Tales from the Court....

...Just thought I'd put together a few snippets of details of my Courtside experiences vs

~ VIP COURTSIDE EAST ROW B SEATS 3,4 .. basically 3/4th seat beside the CELTICS Bench under the Net
~ Just looking at the CELTICS bench alone is sheer intimidation and (if you're a true basketball fan) utter amazement and joy
~ Couldn't help but WANT to put myself in a TRUE CELTIC fans shoes knowing THAT was my home squad on the floor...
~ Sizing up Rondo, he's not all that tall, nor big.. but his FRAME is pretty wide
~ BIG BABY...I'm almost guaranteeing the guys' wearing a 'BRO' underneath his jersey.. there's definite SAGGAGE going on there
~ the DIESEL, sits on 4 cushions extra on top of his seat....it was an odd site to see. AT first I saw nate sitting on it and it kinda made sense as I guess he's smaller then everyone else, but once shaq came off the floor it was all his ... #ICYHOT related maybe??
~ PAUL PIERCE IS THE CELTICS! Not only does he garner so much respect amongst everyone, he CARRIES the SWAG of the team.. it's a non-chalant, no BS type of SWAG that you wish each and every player on your team carried
~ It's the ... 'GIMME THE BALL, I'LL GET IT DONE ~ THERE I DID IT ' kind of swag.. Amazing
~ Nate Robinson is hilarious on the bench; always talking and jabbing nonsense; at one point he got up and started dancing full fledged for 5 seconds; Him/Ray/Marquis Daniels appear to be really tight with one another; Avery Bradley didn't/doesn't say a WORD
~ Also, looks like NATE is PAULY P's #1 advocate...anytime Paul would hit a 3 .. he'd get up out of his seat, shuffle over a few seats and do a 'bird man' kinda movement with his arms holding 3 fingers upside down (opposite of Jose's infamous '3' gesture')
~ Tried talking to Avery Bradley and PP... they can hear you but don't comment
~ A guy behind me yelled out 'SHAQ, I BOUGHT KAZAAM ON VHS JUST FOR YOU'...SHAQ, (not looking at us and still watching the game) pointed to him..then rubbed his thumb/index/middle fingers together insinuating $$ and pointed to himself.. haha hilarious
~ DEMAR looks hungry and aggressive ~ despite getting blocked a few times; he still went at it over/over again till he got it ...
~ There was one play near the end where he got blocked..went up reverse of the glass for and AND-1 and punched the air yelling an expletive-YEAH ... Can't say I wasn't proud of KID-COM10 there
~ There seems to be a mutual love/respect between the two COMPTON bred atheletes in PP and DD... There was one play towards the end of the game where Shaq blocked Demar and he fell to the ground in the shuffle; paul fell over top of him and kinda stayed there to prevent demar from reaching for the ball; once the ball went up court; PP gave demar the 'big brother' love tap and whispered (what seemed like) a few encouraging words to him...
~ I was sitting where NAV sits, but one row behind him.. all the way to the CELTICS bench..
~ Joey's shooting two FREE THROWS and this guy behind us yells U SUCK JOEY!! YOU'LL MISS EM BOTH... out of knowhere ... NAV gets up and says ' SHATTTTUP!! SHATTTUP ... and points at him' lol
~ the guy rants again.. and quick as ever NAV's BACK UP OUT OF HIS SEAT at him with another SHATTTUP! #SUPERFAN
~ TRIANO was pissed the entire game; Not sure if it was entirely at the raps or officiating but looked like a bit of both
~ He gave it to Dorsey once and Kleiza got some too
~ Not sure if anyone noticed, he WALKED off the court before the end of the game while there was still 20 some odd seconds on the clock #NEVERSEENTHATBEFORE
~ There was one play when he got AT IT with the REFS and it was all because of #VINCELOVER Lawrence Frank
~ LF does ALOT of talking on the bench; calling plays and telling guys what to do ...
~ there was once instance when Barbosa was standing in the corner by the C's bench awating (what seemed to be) a set up play for an LB 3 ...
~ once he got the BALL, Lawrence Frank JUMPS out of his seat and yells some complete JIBBERISH (as if he's calling a play to his guys) but really it was to SIKE out Barbosa... JT immediately gets on the refs about this #HIGHSCHOOLSH*T
~ few minutes later... SAME PLAY, SAME LF CheapMOVE...
~ I was kinda suprised at the lack of professionalism...
~ After the game, I hung around for a bit got to chat with Bayless who's an awesome nice guy; Someone was taking a pic for me and was having trouble, he made sure that the pic was OK and IF i wanted to redo it... before he went into the locker room

Closest I've been is about 3 rows back from where you were, same side/corner, and was amazed at how different the experience is. Of course they were the first row of bleacher seats so not right on the floor. I'd do some pretty heinous shit for courtsides.

