Friday, 21 June 2019

A Basket Case?

Emily is a great host and on several of our visits to the US she's booked us passage to major sporting events, whether baseball, American football or, on our recent trip to Seattle, basketball. And, over the years I have become accustomed to the hoopla of such events: their ramping up of the players and the teams; video replays of scoring occasions; the entertainment between sessions of play; and so on.

The basketball was no exception. Here's the view I had of the stadium just after our arrival, with a large noisy audience making their way to their seats



Players were introduced one by one to the audience and we could just make them out from some distance away. Or we could watch them close-up on the screens handing from the ceiling.



Then the teams got together for, I guess, instructions from the coaches and the stadium itself  was more clearly lit up. All this took quite a while.



The home team's Mascot was apparently this 'fake' bear which roamed all over the stadium floor greeting people. Isn't the US full of fake news and people right now?


And while all the introductions were in progress people kept arriving and buying food or other goods.


Yet more parades, introductions and instructions still followed



This included the bear, as you can see here.


And, finally, after quite a while, the audience was in place. Do you recognise any of the people close-by?



Strangely, I didn't take any photos of the play itself. I guess that it was too fast and remote from where we were sitting. However, I might just add that the hoopla continued whenever there were intervals in the game - and, wow, there many. Play was suspended to exchange those on the court with those seated on the side benches or at intervals when the sides exchanged ends. Likewise, when the home team scored the event was replayed to much applause.

Still it was an enjoyable experience and, at least, Seattle won.

AS

No comments: