A dream come true ...
As mentioned earlier in our blogs, I think it was back in the baseball one, that one of my goals while we were travelling was to see as many different sporting events as possible. So far we have been to the Canadian Open tennis and the Toronto Blue Jays baseball and we are not far off going to see the Maple Leafs ice hockey at some stage. But a dream of mine was to go to an NBA game. Ever since I was a little kid I have loved the game of basketball. Obviously back home I supported and followed the Geelong Supercats. But the biggest league in the world and the most exciting form of the game is the NBA. When I was growing up the teams to watch where the LA Lakers, Chicago Bulls and the Boston Celtics. Of course Michael Jordan would have to be my all-time favourite player, but my Dad and I always had a soft spot for Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics.
Irrelevant of which teams were playing I have been dying to get to an NBA game. So as we are living here in Toronto, it was obviously going to be a Raptors game versus someone else. When I heard that my beloved Celtics were coming to town to play the Raptors I had to grab some tickets. I'm not even going to mention the price of the tickets, as they ranged from $5000 courtside, to $80 up in the nosebleed sections. Sporting events are so expensive here compared to back home. Thank yourself lucky all of you AFL supporters. Let's just say though, we had good seats for the price we wanted to pay. Unfortunately it was the same weekend that Mel was away, so our friend Lawry came with me. This game was back in late November, but luckily the Celtics were back in town just on the weekend again, January 2nd, so I was able to take my beautiful wife then. 2 games in 2 months ... bonus!
The other bonus of going to see the Celtics at the moment as well is that Shaquille O'Neal, the big Shaq, is playing with them this year. That will mean that I have now seen three of my top five players of all time. I saw Kareem Abdul-Jabbar play in 1989 and then Magic Johnson play in 1995. And now the great Shaq. It is unfortunate that I will never be able to see Michael Jordan or Larry Bird play live, but this was still going to be awesome!
The patriotic anthems - Star Spangled Banner and O Canada
The one and only SHAQ!!! All 7 ft 1" of him.
Starting 5 lineups and Raptors showtime
Under 2 mins til tip-off. So excited!
Shaq wins the tip. Good start.
Raptors draw first blood though.
Then Shaq gets fouled and sent to the charity stripe.
(Well, charity for the Raptors. Worst shooting action ever, poor giant)
Close game up to half time. Boston playing a safe game, Raptors hanging on.
We saw some awesome halfime entertainment at both games. At the first game the Raptor mascot put on a dunk show and drove round in his convertible. That was followed by dog agility which Roxy loved.
At the second game we were treated to a great magic show. Too dark to take photos though, but enjoy the other shots.
Raptor mascot doing a somersault off a tramp.
On with the game
Mel had the camera in hand just at the right moment when DeMar DeRozan threw down the alley-oop.
He started to dominate the game and the Raptors were looking the goods ...
until Big Daddy came back on started throwing his 150kg weight around!
With 5 minutes to go in the 4th the Celtics started to pull away with some great shooting from the evergreen Ray Allen. A beautiful 3 point shooting action. Hand in the biscuit tin and all Nath and Keith!
A Celtics 93 - 79 win!!!
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