| 29 March 2011
So, I went to the Jazz vs. Mavericks game the other night. Good for you, you say? Well, yes, it was good for me. I had a lot of fun. In fact, it was the best I have felt after a Jazz loss since I was too young to know better.
The whole Jazz experience was had, namely Crown Burger, the Fanzz walk-by, a quick restroom visit, and a nice walk around the ESA improvements. However, one thing was different about this game than the games I usually attend. At this game, I had the pleasure of viewing the action from row 3.
This is the closest I have ever been to the court in the Energy Solutions Arena. Thanks to a desperate scalper, I was able to another one of those surreal Jazz experiences that are so few and far between.
I know that all you rich snobs and popular people will scoff at my being still two rows from the actual court, but for a fairly conservative and monetarily conscious person, I would say that this is as good as any other closer seat would have been.
A couple observations that I was able to make:
- Ummm, NBA basketball players are HUGE! We all know most players’ height and weight, but when you are that close, they are almost mutant-like.
- There is a lot of pulling of jerseys and grabbing and holding that NEVER gets seen/called by the refs.
- The Jazz are still playing hard. I don’t care what anyone else says, these players still want to win.
- Just like on TV, Raja Bell can’t get his jump shot to fall live either. I did watch him talk to a young boy wearing his jersey during the halftime shoot-around. Something so small to Raja no doubt created a memory that that boy will try to describe to his friends for decades.
Two last things that I decided last night: I LOVE to heckle and Brian Cardinal is now one of my favorite non-Jazz players.
Let me explain:The game was well out of reach for the Jazz in the fourth quarter when Coach Jim Carrey for the Mavericks decided to empty his bench. That’s when Brian Cardinal came in. I was disgusted enough with another fourth quarter Jazz meltdown, and I saw the 3rd row awesomeness coming to an end, so I decided to take my heckling up a notch.
So, when Cardinal came down to my side of the court, I started yelling “Hey, Scalabrine!” as loud as I possibly could. I don’t know what I was trying to accomplish with this outburst, but I knew that for some reason, it felt right to do at the time. As soon as I yelled out, I watched him unsuccessfully hold back a smile. A foul was called soon afterwards and as he lined up for the free throws he pointed at me in the crowd and gave me a fist-in-the-air that showed he approved of my efforts.
Video of the Recognition by Cardinal
Brian Cardinal giving us some heckling props from MLMarchitect on Vimeo.
Now, I know there are some who aren’t impressed with my heckling or just plain don’t get it. But respectfully, I didn’t heckle for you, I heckled for me and my sulking Jazz-fandom; I heckled for Brian and his strictly role-playing NBA career. But most of all, I heckled for the upper bowl and for the parents and kids that, like me, only get that quick glimpse of lower-bowl normalcy in their lifetimes.
For, I am a fan. I am the Utah Jazz.
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