Today is NBA Stadiums Blog Day! If you have not heard of it, do not be alarmed as we wouldn’t expect you to, but some of us NBA bloggers led by Jones On the NBA have organized today to blog about our experiences being at a stadium during a big game or moment in NBA history. I’ve witnessed a few big moments at the “Phone Booth” here in Washington, DC where the Wizards play and ultimately I narrowed it down to 2 choices.
First, the runner-up is this play where Michael Jordan shows us he can still get up…
As impressive as that block looks on video, it was 10x better in person as it just came out of nowhere. Think him getting his shot blocked on the previous play had anything to do with it?
Now, onto my choice for most memorable moment at an NBA game…
To set the stage, it’s 2005, the city of Washington, DC is hyped up as the Wizards are back in the playoffs for the first time since 1997 when they were the 8 seed and known as the Bullets. After years of losing, this Wizards team is exciting and really has a shot to get out of the first round as the 5 seed. But, we haven’t been to the post-season in forever and the city is panicking as the Bulls take games 1 and 2 on their home floor. The Wizards respond in Game 3 though, winning 117-99 setting up a do-or-die Game 4. You’re not coming back down 3-1 and going to Chicago. I was lucky enough to score tickets (albeit in the upper level) to Game 4.
Coming into this game, we knew we’d have to play like we did in Game 3 when our Big 3 of Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, and Larry Hughes each scored 20+ with a little help from Etan Thomas off the bench. We needed our Big 3 to come through and to get some bench help.
Unfortunately, the one guy off the bench who could score in a hurry, Juan Dixon, was slumping. Wrong time to be slumping. Being a Duke fan, I still wasn’t a fan of this guy.
The game is about to begin and, like you do at all Wizards games, the PA announcer welcomes everyone to “the most POWERFUL city in the world” and does the player introductions. I’m looking around, looking down at our play-by-play and analyst team of Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier. I’m wondering what mistakes Buck has already made for the fans watching at home, and I’m hoping he’ll be excited when he’s talking about “daggers” and “backbreakers” late in the game. In Buck-ology, a “dagger” or “backbreaker” is a big shot at a key moment in the game sort of like Mike Breen’s “bang,” but not quite as frequent.
I can’t remember who was at this particular game, but DC is, of course, the politician’s Hollywood and the legendary Tim Russert would often sit courtside as would other political types.
Onto the game…
Late in the first quarter, Dixon entered the game. To be honest, it was a bit surprising as it was somewhat a question mark if he would even play given his slump, but Eddie Jordan wanted to roll the dice.
In his first six minutes, he scored 14 points. Impressive, but would it last? I was still skeptical. The arena was electric, though as the whole team was playing with energy, sparked by Dixon. Nobody was sitting down.
By halftime, the Wizards were up 61-37 and Dixon had 16 points. This would not be a nailbiter.
When it was all said and done, Juan Dixon scored a career-high 35 points and led the Wizards to a 106-99 win.
I had never heard the “Phone Booth” so loud as that game. From tip to buzzer, no matter what the margin, everyone was on their feet. I don’t think I sat down the whole game.
I have to admit, though, being at Game 5 in Chicago would have been nice…
If you have any memories of special NBA moments you have attended, feel free to e-mail me an article and I’ll try to publish it.
As fixed as Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals actually looked, it always felt better to assume it just looked fixed and wasn’t actually fixed. Now that disgraced former NBA referee Tim Donaghy is alleging that it was indeed fixed, it makes you wonder. Of course there is the possibility that Donaghy just picked the two series (also ’05 Mavs-Rockets) that looked the most fixed to give his claims some credibility.
It’s impossible to ignore the allegations though, especially if you recall what happened during the 2005 Mavs-Rockets series (the Lakers-Kings situation was mostly just fan outrage). In that series, then Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy asserted after one particular game that he had received a call from a referee not working the playoffs that the league had issued a directive to its referees to call more fouls on Yao Ming. Van Gundy was fined $100,000 and refused to reveal the identity of the referee. It’s the fact that Van Gundy actually gave some details that makes you think maybe something was going on.
Here’s a look at Donaghy’s actual claim (Team 3 = Mavs, Team 4 = Rockets):
“Team 3 lost the first two games in the series and Team 3′s owner complained to NBA officials,” the letter says. “Team 3′s owner alleged that referees were letting a Team 4 player get away with illegal screens. NBA Executive Y told Referee Supervisor Z that the referees for that game were to enforce the screening rules strictly against that Team 4 player. Referee Supervisor Z informed the referees about his instructions. As an alternate referee for that game, Tim also received these instructions.”
Not so interesting if you ask me. Doesn’t this happen all the time? The league office notices something isn’t being called and asks that it be called. There seems to be little merit here. Donaghy is going to have to draw up more of an anti-Rockets conspiracy than that to make me a believer.
Obviously the Lakers-Kings Game 6 looked fixed, but the free throw discrepancy there was only 40-25. Game 2 of this year’s Finals favored the Celtics 38-10. So should we believe every game is fixed?
I’m sure the mainstream sports media will have fun with this one for a while, but it’s only the surface facts that are intriguing. Once you get to the details, Donaghy sounds like your average conspiracy nut.
So all anybody is talking about after Game 1 of The Finals is whether or not Paul Pierce aka The Truth really hurt his knee as badly as his theatrics would lead you to believe. Ok, let’s see, guy goes down, needs about half the team to carry him off the court, rolls to the tunnel in a wheelchair, and he’s back in about a minute of gametime (knocking down 2 big 3s shortly later no less)? Any Laker fan would tell you he was faking it, but I’m going to have to disagree. He was merely exaggerating. First of all, watching the replay, it’s clear his leg moved a bit awkwardly after Kendrick Perkins landed on him. There’s no way to fake that in the heat of the moment. So the next question is whether he was really hurt by the play. I think he was, but not to the extent he led us to believe. Pierce might be a relatively smart player, but he’s no evil genius ready to concoct a fake injury plot in the split second he had to react to that play. He is, however, very capable of exaggerating the extent of his pain as all players are (just watch any player be in excruciating pain on defense only to look perfectly healthy when his team gets the ball back).
The thing is you can’t blame Pierce for exaggerating the extent of his injury. I would argue he wasn’t even conscious that he was exaggerating. It’s just what NBA players do. It’s almost like an extension of flopping. You don’t even realize you are doing it, but you become so accustomed to it that when you get hurt, you lie down, have everyone feel bad for you, and then sometimes it isn’t really that bad and you return as the hero. Saying Paul Pierce was exaggerating would be like saying Allen Iverson carries the ball on his crossover or Manu Ginobili flops. Duh.
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