Considering My Night in Phoenix

I'm Excited, But It's Early

It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way.

My congregants know I’m a Boston sports fan from my childhood.  As part of pastor appreciation in October, I was given 2 tickets to the Celtics-Suns game when the Celtics made their only appearance in Phoenix (unless both teams inexplicably end up in the the Finals).  The long-awaited day finally arrived.  The night before I watched the Celtics play a tough game in Portland, and expected them to come out flat.  I couldn’t have expected what unfolded.

Around 3:30, the guy who lives with us (henceforth known as CavFriend) and I departed Casa Cav for Phoenix.  He grew up in Phoenix, so I was glad to have him as navigator.  It was pretty much smooth sailing on good ol’ I-10.  While driving, CavFriend finalized plans for us to have dinner with some of his family members.  We were going to meet his dad at Tom’s Tavern at 6:30.

We arrived into town a bit early and drove around trying to find parking.  Plenty of open meters to choose from.  But, unlike anyplace I’ve ever been the meters were operational until 8 pm.  While we could have moved the car after the 2 hour limit (7:30), we didn’t have enough quarters to get us that far.  So, we bit the bullet and paid for the $8 event parking in a garage a few blocks from the arena.  The closer garage was $10, and the closest was $15, so a good move.

We strolled around alittle.  I hadn’t been in a big city downtown in quite some time.  Quite claustiphobic at times.  You didn’t see a whole lot of sky since the buildings were scraping it.  The lack of wind kept the smell of the exhaust all around you.  Not too pleasant.  But I digress.

We showed up at Tom’s Tavern to find CavFriend’s dad talking to the manager.  The owner died, so it wasn’t open.  We thought about a nearby Irish pub and moved in that direction.  But on the way I spotted The Thai Elephant.  Now we’re talking!  We enjoyed some great Thai food and made our way to the arena.

I grew up watching games at the Boston Garden.  I haven’t been in the Fleet Center yet.  I’ve seen the Celtics play in the Meadowlands in 2001 (and incredible comeback to win in OT led by Paul Pierce going on a scoring binge), and numerous times in Orlando.  The strange thing is, the Celtics’ and Red Sox’ winning percentages when I attend is considerably lower than when I don’t attend.  Attending a game at the U.S. Airways Arena was very different than the Garden, but like Orlando on steroids at times.  There were lots of people in Green & White jerseys, but Cedric Ceballos kept assuring us that the Suns have the best fans in the league.  It was not sold out, but the sound system and house DJ (huh?) more than made up for it.  I was glad I brought ear plugs.  The sound during the half-time show was even louder (should have put the plugs back in).  But they had a BMX team doing X Games stunts.  It was a great show, and I’m not an X Games guy.

Towards the end of the show, I headed to the concessions stand.  And waited, waited, waited.  Beers on draft were $9 for a pint.  But they also had big bottles for $10.  Mostly bad beer, but they did have Fat Tire as well.  I’m not sure who decided this was a good idea, but they should be fired.  Since they don’t want drunk people armed with bottles in the arena, they have to pour those 22 oz bottles into the cup.  Lots of waiting for the head to come down before they can put the rest in.  But my ordeal in the slow moving line was rewarded with some very tasty popcorn.  So if you’re ever there- get a popcorn.

But the game… oh, the game.  The Celtics game out flat (they reportedly arrived in Phoenix at 2 am).  While they had better energy in the 2nd half, they were still sloppy.  They couldn’t hang onto the ball, turning it over incessantly.  Their shoots just weren’t falling.  The Suns were playing better, but not much.  There was hope at one point when Pierce heated up, only to have a seat.

The bad officiating made the bad play much worse.  The refs didn’t cost the Celtics the game.  But it was still inexcusable.  Before the end of the first half, Doc Rivers was tossed (here’s his version of why).  I turned to CavFriend before the half and told him it was getting chippy out there.  Guys were getting frustrated and there was some unnecessary pushing and shoving.  If the refs didn’t clean up the game, it was going to get ugly.  Little did I realize how ugly.

I watched Von Wafer go to the hoop and take a shot to the face that put him on the floor, but no whistle.  I watched Shaq chase Steve Nash from the basket to the 3 point line and when Nash broke away they called a foul on Shaq.  I’m not sure what he did, the replay revealed a thought foul (think Minority Report).

The crowd was not happy when Pietrus was called for a Flagrant 1 for sticking his forearm in Garnett’s face when Garnett set a pick.  It was a bit testy after that play.  There was nearly a fight.  But the game went on.

AP Photo

Then Garnett hit Channing Fry in the mid-section on a 3 point attempt.  Where in the mid-section is disputed.  The guy next to CavFriend claimed it was the nether regions.  (Allen claims this happens to him in a nightly basis).  It almost blew up at that point (here’s the video).  Lots of chest bumping and scowling.  And lots of technical fouls.  4 on the Celtics (with Garnett tossed) and only 1 on the Suns (at least Gortat deserved one too).  This was discerned after spending about 5 minutes of watching video.  I thought they only used the video to determine if a shot was taken behind the 3 point line or beat the buzzer.  This was a new application I didn’t know was permissible.

Having to re-group prior to the Suns 6 FTs, the Celtics took a time out.  That was when the fight broke out in the lower deck across the way.  Both a guy in Celtics’ green and one in Suns’ orange were escorted to the cheers of the crowd.  Okay, they were cheering on account of the beligerant guy in green.

The lack of starters on the court for the Celtics revealed that the Celtics conceded.  They did not want any more ugliness or injured players (Davis had a bad hammy, and Shaq had spent some time in the locker room).  Time to leave, we suffered enough.  Okay, just me suffering.

As I said, the refs didn’t cost the Celtics the game.  But their incompetence lead to the fireworks in the latter stages.  They contributed to the perfect storm of ugliness.  At some point the NBA really has to fix this, really.