The Voice

Not the show—mine … Searched for it forever … Heard it in my head—ever so faint … Muffled before it ever made it to the page. By outlines, topic sentences, and the dreaded five-paragraph format … Buried under rules that prized starting a sentence with heretofore, moreover, and thereafter … And ridiculed anyone who dared begin with And, But, Yet, or So … Yet that’s how I spoke. How we all speak—when we’re not trying to impress … So I turned to punctuation … Out of desperation … To unleash my voice—rather than control it … And it worked. Sounds like me now … But it didn’t just show up … Who shaped it? Five storytellers … Zander Hollander—snippets that hit like John Brisker’s fists. Kapow! … Jim Murray—one-liners that dropped as cleanly as Rick Barry’s granny-style free throws. Saaa-wish! … Terry Pluto—quotes that floated like David “Skywalker” Thompson, hanging in mid-air … Tom Adelman—world-building, scene-constructing. From fragments. Made the gaps sing … And my No. 1: Vin Scully—called every game with grace, style, empathy … Found the perfect words—never too many, never too few … Captured what mattered. Respected the players. Stayed true to the glass-half-full side … The final product? Raw. Unfiltered. Unforgettable … Like the ABA itself … Turns out, it was there all along—just needed punctuation. Period

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