HARRY POTTER, WIZARD ROYALTY OR SPORTS HERO

via laughingsquid

Game changers: Harry Potter, Muhammad Ali, O. J. Simpson.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone showed author J.K. Rowling as a sports writer.

Her narration of the games played at Hogwarts was as riveting as any slick play by play.

She showed Quidditch in the same light as Al Michaels calling the Miracle On Ice, any improbable Super Bowl victory on the last play, and the superlatives loaded on Steph Curry who plays like a witch on fire.

Rowling gives us Harry as the young phenom, the rocket armed pitcher in the bigs at eighteen, the new Sultan of Swat who changes the rules.

No first year wizard plays Seeker. Ever. But Harry did after breaking the flight rules.

Instead of punishment for the young wizard/student, he gets promoted to the Hogwarts’ version of the big leagues.

Did J.K. Rowling have sports inspiration? She had to. Here’s a couple:

Cassius Clay had the Harry Potter effect when he burst upon boxing’s heavyweight division.

After winning Olympic gold as a light heavyweight in 1960, he went pro and moved up the big guys and mowed them down.

He seemed too thin, too young, and too loud.

No one expected him to beat the champ, Sonny Liston, the same way no expected his hyper-active tactics to last.

via pinterest.com

Instead of going down as a flash in the pan, but an entertaining flash in the pan, he worked his own brand of magic.

The challenger’s speed and quickness seemed to shrink the boxing ring tighter than a pair of bike shorts.

How fast was he?

“I’m so fast I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room got dark.”

That fast.

Like a bike rider in the ring, he pedaled backwards, jabbed, changed direction, and found openings others missed.

Cassius Clay punished Liston in their first fight and knocked him in the rematch.

The man who frightened other scary men went down from a mystery punch worthy of Hogwarts wizardry.

via pinterest

It wasn’t a punch from Cassius Clay, but Muhammad Ali, another transformation in the heavyweights.

No one argues phenomena that was Ali, a big man with the lightning of a small man. He changed his sport into a strange art.

And no one argues his world wide fame.

By shrinking the boxing ring he expanded consciousness beyond all border.

Harry Potter magic?

On another field, O. J. Simpson turned college football into his own playground. The proverbial man among boys, he was the opposite of Harry Potter’s boy among older boys.

Like Ali, O. J. shrunk space. He covered a 100 yard by 50 yard field as if riding his own Nimbus 2000.

It wasn’t magic but that’s how it looked to young baby boomers who played on the same dimensions.

The junior college transfer ran USC like a boss. His later years showed he was more than half maniac, but his youth as a Man of Troy will never change.

In terms of good and bad he turned out horribly stupid, but seeing his #32 flying down the field is unforgettable.

Did J.K. Rowling use either O. J. or Ali to create her hero? She is a sports fan.

via usatoday.com

Harry Potter shows up a mystery to himself, but not his elders.

Oliver Wood saw potential and coached him up. He broke with tradition, and that’s what happens with stars.

Muhammad Ali, O. J. Simpson, and Harry Potter all found a way to dominate their games.

With proper guidance and training, they did what all athletes do.

You may not have witches and wizards on your teams, but when you all focus on a game it feels like magic.