Sunday, February 04, 2007

Chicago Sports Weekend - Day 1

What a way to set off the weekend! We arrived at Key Arena about 25 minutes before game time. We had awesome seats thanks to Harold's girlfriend. She got him tickets to the game for Christmas and he, in turn, let me tag along. Lucky me! :o) Anyway, I showed up wearing a Bulls ballboy shirt. So, when the local staff were handing out game day programs to everyone in the lower seats, they tried their best to pretend they didn't see us. So much that they put the programs on empty seats rather than give them to us:

IMG_2815.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Well we ended up getting their attention and took some programs. But they didn't look happy about it. Whatever! Now, as awesome as our seats were, check out the phat tickets Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer scored:



IMG_2839.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Yep, that's right...those seats are literally on the Bulls team bench. His son was wearing a Ben Wallace jersey from when he was with the Detroit Pistons. Come on Steve, you telling me you couldn't afford to buy him an updated jersey?? Perhaps even a nice shiny jersey like Kirk Hinrich was wearing?



IMG_2862.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Hinrich ended up having a great game. You could just see he was feeling it that night. Final stat line for kirk: 20 points, 9 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals. More importantly, he did all that while trying to guard Ray Allen. His backcourt co-starter, Ben Gordon, had a quieter night:



IMG_2872.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Ben would end up saving one of his great performances for another day. But still, it wasn't too bad of a night for him: 12 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 steal. Well, since we're at the halfway point of this post, it's only appropriate to introduce the Sonics' cheerleaders who posed very well for us:



IMG_2886.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Yeah, sadly I have to say that their cheerleaders blow the Bulls' cheeleaders away. Ok, back to the game...the star of the night for the Bulls was Luol Deng (#9):



IMG_2863.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Perhaps getting snubbed about going to the All Star game upset him? Check out this "non-All Star" stat line: 27 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal. Yeah, clearly average stuff. As far as the rookies went, we did get to see some of Tyrus Thomas:



IMG_2877.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

He didn't play a whole lot, but there was definitely one play that just had Harold and me shaking our heads. He jumped up from what looked like behind the backboard...contorted his body back around it and tried to lay the ball in. Way too hard to describe but believe me...it was an amazing show of athleticism. And now, on to the best part...the final score:



IMG_2895.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

The game was a nail biter but our boys pulled it out. So I go back to what I stated at the start of the post: What a way to start the weekend!

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