As I sit here digesting about three plates of food and a few more beers, I'm going to relive some moments from the best game I've ever attended - a November NBA game between the Wizards and the Bobcats where Gilbert Arenas was out with an injury!
-It was actually a great game. The Bobcats lost it in OT, 114-111.
-Raymond Felton took over the game in the 4th quarter and OT for the Bobcats. His ability to get penentration (...heheh) is really uncanny, and he really takes it to the hole hard (...heheh.. what?). He's definitely the go-to guy on this team when the game is on the line, and I believe he'll be an all-star in this league a few times when it's all said and done.
-At tip-off there were MAYBE 6,000 people there. It's gonna take a while for Charlotte to be an NBA city again after the whole Hornets fiasco, but dude, we can do better than 6,000. That said, the crowd was actually somewhat into it at the end there, everyone around me seemed pretty knowledgeable. I guess that's inevitable in North Carolina, which truly is a basketball hotbed. I believe that the Bobcats really are making all the right moves as far as making this thing work - they've come into a shitty situation and really are trying to make the best of it. For the most part, the games are affordable (for the nosebleeds anyway), fun, and very very family friendly. Eventually if they just keep this up and the team starts to win some games, they'll get their support.
-We had club seats, and I didn't have to pay for them! Hooray full bar!
-That said, $7.25 for a Bud Light. Fucking communists.
-The Bobcats P.A. announcer is absolutely hilarious. He tries to get everyone fired up ("LETS GO CATS!!" "DEEEE-FENSE!"), but everyone in the stands sorta knows it's lame, so they kinda ignore it. It's actually pretty awkward.
-The Bobcat's intro video is a montage showing Primoz Brezec, Walter Hermann, and the crew making hustle plays, with words built in like TEAMWORK!!! INSPIRATION!!! HARD WORK!!! DEDICATION!!!, etc. This really made for some great running jokes during the night, like when Ryan Hollins would brick a 5 footer and someone in our section would yell "TEAMWORK!! FUNDAMENTALS!! IT'S BOBCATS BASKETBALL!!"
-The halftime show was people dressed up like turkeys and pilgrims getting slingshotted on a little rolly cart thing into 10-foot tall bowling pins. It was the greatest thing I've ever seen. I love this country.
-The mascot is named Rufus Lynx, which I totally thought was retarded and lame until I realized that the genus and species for the bobcat is actually "lynx rufus" (thanks Wikipedia!). Now I just think it's even more retarded and lame.
Well done Rufus Lynx, well done.
-Play of the night was when the Wizards had a fast break and Gerald Wallace came out of nowhere to get a monster block. Now it was 100% goaltending, but I'm convinced the refs didn't call it because it was also 100% sweet. We then pushed it up the court and Matt Carroll drained a 3. Wallace went down REAL hard on the play and was on the ground for a while. I was convinced he was out for the year, but he actually came back in the second half after suffering a "minor rib contusion." Don't ask me what the fuck that means, but it sounds painful.
-Without Arenas, the Wiz are leaning reeeally heavily on Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison. Butler had 39 and nobody could even hope to stop him. He's good at basketball. That said, the Wiz have no legit big man and if they're lucky enough to make the playoffs, they won't win a game.
-My buddy Pat and I were convinced the guy on the end of the Wizard's bench was Chris Duhon, but it turns out it was actually just the Bobcats towel guy. Damn.
-Jeff McInnis is definitely the annoying guy on the team that nobody wants to talk to. It's funny watching these guys interact in the huddle, because McInnis just walks up and starts talking like crazy, only for most players to just completely ignore him. The only guy who responds is Matt Carroll, who kinda looks like he needs friends.
-The giant turkey at halftime looked like Primoz Brezec. ("That's more of the court than he's seen all night!")
-That's all for now, folks. Hope everyone enjoys their leftovers tomorrow.
-NoNo
No comments:
Post a Comment