Love and Basketball..Or more like pain and basketball?

Sitting here listening to J Cole’s ‘Rags to Riches’ burning a "‘Good Vibes’ incense thinking about everyone’s favorite love story: Love and Basketball.

Typical love story huh? Except in this case Q is utterly miserable in a body he quite literally hates. Why, you ask? Because it couldn’t perform the way he wants it to when it mattered most. Physical pain can do that, you know? Have us acting out in all kinds of ways because where else can the emotions go?

I can’t help but to think about Q dunking on Monica after tearing his acl. Not saying that his pain was chronic just yet  - but let’s be honest, it was bound to become chronic with all that was going on in his life. Shall we do a recap?

Now we ALL know Q had a lot to deal with: starting off with his parents and their constant fighting... and his dad’s infidelities. Can’t forget that one. Not to mention, trying to emotionally comfort his mother, which ultimately led to his back and forth interest in Monica (wanting her when he needed support i.e. climbing in her window at night, but leaving her high and dry any other time). Sounds like a push/pull dynamic, eh?

Moving on to college and being a star basketball player at USC *fight on*: trying to balance this new found fame as a student athlete while in a relationship. How challenging is this when he never saw a healthy relationship? Super.

Fast forward to Q’s injury, a torn acl. What we see quite often in professional basketball and football. Although chronic pain wasn’t alluded to in this movie, I can only speculate and reflect on the very strong possibility. So many athletes have injuries in their backs, knees, fingers and toes, but what happens after their projected recovery time? What if an athlete is still feeling pain long after their recovery time of 2 months, which has now jumped to pain of a year? It’s chronic pain. Pain that’s persisting past recovery timing that’s buried under a boatload of emotional wounds (anxiety especially- amongst others).

P.s. If you tackle the emotions, you tackle the pain. They go hand in hand.

Chronic pain is my thing and it’s real. Better to dig up all those emotions instead of walking around bitter and angry at the world in the same way Q did.