It’s that moment frozen in time.

Kirk Gibson’s bat rings out in the Los Angeles evening in 1988. Tyus Edney hangs in the air on his way to the basket. Shaq leaps for an alley-oop pass from Kobe.

That moment right before something awesome happens… By Diegoestefano97 (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

It’s the 1998 NBA Finals, Michael Jordan has just pushed Bryon Russell to the ground and is gathering himself for the ultimate final shot.

I’ve been waiting for this baby for nine long months. She was due on Monday. Today is Friday. My wife’s midsection still looks like it has a huge medicine ball inside. This week has been, too, frozen in time.

At work, every beep I hear could be the phone call or text telling me that the time is now. I am Robert Horry, waiting to come off the bench at just the right time.

All day long, I’m trying to keep my head in the game while daydreaming about the very real possibility that my entire life could change in a matter of hours. I am David Tyree on the eve of Super Bowl XLII.

This waiting thing is exhausting.

“If you think this is exhausting, just wait until the baby actually comes,” a friend of mine recently said.

Yeah yeah yeah. I get it. I should count my lucky stars that I might have one more full night’s sleep before the baby is born and all the joyous and wondrous sleep-deprivation sets in. I should be thankful that I have a family support system that makes me not one bit nervous that my wife and I will have support that we need.

My contributions so far have been minimal. Started the game and for a long time since, have been sitting on the bench, cheering my teammate(s). I am AC Green circa 2000.

I have doubts. Maybe I won’t be as ready as I think. Maybe I’m Sasha Vujacic. The Machine. I hope I’m more than just a flash in the pan.

No, I’m ready.

I’m ready to come off the bench now, in crunch time — “nervous time,” as Chick Hearn used to say. Because crunch time is when the real game just begins. And I can’t wait.

For now, every day that goes by are the tenths of seconds before a Michael Jordan dunk. They are the moments when Gibson’s home run is flying through the air. Moments frozen in time.