Yesterday I went to the Atlanta Hawks vs. New Orleans Pelicans basketball game. It was a great game that went to overtime. Congrats to the Hawks for pulling out the win. I don’t watch sports on TV often, but I enjoy attending sporting events. The atmosphere and energy at a game are amazing, and you don’t get that at home, but that’s not what I enjoy most.

Sports teams create commonalities. People who otherwise may not have much in common share a love for their team. Sporting events bring them together. Serendipity becomes possible. People can build connections with each other as they cheer for their team. After the sporting event is over, with those connections intact, people have conduits into networks they otherwise might not have been able to penetrate.

I think of each sports team as the center of a network that attracts people from various other networks. The thing that amazes me is the number of unrelated networks sports pulls people from, bringing them together. That’s powerful, and I’m not sure if people have thought about this or comprehend it.

The conversations I had at the game yesterday reinforced this to me and crystallized why I love sporting events. I enjoy getting to know and learning from people in different networks, and sporting events are amazing for this.