Philadelphia 76ers

Finally Drew & his NBA tour have come ... home.

A drive down the Pennsylvania turnpike to the city of brotherly love



Take the subway to to Pattison and the Sports Complex



After meeting with James Mannion, Brad & I were immediately escorted down to the court.



Although Brad clearly doesn't know how to hold an NBA Tour sign, it does say #7 of 30



These players apparentaly use a lot of gum



76ers General Manager Billy King



My press conference after the game



Brad & I with NBA Legend World B. Free (no, I'm not kidding - that's really his name)



Sixers dance team



The 76ers conference room



There is only 1 Hip-Hop - mascot of the 76ers



After providing Brad & I with dinner, James showed us to our seats, which were spectacular (but there was more to come)! He was also kind enought to provide us each with 2 shirts, a hat, a foam finger, Sixers notepad, Sixers mug, CD holder, and pens among other things







I've obviously been to several arenas thus far and seen many championship banners, retired numbers and such, but look at this.... Bruce Springstein and Billy Joel each had banners with 45 & 46 sold out concerts respectively. Just think of how long these guys have been successful to have that many sellouts.



This arena was clearly the newest, most advanced of the bunch I've seen so many. After a few minutes of walking around the arena, I realized that I could entertain myself for hours without even a basketball game. See some examples below:

Air-hockey


Could could forget the foosball-like hockey


Touch-screen game


Caricatures & Make-Your-Own Sign stands



Claw machine


Hot-shot basketball




Even the entertainment during timeouts was great...Deal or No Deal



Stepping outside of basketball for a moment



Inside the luxury suite...a bit smaller than others I've seen



View from Suite





Double-Dare and other game show type games occuring throughout the arena





Tip-off



Andre Miller from the corner



After half-time, Brad & I were lucky enough to be elected for the "seat slide." We got to walk down the stairway (to the tune of "The Price is Right" music) to our new seats which just happened to be cushioned courtside seats:
This photo appeared on Sixers.com frontpage the next day. Go to Sixers.com, scroll to the bottom and click on the Sixers snapshot section.









Let's see some highlights from this thrilling game. The Sixers led early and for most of the game, however the Warriors took this one in overtime by a score of 100-98. A late 3 pointer by Kelenna Azubuike proved to be the difference.

Nellie and Andre Iguodala













Stephen Jackson back from suspension at the free throw line



I can't thank the 76ers organization enough for all of their generousity. I gave them late notice of my arrival (after an active first few weeks of the tour) & they were still able to respond in a great way. I could go back home the next day and tell my family that they truely have been routing for a great franchise throughout their lives. No, they currently don't have any "superstars" on their roster at the moment, but I clearly learned that they are concerned for their fans and are working to make a night at the 76ers game a great time for everyone regardless of the final score.

The famous steps from the Rocky movie - weren't nearly as difficult as he made them seem



G Washington



In my next installment of "What the ****?" art, the Philadelphia clothespin:


The famous "LOVE" sculpture





I was somewhat shocked that they put a Jimmy Rollins MVP banner up at City Hall



Big William Penn up top



City Hall at night





If you are ever in Philadelphia, stop by the Irish Pub on Walnut Street and tell Issac that the NBA Tour sent you



Thanks to My family, Issac Rose, James Mannion, Eric Blankenship, Dennis Nelson, & the fundamental drinker in downtown Philadelphia.

Boston Celtics

"If you don't know about the Lakers-Celtics history, then you don't really know basketball."
-Kevin Garnett, 11/21/07



So on Black Friday, myself and Boston fan extraordinare, Daniel deCoen, made the 7 hour drive up to Boston.

Upon arrival, we found that this would be the first cold spell of the tour with temperatures in the lower "teens."

To be honest, I've seen Boston before & there wasn't a whole lot I wanted to see this time around. Here's all you need to know about Boston - Dunkin Donuts rules the world there.

We parked at Braintree station and took the "T" to downtown Boston via the RedLine

I truely feel that this was my first "loss" of the NBA tour as I couldn't get any help from the Boston Celtics franchise. I, on three different occasions sent a message through the "Contact Us" link on their website and never once heard back from them although I received a message each time stating that I would hear back from them. The other difficulty was that their "Contact Us" link only allows for 200 characters, so it was difficult to say what I needed to say.

