Give Me The Rock
this is fantasy basketball
With Ray Allen and KG joining the Celtics this season, tickets to home games will no doubt be impossible or very expensive to get. I felt it important to document the pre Allen/KG game attending experience, so we can see how much things are about to change.
Or, in other words, I had these pictures sitting on my computer for a while and now is a good time to break them out.
I believe these pictures are from a Celtics game in 2005 against the Nets, although I’m not completely sure about the date. Our tickets for the game were on the floor level, probably about 10-15 rows deep behind the visitors’ hoop. Pre Allen/KG, these tickets had a face value of $100 each, but we were able to get ours for $50 due to less than stellar demand. We got down to the Fleet Center (now the TD Banknorth Garden) two hours before the start of the game because the Celtics opened their doors to premium ticket buyers (of which we were included) at that time. All the “regular” people had to wait until an hour before the game. During this two hour period, you could walk around an empty arena, watch players do their pre-game warm-ups, and of course, hound players walking on and off the court for autographs.
I was at the game with my beautiful wife, her sister, and two of my brother-in-laws (my wife comes from a family with 7 children, so I have a total of 5 brother-in-laws and 5 sister-in-laws. Holidays are interesting). Anyway at the time, one of my brother-in-laws was in love with Marcus Banks. He was absolutely sure that Banks was going to be the next great Celtics point guard. And when Banks came over to our side of the court, he was all over him and was able to get him to autograph his ticket. That autograph didn’t quite turn out as he expected, but Marcus to his credit, was incredibly nice to the fans and signed autographs for everyone who asked for one.
My other brother-in-law was equally excited about Kerry Kittles. I think he followed him going back to his Villanova days. He actually ran around to another section of the arena just so he could get Kittles’ autograph as he was leaving the court. I was only able to get a back shot of Kittles, but notice how he is handing the autograph back without even looking at my brother-in-law. I guess that’s what happens when you ask for Kittles’ autograph while wearing a Celtics shirt. Kittles didn’t sign many autographs that day.
Finally, a guy who I wouldn’t mind getting an autograph from, if I did that kind of thing. There were children stacked 5 deep within a second of Pierce appearing from the locker room. I could have probably taken 3-4 kids out on my way to Pierce, but 5 would have been a challenge.
Here is a view of the Celtics warming up from our seats.
There are a lot of great things going on with this picture (tough to see in this small version). Pierce and Ricky Davis are warming up, but:
1. Who is that third Celtics player with them? Is it Vin Baker? (UPDATE – it’s actually Jumaine Jones)
2. The Celtics warm-up did mainly consist of Pierce, Davis, and player number 3 standing around and making jokes to each other.
3. Deep in the background, there is Rodney Rogers standing at the three point line practicing his shot. That sweet three point touch apparently took some practice.
4. Notice the balding white men standing around Rogers, surely imparting him with all their pick-up basketball wisdom.
5. Ricky Davis appears to be undressing my wife with his eyes.
So, there you go. Attending a Celtics basketball game pre Allen/KG consisted of buying floor tickets at half their face value, casually walking players to get their autograph, and having Ricky Davis molest your wife with his eyes.
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