Reflective Essay

When I walked into the stadium, I barely knew the significance of what was about to happen. I was surprised to see large crowds dressed in purple and yellow, including my older cousins. The stadium was lively, and was filled with the home team name; "Lakers." As my parents bought some snacks, I followed my cousins to our seats. We were pretty far away from the court, but I could get a full view of the court. I was excited, but I couldn't discover why. I was Five years old at the time, and I hadn't seen that many basketball games before my experience at the STAPLES Center, Los Angeles, which contributed to my strong feeling of confusion. Just as my parents returned, the pre-game show program ended, and the players entered the court. Just as number eight entered everyone cheered. I joined them, and I figured that was because he was a good player. The game started and I picked up a great deal of knowledge about the game. Everyone hustled, and worked tremendously hard to score. Whenever the Green team was at the foul line, everyone would scream at the top of their lungs. Number eight dressed in a white and yellow uniform drained several shots, he dunked over other players, he was all over the court! I later discovered this man's name was Kobe Bryant, since everyone kept cheering him on. There was a time period when everyone stopped playing, which was "half-time." I enjoyed this time greatly as well. The team mascot would run around and dance, shoot crazy shots, and the crowd would cheer him on. Cheerleaders would perform crazy stunts which surprised me. After halftime ended, the players entered the court again. The other team in the white and green uniform were being beaten badly by the Lakers. I started having pride for the Lakers, and for Bryant. He kept scoring, and performed unbelievably. Another enormous man was also performing well. Everyone cheered "Shaq! Shaq! Shaq!" when the enormous man entered the paint. He would score in some way or the other. His size was what impacted me most. I was about four feet tall at the time and he was 7'2! The team eventually went on to win the game, and everyone in the stadium roared. I enjoyed all of this as if I won the game. We all left the game, which was a disaster. The crowd of around 80,000 people all left at once, which took us a long time to reach the parking lot. My parents forgot where they left the car, so we spent another 30 minutes looking for it. Finally, we reached the car, and we were making our way back to Las Vegas. The sounds still rung in my ears, and as soon as we left, I missed the sprightly atmosphere. From that day, I've watched a great deal of basketball, and I still support Kobe Bryant and his amazing performances.