The NBA: Where Amazing Happens

On one of the blogs I read everyday there was an interesting post recently.  It asked the simple question, “When’s the last time you did something for the first time?”

As I pondered the question, I thought about the literally dozens of things Tracy and I have experienced for the first time during the last 3 months in NYC.  These first-time experiences are a big reason we took the plunge to leave our comfortable surroundings in NC and it’s fun to reflect on them even as they’re happening (which is why this blog is so great!)

We had one of these unique experiences on Wednesday night - by taking in our first Knicks game and first time ever inside Madison Square Garden.  The Knicks had the Bobcats on the schedule - which afforded us a great opportunity to see a bunch of former Tar Heels while also promising to be a fairly easy ticket since the Cats don’t have the cache of Kobe’s Lakers or LeBron and the Cavs.

So we decided to head down to the Garden and try out the scalping process.  Which led to another first - the first time I’ve ever been called a schmuck by a shady scalper attempting to sell us “courtside seats” for $120 $80 $50 each.

Madison Square Garden is right next to Penn Station in a part of town that will never be mistaken for one of New York’s finest neighborhoods.  Almost immediately after getting out of the subway we were approached by said aggressive scalper and I casually asked him “how much”.  He then proceeded to try and close the sale - and I mean really close the sale.  He literally wouldn’t let us walk away, even following us around the stadium as we tried to flee the scene.  When we finally broke his spirit he said we were cheap schmucks, which was great because we all know the rhyme about how words will never hurt us and with this guy I was legitimitely worried about the sticks and stones part.

After our initial foray into the scalper scene, we decided to try the actual MSG ticket office to see if there were any game day leftovers.  While waiting in line we were approached by two other scalpers who we tried to politely turn away. This worked until the scalpers got into a verbal altercation about who had seen us first.  Thankfully, the commotion led a security guard to come over and stand between us and the riff raff and provided a modicum of safety.

Yet just then a nice young man came up to us and asked if we were looking for tickets.  I almost turned him away out of habit after our first few experiences but he cut to the chase and said that his boss had given him 4 free tickets and he was willing to sell for anything.

So for $15 bucks each we got into the game.

Easy, right?

Once inside MSG, the seats ended up being great - lower level about 1/3 of the way up but still in the lower arena.  We had a great time watching the game (including Nate Robinson hitting 5 shots in a row in the 1st half).  During all the breaks they did a fantastic job of keeping us entertained, including the half-time show which was the girl from one of the reality talent shows who is ultra flexible and can shoot a bow and arrow with her feet while doing a handstand.

The game came down to the final possession, when the Bobcats predictably had no idea what to do and settled for an off balance three that missed. 

The Knicks crowd went home happy and so did we.  Happy to experience MSG for the first time but even more happy that we made it out in one piece. 



PS - when we made it out of MSG, we were able to feed Tracy’s craving to relive her St. Louis childhood when we chowed on a couple White Castle burgers.  Who needs those fancy Manhattan restaurants when you can have a date night complete with hyper-aggressive scalpers, overpaid athletes and grease-filled sliders.  A great night indeed.