The start of some of the best ‘fanboy-like’ 36 hours of my decades of supporting the Spurs started on Monday after a very late lunch, which allowed me to return to my hotel and see a parade of San Antonio’s
players and staff retreat to their secluded base. I briefly interrupted a very busy Mitch Johnson to tell him that he was the Coach of the Year so far; to which he replied in typical Spursy fashion: “just hope to make it through the season. Thank you.”
Yesterday, and in a very encouraging and free-flowing 61-point first half showing for the Spurs, here were some of the better executed sequences:
Harrison Barnes was one of several Spurs that hit the offensive boards hard to convert second-chance opportunities (at least before the Knicks did it to San Antonio at the other end):
The side-to-side TV angle of De’Aaron Fox’s forays into the paint don’t do justice to how ‘sly’ Fox is in evading defenders and getting his shot off:
Luke Kornet became my favorite Kornet of all time in the first week of the season, but this tip-in is a great example of his ability to cover so much of the floor:
Rookie Dylan Harper, who led the team in scoring(!), shows off a natural shot release here:
Just a 7-footer doing a catch-and-shoot basket off of a pindown:
Stalwart guard Stephon Castle knocked down a this shot deep in the paint:
Observations
- T-Mobile Arena has one of the steepest seating setups of professional sports stadiums, which is fine for hockey, but can take some time to get used to during basketball.
- The fan disparity between Knicks and Spurs fan very much looked (and sounded) like 2:1 or 3:1.
- There was a distinct decibel spike when Wembanyama checked into the game midway through the first. As if fans were seeing an Avenger descend to Earth for the first time
- The first half crowd seemed more like an All-Star Weekend group that transitioned to a Conference Finals feel in the last 1.5 quarters.
- It was very cool to see both the Jackals and the Hype Quad featured during stoppages in action!
- The time from the long walkway from the Strip into the arena doors was only about 15 minutes close to tipoff.
- The two Knicks fans to the left of us took turns disparaging all things Spurs, from the Jackals (’they’re loud!‘), San Antonio’s early-season success (‘they’re only good because of that GIANT!‘), and Wemby’s missed reverse lob attempt in the first half (a cackle that very much sounded like a jackal).
- My very pregnant friend needed to stretch and walk around the concourse after three quarters, and we ended up catching the ghastly fourth quarter shooting performance (4-for-17????) on a large screen near the arena’s main entrance.
- It wouldn’t be a professional sports event without two very disoriented fans arrested for being drunk in public.
It may have been the most high-intensity-game-to-relaxed-chill-post-game transition that I experienced. After snapping the typical tourist photos like this one below, we hoofed it to an eatery minutes away and ended up having dinner near former Laker Jordan Farmar and reviewed where it went wrong for the Spurs in the second half.
After a long night of sharing memories and side hugs with any and all Spurs fans lingering nearby in the vicinity of T-Mobile, my gawking at NBA players was not done. As I was walking through a nearby resort this morning, I looked to my right and did a double-take. Upon glancing at the 6’10” former Grizzly and Blazer big Zach Randolph, I immediately had horrible flashbacks to that 2011 NBA playoff loss against Memphis, and gave him a wide berth. He apparently is like the rest of us mortals – trying to figure out how to play a table game directly from the person-in-charge of gaming.
Here’s to the Spurs continuing to stack wins towards a playoff run, AND hosting a Cup semifinal next year in San Antonio!