I contacted several members of the Boston media, and luckily Marc J. Spears and Peter May (Boston Globe) both responded back, providing me with names of people in the Boston organization to contact. I, on many occasions sent these individuals emails, but never received word back. One of these individuals actually did reply to me, but once I responded to his email, I never again heard from him. One of the other individuals meant to forward my email, but instead must have clicked reply and sent the email to me. This email lead me to believe that the Celtics were NOT willing to help me unless the NBA required them to do so.

What was most frusterating is that I probably sent 30 emails to the organization and at the bottom of each email would request that they at least confirm that they would be unable to assist so that I could focus my efforts elsewhere. Believe me people, while this is extremely fun, the work I've put into it sometimes doesn't even make it worthwhile. I spend hours every evening searching for contacts, writing emails, talking on the phone, and planning this through. I wish that the Celtics were considerate enough to let me know that they wouldn't help rather than give me the ambiguity that causes me to try and try again. I could have focused these efforts on Denver, or New York, or somewhere else rather than waste my time trying time and time again.



To be honest, I've seen Boston before & there wasn't a whole lot I wanted to see this time around. Here's all you need to know about Boston - Dunkin Donuts rules the world there.

At the last minute (again because I was anticipating hearing from the Celtics), I was forced to buy two $90 tickets in the upper level. I do realize that this was a tough game to attend, no rivarly in basketball is bigger than the Celtics-Lakers. You do however,

So we made our wasy to the TD Banknorth Center. Below you'll see a picture of the train station that runs in and out of this.

Nobody has more banners than the Celtics. 16 time World Champions

Me with one of the greatest Celtics fans ever....and please notice the retro Antoine Walker jersey (employee #8)



The old parquet floor from the Boston Garden

I wasn't too impressed with the Leprechun mascot (in the key looking up at the shot)...I don't think he is all that exciting to the children.

The Celtics dance team was the best I've seen to date. What may surprise you however is that this is only the 2nd year of existence for this dance team. From what I was told, Red Auerbach took a great deal of pride in that the Celtics were only team without dancers and wanted to keep it that way. Upon his death, a dance team was formed.

A few minutes before tipoff, single sounds of bass starting pumping and images of the Celtics franchises started flashing on the scoreboard. This led all the way up to the player intros, which were nothing short of spectualar.

Then came tipoff, where Kevin Garnett did his typical clapping of his hands in the chalk dust at the scorer's table and images of Paul Pierce and Ray Allen appeared on the scoreboard telling the fans to get louder. Kevin Garnett was then throwing his hands in the air, coaxing the fans to turn up the volume.

Can you spot Garnett and the chalk?

Tipoff

Celtics on defense

EVERY time Kobe touched the ball, the fans gave it to him with BOOS....

Full house

Funny thing was that I was just in Sacramento a week ago looking for the Governator, and what do you know, he shows up with the wife in Boston.

Arnold Schwarzeneggar!

Can you spot the Terminator below?

What was possibly most hilarious is that they showed a scene from the movie "Predator" right before the 4th quarter, which showed Arnold dressed in war paint and screaming. Really got the crowd going...

BEAT L.A.!

You may notice the white t-shirt with green lettering below. The chants of "Beat L.A." started as early as the first quarter. Strangely enough, I learned (thanks Mr. deCoen) that the origins of this popular chant actually came from the 1982 Eastern Conference finals game between the Celtics and... 76ERS?!?! During game 7 in Boston, Celtics fans conceded that the Sixers had beaten the won the game late in the 4th quarter and started chanting "Beat L.A.!" as Celtics fans would rather have anyone win over the Lakers.

Garnett dunk!

Possibly my favorite part of the game was when they showed images of American Bandstand and many fans throughout the arena were dancing along. Whenever images of the particular individual were shown below, everyone would yell of "GINO!!!"

The Celtics had control for most of the game and won in convincing fashion with a final score of 107-94. If the big 3 stay healthy, it'll be tough to keep this team out of the finals.

A night out in Boston to follow...& Philly, here I come...

Thanks to Dan deCoen, Marc Spears, Peter May, My Mom (snacks for the roadtrip).