AMAZING post...wish someone would do this everygame. I like the nuances that you dont get when watching on TV.

little OT: there should be a channel (like 'Sportsnet 3') where you can watch the game without commentators, but full uncensored court noise.....so you get to hear all the swearing, trash talk, and playcalling

I noticed JT leave as well. I think he was pissed over the officiating. There were some terrible no calls on DD and Calderon towards the end of the game. Shaq was called for 5 fouls but given 8 or 9.

Shaq sits on those cushions, IMO, to ease the bending on the knees and hips while on the bench. I'm 6'7"/6'8" and I hate sitting in smaller chairs - I can only imagine a 7'1" monster who has been through nearly 20 years of NBA seasons.

That was good reading. I am always amazed that in x game on the road in a long season there are guys on a team that remain highly psyched and pass on their energy to the more older players. This is especially needed when playing much lesser teams. That the Lakers are not exactly enjoying a stellar season so far is an example. You passed this aspect on very well.

Great thread - this is the stuff that tells you a lot more about the success / failure of players and teams than TV broadcasts do. You get a sense for what type of people the players actually are. I saw this very clearly when I was courtside for the Raps / Nuggets game last year (the one where Melo killed us with the last minute shot). Anyways - not that this should come as much of a surprise, but the most telling thing was JR Smith's behaviour. On the one hand, great guy .. we called him over, he signed our tickets (at halftime) and was super friendly - spent a few minutes with us talking about nothing. On the other hand, his head was totally out of the game .. I think he shot one lay up, the rest half court bombs while he was chatting with buddies in the stands or Sonny/JJ.
One other anecedote the only other time I was courtside was agianst the Cavs when LBJ dopped 50ish on us. He was talking the whole game .. it was absolutely amazing. There was a kid 3 down from me in a Lebron jersey and he gave him a "watch this kid" on one play, before heading up the court and dusting us on a ridiculus play.
Would love to see a similar post around the intra-game dynamics of our team in and around the bench. I was across from our bench, so not close enough to get a sense.
For anyone who hasnt done it .. courtsides should be on the bucket list. I love the games from whereever I sit, but it is a whole different experience down there ..

My first reaction from reading your post is that is more about marketing your website and your ticket reselling business. I did enjoy your insight from being close to the bench, but for me it was tainted by your blatant advert. Could you tone it down next time?

Ruuu, I wish that too sometimes. For the Miami game I wish that they will not play that stupid non-stop music through every second of the entire game. It would be nice for that game at least, let the crowd make the noise. I would also like for just one game, to not have 25 different camera angles with random switching and panning. I would like a single mid court camera panning left and right just as if you were at the game with no commentary and just crowd noise. That would be awesome. I wouldn't mind some replays in breaks in play though.

Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

My first reaction from reading your post is that is more about marketing your website and your ticket reselling business. I did enjoy your insight from being close to the bench, but for me it was tainted by your blatant advert. Could you tone it down next time?

Ruuu, I wish that too sometimes. For the Miami game I wish that they will not play that stupid non-stop music through every second of the entire game. It would be nice for that game at least, let the crowd make the noise. I would also like for just one game, to not have 25 different camera angles with random switching and panning. I would like a single mid court camera panning left and right just as if you were at the game with no commentary and just crowd noise. That would be awesome. I wouldn't mind some replays in breaks in play though.

Well just back on sound aspect: I would seriously like to ask a TV guy why this has never been attempted

I can imagine like in the 60's, 70's etc it would be unheard of because there was no swearing on TV

But now you got channels like HBO. And there's a million channels you can get access to.

It would technically be no problem to just have one feed on a separate channel (viewer discretion is advised) with just courtnoise instead of the commentators. Call it "Sportsnet Hardcore to the Max"

Its really perplexing me now....

1) all of us would watch it
2) its technically simple
3) its not sooo out there to the point of being crazy. Like I said there's a lot worse channels out there now. And families/kids sit courside all the time its not like people dont hear the players swearing.

MSLE I know you monitor these boards........BROADCAST AT LEAST ONE GAME WITH ALL OF THE COURTNOISE!!!!!!!

That was an awesome thread. My wife and I are always laughing when we see the super fan in the back ground during games...especially when its the opposing team taking foul shots and he has his handkerchief handy.

@Ruuuuu
I've always thought the same, that one day they would broadcast a game with just court sounds so we can get right into the game. But I dont think this would happen unless its shown later on after the networks get a chance to edit it and the team signs off on the final network edit. I know trash talk happens but I dont think the team would want the public to hear every single thing thats said, it could hurt player images or even team promotions. Like what if every other word from Demar mouth was m**theffer or similar, I dont think thats something the team would want the general public to hear, and some parents would think twice before buying their kid that jersey. Maybe they could do a production similar to NFL films and play the game at a later date with all the 'really bad' sounds edited or bleeped out. I remember hearing Oliver Miller on network tv telling Bill Wennington " i'll knock u out white boy " back in the old days.