Much to my chagrin, I still cannot understand what constitutes cold weather after four years in Hanover. Having spent my first 18 years in Los Angeles, my conception of a dreaded winter temperature was a morning low of 40. I always appreciated living in Southern California's Mediterranean climate, but only based on unsubstantiated conventional wisdom about the horrors of "weather." I knew I had it good, I just didn't know what the alternative might look like.
When I chose to attend Dartmouth, my inevitable bragging to peers and elders was always met with a puffed-up "better pack a jacket, dude" or "hope you know how to layer, son." So, upon arriving, I was prepared to suffer and sacrifice a few comfortable winters for an Ivy League education. Looking back on it, I had not even an abstract idea about what nature would send in my direction.
It's kind of like having never seen a certain color before, but constantly listening to people describe it to you. I guess I would have a notion of what color "X" might look like, but I still have no independent means of knowing what physical form that color would take. On the contrary, I'd also be a blank slate, adaptable to whatever definition I ultimately encounter in practice.
I started to experience an unfamiliar sensation as the New England air grew sharp and bitter in the fall, but I believed I had yet to feel the cold for which I'd been so persistently warned, as cold comes in February, not November. When winter finally arrived with sub-zero temperatures, it was tough and certainly unpleasant, but since I had no concrete expectations about what New Hampshire cold entailed, it was surprisingly easy to adjust. This was what constituted cold. Not extreme cold. Regular cold. A foreign concept turned familiar, this is just what it feels like to be cold.
Beyond the obvious association between meteorology and sports, I bring up my passive acceptance of Hanover frigidity because it is a development that most Angelenos don't have to experience. Los Angeles is its own little world that operates by its own set of rules; "So you want to go to Hollywood, act like a big shot, and do nothing? You'll fit right in." One of the privileges of Los Angeles is that, like the weather, good things never seem to end. Mediocrity is glossed over so that the stars stand out that much more and shine that much brighter. So, this week, as the Los Angeles Lakers' chance to make the playoffs turned into a toss-up with the Utah Jazz, Laker fans could only imagine one outcome, just like they can only imagine one type of weather: Kobe Bryant will lead us to the postseason.
Even with the NBA's most talented superteam ever assembled on paper, that is the Lakers have stuck with the same patented strategy they have used in must-win situations for a decade, which is to count on Kobe. On Tuesday night, the Lakers and the Jazz were tied for the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference playoffs bracket, with Utah owning the tiebreaker. The Lakers felt lucky, though. They were facing the lowly New Orleans Hornets. Unsurprisingly, given the Lakers' penchant for the dramatic, the game was unexpectedly tied heading into the fourth quarter. Coach Mike D'Antoni called the usual play: count on Kobe.
Bryant erupted for a cold-blooded 23 points in the final frame, steering the Lakers to an eight-point victory. The Jazz fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder the same night, giving the Lakers a precarious one-game cushion for the last playoff pole. The following night, the Lakers were set to play another non-playoff team, the Portland Trail Blazers. Like the evening before, a victory would require a superhuman performance from Bryant.
Kobe scored 47 points in 48 minutes in another comeback win. On the second night of a back-to-back. In his 17th season. When his team's playoff hopes were on the line. No amount of theatrically short sentences will do justice to the Black Mamba's killer instinct. And, until moving to Hanover, I didn't need to. The people of Los Angeles have come to expect this from Kobe, however irrational. When the Lakers need saving, they will turn to Kobe and he will deliver.
In Los Angeles, it's inconceivable that Kobe Bryant may face an obstacle too large to overcome, just like it's impossible to imagine the arctic sensations of the still North.
