Last night I sat in my seat at the Garden more than excited to watch the Celtics take on the Lakers and Ray Allen break the all time 3 point record. Since I’m a season ticket holder, I said hello to some familiar faces in my section and sat down with a sense of comfort that I’ve come to expect attending Celtics home games.
As the first quarter started, the purple and yellow jersey started to roll in…two Kobe jerseys to my left. One Kobe t shirt in front of me…
Then I looked behind me to see the two rows behind me FULL of Laker fans.
As the fourth quarter progressed and the game started to slip away…I found myself melting in my chair as the annoying “Let’s go Lakers” chants started. I still don’t understand how people can root for Kobe without at least a little guilt due to his past actions and his disgusting arrogance. But, it was clear they all worshiped him.
I’ve never felt this way during a Celtics home game, but after awhile I wanted to get the hell out of the Garden. It was unbearable. While I’m sure plenty of Laker fans are astute fans of the game, the basketball IQ of mostly all of them was shallow and superficial. They didn’t understand the game, they just liked rooting for a winner and hopefully seeing a dunk.
On several occasions, I’ve sat next to fans from other teams (Knicks specifically) who had a respectable knowledge of their team and the league as a whole. I actually appreciated the opportunity to sit next to them because it provided a completely new fan perspective and I left the game learning a thing or two…
(I know this last point makes my post fairly contradictory, but I feel obligated to present both sides of my experiences)
The point of this tangent is not to simply vent about having to be surrounded by annoying Lakers fans. My problem is with the people who sold them the tickets.
The season ticket rate in the first 10 rows of any section is at least 70% (in my estimation.) To be surrounded by 12-15 Laker fans within four rows, means several Season Ticket Holders sold their tickets to them. While I’ve been in more than a few situations where I’ve had to give my tickets to someone else, I’ve always been mindful of who exactly was going to sit in my seats. This is a courtesy that any season ticket holder should, in my strong opinion, extend to their fellow HOME fans.
The Celtics fans recently have travelled better than almost every other team in the NBA, so it would be hypocritical and stupid for me to say fans from other teams shouldn’t go to road games. But, if you are a season ticket holder and you need/want to sell your seats, please consider the person that will have to sit next to your recipient.
The fact that I listed to Laker chants and oohs and aahhhs directed toward Kobe’s pushoff (should be an offensive foul) turnaround jumper made last night game a crappy time. Frankly, that shouldn’t happen at the Garden. People in this city care too much to be so careless in selling their seats.
Long story short….don’t sell your tickets to a fan from another team if you have the chance to give it to a Celtics fan. I can really ruin the night for the rest of us.