptance

That moment, just before game time, when you realize you love your team.  Win or lose, you're their fan and you will be there to cheer for them.  Every game.

Hoop Dreams

With the tip-off to the NBA regular-season games right around the corner, and my Utah Jazz opening their season against the Oklahoma City Thunder, I thought it would be a good time to talk about my hoop dream. Several months ago, out of the blue, I had a dream about Kevin Durant.  In my dream he was over at my house and we were playing some kind of NBA video game.  As we were about to start a new game we had to pick our teams, but before picking Kevin got up to get something to drink.  He told me to pick his team for him, and after asking him who he wanted all he said was, "Anybody but Westbrook."  I now have to laugh to myself every time I see Kevin Durant as if we now share some kind of inside joke.