Courtside Ramblings

So my boy Dan got us some swank seats to the Wizards/Blazers game Wednesday. These were $239 face value seats that Dan got for $75 each, saving us around $300 bucks easy, so already we were going into the night champs. And things only got better, since we showed up the Phone Booth (Verizon Center for you non-DCers out there) and saw our seats were right next to the Wizards' bench about 4 rows from the floor. Enjoying the view from our Kevin Bacon seats (since Spike Lee gets on the floor for the Knicks, we figure we had the kind of seats Footloose guy would get), here are some other rambling thoughts I had during the game:

>> Wizards "All Star" guard Gilbert Arenas (whose getting something like $110 million for several years and yet he's only played about 18 games the last two seasons) didn't bother showing up until midway through the second quarter. Guess he was busy in line buying a hot dog or a blue raspberry slushy. Those things take time to make, I hear. You stay classy, Gil.

>> The Wiz have a high number of suspect girls on their cheerleading squad. I'm not going to guess how many of them are earning a little on the side by kickin it on the stripper pole, but there are a few who were a bit too comfortable with the stripper perfume and had a quite a bit of ... well, let's call it sass ... when it came to dancing for the crowd in the lower seats.

>> Dan and I had originally agreed to dress silly for the game, either going for ultra-Euro trash (leather jackets, half-buttoned shirts) or look silly. Dan bailed, but I went strong, wearing some vintage gear and aviators. Yeah, that's me looking like an extra on C.H.I.P.S. to the right.

>> As if on cue, as Andray Blatche (Wiz center) passes by us with a tissue up his nostril, Dan chimes in "Damn, how many times have we told him to lay off the powder." That's Dan ... a man of few words, but they mean something.

>> One of the services we get with the VIP seats is access to the VIP lounge (free apps, which is nice), shoeshines, friendly bartenders who actually take the time to remember what you order, lots of TVs, close proximity to the locker rooms (both players' and cheerleaders). Ummm, yes, I did say shoeshines. What the fuh??? There were dudes actually skipping the game for minutes at a time to get their shoes shined. Wanted to bust out some Billy Batts on them, but they were bigger than me, and I'm a chicken.
>> After firing Eddie Jordan as their head coach, the Wiz's interim coach is some front office jackass that no one takes seriously. During any timeouts, all the players stand apart and watch the video big board and whatever goofy videos it is showing. Several times, this was happening when the Wiz were trailing the Blazers by only 5 or 6 points. Well, at least I'll know what to expect the rest of the season.