My first b-ball game ever

Chris and I just got back from an NBA game. Oklahoma City has had the New Orleans Hornets ever since Katrina, but this is the first game we've been to. Gloria got ahold of some free tickets, so off we went.

Another first, the game was at the Ford Center downtown, and I hadn't been there before. I've heard alot of talk: the seats are too small, it's too crowded, etc. Well, I'm here to tell you that it's all true. Granted, I'm not the smallest girl out there, and Chris isn't the smallest man, but those seats were made for 13 year old girls who haven't grown their hips yet. I was able to sit in my seat, but each hip was resting against a chair arm, my shoulder and Chris' overlapped, and you sure as hell didn't want to stand up. "They" elevated each row almost to the top of the row below you. The top of the chair in front of you is literally at ankle height, and it felt really steep. We all joked that if one of us fell, we'd bounce all the way down to the bottom. Granted, this was third (top) level, nose-bleed seats, but still. Hell, we were so high up, I asked Chris if that was a full-sized court down there cuz it looked smaller than on tv.

The Hornets played the New Jersey Nets - which is actually a team I have seen play on tv, and I actually know who one of the players, Jason Kidd, is! They kicked our ass. We were never more than 19 points behind, which in basketball isn't a whole lot, and we got within 4 points of them at the end of the game, but we never did take the lead, and even I could tell that we weren't playing as well. I never did figure out the whole foul thing. I'd see someone shove someone else down and that wasn't a foul, and they'd call a foul and I never saw what they were calling it on. And then, sometimes when they'd call a foul, the foulee would get a free-throw, but sometimes not.

Obviously I know absolutely nothing about basketball.

I actually tried out for basketball in the 9th grade (I think). Rachel and I and Susan did, I don't think Steph was with us. That's when I found out that not only could I not jump, or sink a basket, I couldn't even dribble the ball very well. I never was a sports person. Anyway, that was my only contact with b-ball.

It was fun though. Since we weren't doing very well, and I didn't know any of the other players, I kept watching Kidd play. He didn't score a lot of points, but I was amazed how several times, he would have the ball, and be looking at the player directly in front of him, and then without turning his head, would pass the ball to a player off to his right, right past one of our guys. He always seemed to know where everyone on the court was without having to look for them. Chris said that's why he's one of the best guards in the league.

Of course I had to get souveniers. I think Chris has finally given up on me and souveniers. I have to have one from everywhere we go if we've never been there before. Usually I'm able to get something pretty cheap, but we're talking NBA here. I could have gotten a key chain or something but instead I got a tie-dyed Hornets t-shirt, and I got Dad a Hornets pen. Chris was going to get a hat, but it was $25, so he decided not to get it. The t-shirt was only $20. Then, during one of the commercial breaks (which was kinda irritating by the way. They'd be in the middle of playing, the ball would turn over, or they'd have to throw it in or whatever, and they'd go to commerical and have the mascots or cheerleaders or whoever come out.) the brought out the cannon dealies to shoot t-shirts up into the stands, and one lands right in Chris' lap, so he got a Hornets t-shirt too!