I casually walked down the stairs, and I saw something on the table. Confused at what it was, I walked closer. It was a shiny, small, white slip of paper. When I got closer, I realized it was a ticket to the Bulls game. My head exploded like a balloon. My face lit up like a light bulb because of how happy I was. I never went to a Bulls game before and I was really excited. I liked the Bulls a lot and I had a lot of Bulls clothing except I never really watched any of the games and I didn’t know many players. Either way, I wanted to thank him. So, since we was at work, I called him.
I’m sitting at the table listening to the phone ring as the inside of me is screaming with joy, jumping around, and my heart is beating faster than a tornado. ” I’m already thinking about the game. When he answered the phone, I said “Hello!? ” He said, “Hi, Happy Birthday! ” I replied, “Thanks, and thank you so much for the tickets you’re the best! ” He said, “No problem, I can’t wait! ” My birthday was on a Monday, and the game was on a Friday so all week I was telling my Dad about how happy and excited I was about going to the game. Finally the day came.
I wore my custom Bulls jersey, my Bulls pants, my Bulls sweatshirt, and my Bulls hat to the game. On the way there, I was thinking about what the stadium would be like. Before we got there, we stopped for pizza close by. When we were there, I remember talking to my Dad about what I thought the court and inside of the stadium would be like, and the players. I watched a few games on T. V, but I never actually saw the stadium or players in real life. After we ate dinner, we went to the stadium. As soon as I saw the stadium, I said, “Wow! This stadium is humongous!
There was a huge, round, tan stadium in front of my eyes. It said “UNITED CENTER” in big blue letters in the front of the stadium. I sat there staring in awe. When we got out of the car and started to go through security, I realized that the stadium was even bigger than I thought. In the security lines, tons of people were wearing shiny red and white Bulls jerseys and talking about who they thought would win. Once we got past security, we could go inside the stadium. As soon as I walked in, I felt like I was in a dream. My bones were shivering at how amazing it was. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I saw thousands of more fans in the ginormous stadium. We decided to find our seats. The entire concourse smelled like delicious cheesy nachos and warm, fresh out of the oven pizza and other great food, and it smelled amazing. It was very crowded on the concourse. We stopped to get warm nachos and ice cold soda. Then, we walked to our seats. There were thousands of red seats that looked like the same seats they have at a baseball game. The court looked very small compared to the stands, but we were up really high. The players were warming up when we got to our seats. I looked for all the players.
We looked at the huge jumbotron and there was a countdown on the screen until game time. After a while, the seats filled up and we kept waiting. By the time the clock on the jumbotron ended, the stadium was packed. There were about 20,000 people there and when I looked around, all I saw were the colors red, white, and black all over the stadium. Then, out of nowhere, the lights went off and everybody started to cheer. I didn’t know what was going on, so I just looked up at the jumbotron to see a bull on the screen. Music started playing, and the jumbotron started playing a video.
It was a ton of Bulls running across Chicago and then bursting through the Raptors’ team bus. They played the intro video and I watched the entire thing which got me even more excited.. Everybody was cheering and standing up. Then the announcer came on. “Aaaaaand now, the starting lineups, for your Chicago Bulls! ” The announcer said the players position, height, where they went to college, and their name. While the starting lineups were going on I was just thinking how cool this was because I’ve never seen anything like this before. The stadium was roaring with excitement and energy. I felt like a volcano that was about to explode.
After the lineups were announced, they announced the lineups for the Toronto Raptors and the players took the floor. There was still blasting music on. Everybody was getting in their positions for the jump ball, and people were still cheering. After the game started, the excitement sort of died down. Everybody just wanted to watch the game. It was a close game, with the lead going back and forth. We cheered whenever the Bulls scored. It was great. Towards, the end of the game, it was still close. People were cheering louder than ever and standing up and waiting for the Bulls to pull away the win.
The game ended up going into overtime with the score being 94-94. Then, overtime began. Overtime in the NBA is a 5 minute quarter. During overtime, people were still cheering but it went back to not much talking, The game was still going back and forth. Then, when there was a minute left to play, everybody starting standing up. Now, not only some people were cheering, but everybody was. Everybody was standing up. The next 50 seconds, nobody scored. Then, the score was 101-100 and the Raptors were winning with 5 seconds left, except the Bulls had the ball. The Bulls came out of their time out.
The jumbotron was telling people to make noise and people were holding up signs, and everybody was cheering like their life depended on it. Ronnie Brewer threw the ball to Taj Gibson and the clock started. 4, 3, 2… Taj Gibson shoots! Everyone gasps. But he misses. Everybody let’s out a really loud “awwwww” as they think the game is over. Just then, Luol Deng gets the rebound from the shot. Immediately, he shoots! Then the buzzer goes off and everybody is standing with their mouths open waiting to see what happens. And the ball goes in! Everybody explodes like they just won the lottery! People scream, jump up and down, and yell.
I scream, “Oh my gosh how did he do that! That was amazing! ” People were giving random people high-fives, and screaming and cheering and yelling. Me, my dad, and my brother are doing the same thing. From that moment on, Luol Deng became my favorite basketball player. This moment has shaped me because it has made me a huge Bulls fan, and it made me want to play for the Bulls when I grew up. It made me start loving basketball. I made me want to be that guy that scores the game winner at the buzzer and makes everybody happy. It made me love the NBA, the Bulls, and most importantly, basketball. That day was one of the best days of my life.