NBA: Toronto Raptors vs. Denver Nuggets

Originally I wanted to experience an atmosphere of an NHL match, but as soon as I got to know the prices of tickets, I realized that I am actually not such a fan of ice-hockey:) (Go, Jablonecti vlci, go!:)) What a surprise when I found out, that NBA matches are much cheaper! Luckily Gecko recommended me really a great match, about which you may read in this post. Let me just make a small promotion for Gecko's blog and especially his multiball website in return:)


Toronto Raptors
The Raptors, local NBA team, have unbelievably strong reputation and support of their local audience. This time they are playing against Denver Nuggets and are expected to win a difficult match:) Their home arena is Air Canada Centre, which they share with local NHL team, Toronto Maple Leafs.

Tickets
There are many price categories available ranging from 12 CAD to 1600 CAD (check all the categories in the picture). The Air Canada Centre is of the similar size as Sazka Arena in Prague (18,000 people), so I could have imagined the seating conditions and needn't have worried about not seeing the court even from the last row. Unfortunately the cheapest tickets were for places outside the arena and those a little bit more expensive were sold out, so I ended up with a ticket for affordable 30 bucks. Luckily I didn't buy it online (as my credit card didn't work), because it would have cost extra 14 CAD due to various "convenience fees" as I discovered later.

NBA
At first I admired the overall organization, because sometimes I didn't even notice the difference between playing time and time out. There is always many people in the court... either players, or security guys, or cheer leaders, or rappers, or contestants from the audience, or mascots etc.
I guess typically for NBA, during each time out there was a "show" prepared. So besides basketball, I also enjoyed acrobatic performance, 60 seconds of madness (throwing some promotion items to the audience), races on stilts (chůdy), quizzes and much more.

The match
It was truly thrilling match! I definitely didn't intend to write a review, I just tried to capture the key moments in the game: During the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarter Raptors are always ahead for 1-20 points. The turning point comes in the 4th quarter, when Nuggets take the lead. 4 minutes before the end, the Raptors balance the score 92:92. Then the Nuggets strike and increase to 92:94. Now it comes, the Raptors score 3 points with well-aimed shot that makes the audience go furious! Everything turns raptor-style - red lights, banners, Raptors' music, guys with R-A-P-T-O-R-S flags run all around the court (it's time out) and everyone believes (even me) that the time has come for Raptors to win the match!
One minute before the end, the Nuggets lead with 98:103 and literally hundreds of fans start to leave the arena:)
The Raptors lost 100:109! Shit happens:) Despite that, I enjoyed the match a lot!

Czech corner
Zapas jak ma byt, k tomu neni co dadat! Pro nezasvecence jako jsem ja jen pridavam, ze od mistnich jsem se dozvedel, ze zatimco bezne se vysledky zapasu toci okolo stovky, Raptori nemaji v urcitych zapasech potize jit i pres 150, coz ma udajne dokreslovat dravost jejich tymu.

Premyslel jsem, co bych tu zminil jako prihodu ze zakulisi, moc toho neni... snad jen ze mi prislo vtipne, ze po cele arene byli nastrceni roztleskavaci Raptoru, kteri velmi koordinovane povzbuzovali divaky. A aby to meli jednodussi, tak pomerne casto rozhazovali do publika male antistresove basketbalove micky, po kterych pubicka mladez v mem okolo doslova silela. Prestoze jsem zadny micek nechtel, protoze jich mam jeste spoustu z lonskych a predlonskych Career Days (ani na tech letosnich uz jsem si radsi zadne nebral), doslova mi jeden spadnul do kapsy. Vymenil jsem ho pak s raptorskym fanouskem za listky do loterie o 4000 dolaru. Mel jsem sice svoje vlastni listky (ani nevim proc, asi jsem se nechal zlakat nazvem loterie 50:50 v domeni ze pravdepodobnost vyhry = 0,5... jak naivni... misto toho slo o to, ze se losovalo ze vsech listku a pulka trzeb sla na vyhru a pulka na charitu), ale chtel si to pojistit - cash pred Asii by prisel vhod.
No, nevyhral jsem... nevadi, snad priste...:)

Jo a jeste par detailu:
- ty roztleskavacky maji nauceny jeden set tanecnich kroku a tancujou to na vsechnu hudbu... podvod!:)
- vzdy kdyz byl mic za 3b, objevila se reklama McDonalds na sendvic s trojtym masem... vtipne:)
- casto byli divaci vybizeni, aby fotili fotky a pomoci svych BlackBerry je primo uploadovali na Facebook... zajimave:)