Tamera Young of the Atlanta Dream drives against Kelly Mazzante of the Phoenix Mercury at Philips Arena on July 1.

By Lola Blue

Two weeks ago, I was caught by surprise when I was quoted (anonymously) in Sports Editor Hunt Archbold’s “Hunt’s Grunts” column as saying the Atlanta Dream’s June 18 game against the San Antonio Silver Stars was “boring.” I wasn’t misquoted, but my casual usage of that word caused me to pause, reflect and ultimately wish I could withdraw it. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that game, and in hindsight, I’d say it was anything but a bore.

Growing up, the word “bored” was a near-expletive in my house, a nails-on-a-chalkboard sort of utterance. As the daughter of a literary Dubliner and a scientist Dad, boredom really wasn’t an option for me, or conceivable to my parents, especially in a house where books mingled on almost every shelf. If one were to say, “I am bored,” the reply was often the same. “Boredom signifies a lack of intelligence. There are plenty of things to do. Read a book, sing a song, write a play.” If that didn’t whet your appetite, you could always dust one of the many bookcases throughout the house.

I spent more than a few sessions on dust duty, but over time, much like one of Pavlov’s salivating dogs, I eventually learned to navigate around this word and instead replaced it with a witty, albeit smart-alecky, reply. “Mom, I find myself with a lack of ideas at the minute,” I’d say. So I shall say now that I found that Atlanta Dream game was not boring at all. I just think I had a lack of ideas, or perhaps lacked the vision to see what was really happening on the court.

Without much exposure to the world of professional women’s basketball, my untrained eyes are more accustomed to the NBA’s fast action, dunks and Michael Jordian feats of gravitational dynamics than to the slower-paced action of women’s hoops. I guess my eyes were looking for the wrong things.

“What makes women’s basketball so palatable is that it is all about the game,” as a friend reminded me. “It is truly a team sport, and with any new team it is going to take time for these ladies to create cohesion.” In other words: While that game wasn’t the highest-flyin’ of events, what should I expect from an expansion team in their first year of play?

There are countless stories of athletes overcoming incredible odds, and I think one of the elements that make sports so appealing is the possibility that dreams might one day come to pass, that brick walls might be scaled, that the scrawny kid might one day soar to great heights. And if those walls are not scalable and the scrawny kid grows up into a gangly adult, we can still daydream and live vicariously through those athletic souls performing on their respective fields of play.

In the case of the Atlanta Dream, whose name serves as a reminder that dreams often take time to blossom, I’m grateful they didn’t win that Wednesday night, and that I got called out for my words, forcing me to reflect on the work it will take for them to become great. Losses make great fodder for even greater stories: of highlight reels and programming specials about a team who once boasted a WNBA-record losing streak, only to eventually become franchise femmes fatales routinely rocking the house.

In this city full of doubts, I posit that the Atlanta Hawks making it to the playoffs was a dream not many of us thought could become reality at the beginning of their last season. And with half their own season still left to play, there’s still plenty of time to dream this team into a season to remember. SP