So yesterday (10th April 2007) I went to my first Sixers game and my first NBA game. What an awesome game! ! ! We arrived at the stadium after taking an interesting taxi ride in an authentic Philly taxi. The guy smoked like a chimney, drove like a mad man, had the deepest Philly accented voice anyone could have and his Notre Dame Irish cap on backwards. We arrived just after 18:00hrs we went straight into the stadium. We go to the box office to enquire about getting better seats for the game upon arrival at the box office we are confronted by a guy behind the glass, we explained it was out first time here, our first NBA & Sixers game and my birthday. The guy looked at the tickets and said, with a note of exasperation, "Your on the floor, you can't get any better seats!". Now with this knew knowledge we headed into the stadium.
I went straight to the merchandise stand and bought myself a 76ers 2006 draft flex-fit cap & a Sixers hooded sweatshirt. So 100 bucks later we are making our way to the food stands. We buy some chicken strips, crab fries and a large soda. We are now on our way to our seats. It was a "look around with mouth wide open" moment. There was so much to see we had sensory overload! We ate our food and we went in turn to walk the sideline. The player were on the court warming up, they were right there almost touchable. I walked down the sideline inches away from the team bench to the media section on the sideline, there were lights, cameras monitors etc. everywhere. Seven mintues later the game starts, the player are introduced onto the court the referees join them and the game is underway.
Well the first two quarters were easy quarters for the Sixers with the Pacers failing at all but a few attempts to score. The Sixers were consistently 9 - 11 points ahead. The third quarter did not go so well for the Sixers they were losing by one point for a few minutes but then kept a steady 4 - 6 points lead. In the final quarter the Pacers began to find their feet, but the Sixers resisted all attempt by the Pacers. The last five minutes were a series of time outs and fouling by the Pacers in their last ditch attempt at winning. But inevitably the Sixers won 90 - 86.
