Monday, December 15, 2008

Bucks Action On and (Mostly) Off the Court

As I mentioned in a prior post, Goldy and I checked out your 2008-09 Milwaukee Bucks for the first time this season on Saturday night against the Pacers. My dad had 2 tickets he wasn't going to use...why not?

The highlights:

  • On the way to the game, Goldy and I tried to figure out who was on the Pacers. Collectively, we came up with 3 names: TJ Ford, Mike Dunleavy and Danny Granger. When we got to the game we could name 2 others by sight: Troy Murphy and Jeff Foster. The other 8 active players (Dunleavy was hurt)? A mystery until game-time.
  • One guy we should have gotten was Roy Hibbert. After 2 possessions, Goldy declared Hibbert as a useless NBA player. On this night, at least, Goldy was correct.
  • Our tickets promised access to the "200 Club". Unfortunately, when we arrived we learned that the 200 Club wasn't open yet - it would be opening Dec. 27. The guy we asked said that we could "probably" get into the Courtside Club instead. So we tried - no dice, we got turned away at the door unceremoniously. Maybe if I flashed my Chuckie Hacks press pass? Oh well.
  • Good to see Jeff Foster (who Goldy also called Jeff Fischer and Greg Foster at different points during the night) running a 1-man weave in pre-game warmups. He appears to be friendless on the team. It must have worked, since Foster torched the Bucks (relatively speaking) for about 14 points.
  • Random uniform watch: Ahman Green, Ron Dayne (Badgers, not Giants/Broncos/Texans) and the runaway winner, a Michael Jordan White Sox jersey. I think I saw 1 Bucks uniform with the current look - Richard Jefferson.
  • Herb Kohl rocking the aforementioned slacks along with a green (ish) sport coat that I really can't describe. Definitely not any green that the Bucks have ever used, unless it used to be forest green but has faded after 23 years of dry cleaning. At one point the indoor Bango blimp stopped and hovered over the Senator, and then dropped a bunch of coupons right on top of him. That blimp got uncomfortably close to us - to the point where I probably could have stuck my hand in the plastic rotors.
  • The Open Pantry is sponsoring the blimp this year - ouch. Another lead sponsor for the Bucks appears to be some energy drink (can't remember what it's called) whose slogan is "It's No Bull". The Bucks may be hurting for sponsors not only because Larry Harris ran the team into the ground but also because according to a fan demographic study about 25% of Bucks fans are unemployed. Outstanding.
  • Speaking of the Open Pantry, the line of the night was uttered to a girl who appeared to work for Open Pantry and was approaching people and trying to get people to text something to a phone number (I just overheard a conversation). She was naturally wearing a mini-skirt and high heels. We walk out on the concourse just in time to hear some 40-something guy say to her "what are you, 17?" Nice.
  • Somebody had a sign up for the entire game in the lower bowl, probably 8 rows up from the court that read "TJ Ford - No Bailout Tonight" or something like that. Get it? Ford? Bailout? Ha! It took Goldy and I a minute to catch on. The more pathetic thing was that these people were able to rest this sign on an entire empty row of seats in front of them for about 2 1/2 quarters until folks from the upper tank probably wandered down for better seats.
  • On the subject of TJ Ford, that guy is absolutely terrified of contact these days. Not saying I blame him, but he did the following at least 10 times: beat his man off the dribble, got all the way to the rim, and then fired a pass out beyond the 3-point line to Marquis Daniels or some other scrub. Every time he did hit the deck, Goldy immediately made a neck injury joke. He did hit enough jumpers to score 25 points - that guy absolutely never had a jumper when he played for Milwaukee.
  • At one point in the game, All-Time-Great Pacer Austin Croshere hit a vengeance 3 against his old team. Goldy literally leaped out of his seat in excitement. He was apparently the only one who could tell how good that felt for Austin.

So that was our night out with the Bucks. I'd highly recommend catching a game, if your dad has free tickets. By the way, the Bucks were up by 18 at halftime, pissed away that lead entirely by the 4-minute mark in the 4th quarter, then went on a 19-0 run to end the game, but Two Name will probably tell you about that tomorrow. The Pacers are, um, not good at basketball, from what I saw.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't believe I just read a Bucks post. Yes it is a slow morning here in the office but a Bucks post? I must be slipping, that or it was the side stoys more then a Bucks post. Yeah I'll go with that. Anyway, Come on matt, Travis Diener is on the Pacers. I at least knew that much.

woziszeus said...

We might need to hire somebody just to do a weekly Austin Croshere Report.

Anonymous said...

Thats great stuff!

Matt said...

Funny you mentioned Travis Diener (who didn't play, if he is really on the Pacers). We also had a Travis Diener Marquette jersey sighting. I actually asked Goldy who #34 for Marquette was, then guessed Wade (wrong) and Robert Jackson (wrong) before Goldy told me it was Diener.

Anonymous said...

Matt - It appears you need to watch more Marquette Hoops, you'll enjoy it.

Matt said...

I was about to guess Anthony Pieper until Goldy stepped in.

For some reason Robert Jackson's uniform is encased in glass near one of the entrances of the BC. We noticed that on the way out.

Apparently he's a legendary player in Marquette history.

Anonymous said...

Matt really captured the spirit of the evening with this post. The 17 year old remark was high quality. It was one of those things that you heard and had to think for a second if you just heard that correctly.
Good times at the BC. Bucks are beatign the teams they should beat. They can take the Sixers, Knicks and Clippers and get something going.

Tim said...

This is the most I have read about professional basketball in about 8 years...and it was inspiring. Thank you gentlemen of Chuckie Hacks, in particular Sr. Matt.