A few quick thoughts:
-The Izod Center aka Continental Airlines Arena aka the Meadowlands is, to sum it up in one word, sad. Granted it was an awful night to leave the house, but still, there was about as much energy in that room as there is on a subway on Monday morning at 9AM (I imagine-don’t think I’ve ever been on a subway at 9AM on a Monday). Aside from the lackluster crowd, the place is just ugly. The seats, the concessions, just the overall aura is that of a place I don’t ever want to go back to. Let’s get this team to Brooklyn ASAP.
-The arena was filled with about 65/70% Laker fans. Again, I imagine the weather had something to do with this. The Lakers are in the Tri-state area 2x all season (unless the Knicks or Nets meet them in the Finals-ha) so the real Laker fans (yours truly included) make the extra effort to go out and see them regardless of the conditions. Nonetheless, the amount of purple and gold around was overwhelming.
-The PA guy referred to Brook Lopez as the ‘pez dispenser’ after an assist. You’re welcome.
-The same PA announcer, after a made 3pter by Rafer Alston said, “and a 3 by Keyon Dooling”. Dooling has played in 5 games this year, played 5min Saturday night, and wears #55 (as opposed to Rafer’s #1). Can’t make this stuff up.
-You can’t believe how many times they play the ‘Adams Family’ theme song during the game. It’s unfathomable. Even more amazing was the fact that the crowd actually snapped on cue mostly every time (da da da da, snap snap, da da da da, snap snap), kind of like you’re doing right now.
-One of the Nets in-game ‘entertainment’ acts is a dance group. Pretty normal for NBA teams these days. But it seems the Nets brain-trust has come up with a new wrinkle (you’ll see why this term makes so much sense in a minute). They trot out a 2nd dance team, except this one is made up of senior citizens. How do they find these people? Imagine you go to dinner with your grandparents around 4:30. You finish the meal and grandma kisses you good-bye and says ‘gotta go to work’.
So they’re making a movie about this. I’ll probably go see it. The girls on the main dance team were pretty whack. I’d smush (my new favorite word-shout out to Ronnie from ‘Jersey Shore’) as many chicks on the senior dance team as I would on the regular dance team (Peggy is just my type).
-Another part of the in-game entertainment was a shooting contest between 2 dicks from the crowd. The prize? The opportunity to shoot 1 shot for 1yrs worth of free burritos. The ‘winner’ missed the 1 shot, so I guess they’re both losers. In some weird way however, I think we’re all winners.
The game in general was pretty lackluster, other than a decent 2nd quarter surge by the Nets to make it close at halftime. In the end, the champs dominated as expected. Glad I made the effort. Will see them again in NYC in January. And again in LA, or Cleveland or Boston or Orlando in June in the Finals.