For most people born outside the United States, this is how their relationship with U.S Sports goes.

You first embrace basketball. Then you cross over to football. And finally, if you are lucky, you join the American pastime, baseball. You have to live to be 90 before you succumb to the weak pull of hockey.

I am now at the baseball level. My understanding has passed the homerun. Now I know when a curve ball is thrown and when a knuckleball is thrown. That is no small feat.

If you see me watching football, you will never know that there was a time when I was crazy about basketball. That was when Michael Jordan was playing. I used to schedule work around his games. I essentially retired when he retired.

Initially, I thought I would follow Alan Iverson, the answer. But he more or less fizzled out. I never was into Kobe, maybe not a fault of his – maybe an anti-LA thing for me. I am an East coast man.

Of recent, I have been feeling like a basketball’s deadbeat dad. I feel I have abandoned the first American sports that sustained me in those early days when American accent was even a problem.

A part of me feels sad. Like an old man that I have become, I sort of feel there is a lack of superstars in the NBA of today because I have turned my back on them. I feel like I am part of the people who bestow the superstar status and since I left it hasn’t been done.

So I am going back to the NBA -and what a great time to return to the games. From now till June, as the playoffs ensue, so is the peak of excitement in the NBA.

At the beginning of this sports season, I was receptive to supporting all the New England teams. I even envisaged the teams – Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, Boston University football team, and (I don’t remember what the hockey team is called and I don’t care to look it up), winning all their championship games.

The Red Sox won. The Patriots lost, painfully. So did Boston University. As a result, I am making a drastic decision – I am dumping the Boston Celtics even though they have the best records in the NBA. Sorry Kevin Garnett. I am dumping them not because they will not win. I am doing so because my mission in the NBA is different this time.

I want to create a superstar in the NBA again. Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers is the first that attracted my attention. If he is King, he is the king of Cleveland. More like being the King of Monaco. When placed side by side with the King of England, he is dwarfed by the enormousness of the big city. I also thought of Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets and Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs. But after careful consideration, I want my superstar to be Kobe Bryant.

Yes, he is good. Very good. Very very good. He is probably the MVP. But most importantly, he has paid his dues. I am specially talking about the sexual assault scandal he survived in 2003. It has humanized him.

Now that is the superstar that I want. Go Kobe. Go Lakers.