Life is full of do-overs. Don’t I know it. Come Thursday morning, I’ll be a Dad for the second time over, so forgive me for looking back on the past two years before traveling the road down to babyville.

My wife and I were living in New York when we had our first daughter, Piper. It was my second season covering the Knicks and the New Jersey Nets, and three weeks after Piper was born I returned to the beat at Madison Square Garden. One of the first games back was infamous: the Knicks and Denver Nuggets fight on December 16, 2006.

In the closing seconds of that game – and with the Nuggets up mightily, Mardy Collins roughed up J.R. Smith and was issued a flagrant foul. Cooler heads looked poised to prevail, that is until Nate Robinson got in the middle. It pretty much escalated from there. Dudes wrestled and spilled onto cameramen. Carmelo Anthony threw a haymaker on Collins. Anthony backpedaled all the way to Denver’s bench. Jared Jeffries chased after Anthony, only to be slowed by a Knicks assistant coach that was tugging on his jersey – from the ground.

He never got him.

It was the “Brawl on Broadway”, “Mayhem at the Mecca” – easily a night I will never ever forget.

Heck, a fellow HOOPSWORLD writer even grabbed and hugged me he was so caught-up in the moment.

Two days later, Isiah Thomas sat before a media moshpit (note the second receding hairline from the left in the pic above) before another home game at MSG, and as I listened to Thomas drone on and “guard” his words about the brawl all I could think about was my wife and new born daughter at home. 

Not the brawl. Not Thomas. Not the job. Not the drama.

I could only think about being a first time Dad. Now I can only think about being a second time Dad. People keep telling me things will change. I believe them. But when did "change" become a bad thing?

Just as life is full of do-overs, it is equally about change.

Where the past 29 months have gone I have no idea. All I know is I’m ready to do it all over again – hopefully with a bit more know-how then the first time.

So forgive me.

Forgive me if the blog entries are a bit more sporadic over the next days and weeks.

Forgive me if I’m a bit slow to return emails and calls.

Forgive me that work and basketball are taking a backseat to life and a new little love named Stella Jane.

Forgive me for reminiscing for a minute.

But don’t worry. I’ll be back – and more blessed – to continue writing, covering the league and contributing to Beyond The Beat.

It’s time to do it all over again.

Next stop babyville.

pic via: daylife

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