2009/10/08
I went to 2009 NBA Taipei Game on October 8th at Taipei Arena. This is the first time that NBA team play the warmup match in Taiwan. The ticket is very hard to buy. I remember that ticket sales began in June. It sold as fast as it can. Actually all the 15 thousands tickets were sold out in 15mins. At that moment, I gave up joining this sold out crowd. I tell myself that I have to earn a lot of money and fly to American to see the regular-season game.
One day before the game, my friend called and ask me if want to see the game or not? If I did, we might try every means to find two tickets. That's cool, why not? But the ticket is also hard to get, much harder than buying ticket in June because the scalped tickets are everywhere. Finally we get the tickets at midnight.
We arrive at Taipei Arena at 5:30pm, there are a lot of people and a lot of jerseys walk on the street. But jerseys are not completely Denver or Indiana, I think more people wear jerseys with Kobe and James. I see many famous basketball players in Taiwan like Taiwan Bank team and the coach of Song-Shan senior high school.
When we get in, what we see is a NBA court! The floor is directly transfer to Taiwan! This is my first time I enter Taipei Arena. That's awesome! May be I am a yokel but I'm so touched. My seat is far far away from the court but I can see very clear on my seat. Before the game start, we go to the VIP seat to take a photo of NBA stars like Chris Anderson, Chauncey Billipus, Carmelo Anthony, and Kenyon Martin. I'm so sorry what I shot almost Denver team because I don't know much about Pacers except Danny Granger and T.J. Ford.
I meet Evelyn there. She is Anthony's fan and as a professional fan, of course, she wears on Anthony's jersey and that day but I just photograph her back!
And our President Ma film a video to say some words for this Taipei game, but he speaks in Chinese and I think NBA stars do not understand at all.
When game starts, I almost cry because I am so touched that I could see NBA game before 30 in my life. As for the game, I have to say that is much better than SBL in Taiwan even two teams do not do a serious play. Danny Granger and Troy Murphy are two guys help Pacers to win. Danny Granger made 4 three-point shots in two mins and Troy Murphy was the goto guy in fourth quarter. By contrast, Nuggets did not put their mind in this game. They seemed to compete who can do more turnovers.
There are many shows in every timeout and between quarters. Pacers' acrobatic courtside slam-dunking stunt crew named the Power Pack that showed there is more to basketball than the game itself.And there were some local celebrities attended, like NBA Legend Larry Bird and NBA commissioner David Stern.
In the end, Pacers topping the Denver Nuggets 126-104.Even though the outcome of the contest was not close by NBA standards, I still felt excited and enjoyed that.
BTW I shouldn't buy the stuff in NBA store because that made me wait for almost 2 hours after the contest.
