The first time I visited a basketball game in the USA: the experience of an immigrant

“The NBA in action is fantastic!” — a replica of a frequently shown advertisement on television stuck in my memory from childhood. Back then, the abbreviation “NBA” was truly something out of science fiction for me. We exchanged chewing gum inserts with images of famous players of this most famous basketball association and watched its matches on TV “Electron - 716”. Then, as a child, sitting in front of the TV, I never thought that I would ever touch the hand of a basketball star of this very NBA...

Photo: Oleg B.

Those were the May holidays, the final chord of which for me was always the celebration of Victory Day. For the first time on this day, May 9, I was in the USA, and, apparently, I was destined to celebrate the Victory twice - the first for Soviet soldiers in the Great Patriotic War, and the second - in a basketball battle between the American team and the Chinese... “Kill” two birds with one stone - I decided to look at the Barclays Center, which I often drove past, and go to basketball for the first time in my life with my classmate Alex. At the last moment I found out that women were playing.

“Well, okay,” I thought, “this is even more interesting, more aesthetic…”

We arrived ahead of time and were pleasantly surprised that at the entrance we were presented with a T-shirt with the logos of two teams: New York Liberty and Chinese Womens national team. However, having turned around, I saw that the size of the T-shirt is designed for the figure of a basketball player. He returned, asked to change to a smaller size, however, it turned out that all sizes are the same. Probably only tall spectators with shoulders around like Schwarzenegger go to basketball games ...

Photo: Oleg B.

We had General Admission seats and we agreed that Alex would take the best seats available, and at that time I would study the interior of the famous Brooklyn center. When I was walking in the center, I was approached by a Frenchwoman who immigrated to New York, who worked as a promoter at similar sports events. She offered me a glass of rum in return for filling out a questionnaire.

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Finishing off the remnants of free rum, I finally found our places, 5 minutes after the start of the game.

Photo: Oleg B.

Let me tell you, watching NBA games live and watching NBA games on TV are two very different things. Live, in the stadium, it’s an amazing spectacle, with effects, cheerleading with American and Chinese girls and various dances during breaks performed by dancers of different ages and nationalities...

- Who do you think will win? — I asked Alex during the first half.

- I think the Chinese will win, what about you? - he answered me.

— I don’t understand much about basketball, but I know the situation in the international football arena. All eastern nationalities are outsiders there. They are weak and run out of steam quickly. I think the Chinese will lose.

- Come on! Look how tall Chinese women are! - Alex continued, - and our players are all short, with the exception of one girl. Besides, it seems that the only tall girl on our team is also Chinese. This means that there is a possibility that she will succumb to the Chinese team. The Americans will lose!

Photo: Oleg B.

Yes, that only tall girl in our team, ironically, looked very much like a Chinese woman and she was unrealistically tall ... Therefore, the outcome of the match in favor of the Chinese was quite logical.

I thought that I drank a glass of rum “on the ball” while Alex was guarding my place, and to restore justice, so to speak, when the Chinese took the lead in the second half with a score of 42:36, I invited him to bet. If the Chinese team wins, I treat him to a glass of rum; if the New York team wins, he treats me. We argued.

Photo: Oleg B.

Either the native walls helped, or the prevailing chant of the audience in favor of the Americans, but the course of the game was gradually changing in our favor, and by the beginning of the last half, the New York team was already ahead of the Chinese team. Alex, referring to his circumstances, left the match, without waiting for its end. Of course, I sat until the end, stating the final score 89:71 in favor of New Yorkers.

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I was already starting to make my way to the exit, when I saw a crowd of people along the perimeter of the corridor through which the players and the attendants of this match went out.

Photo: Oleg B.

Photo: Oleg B.

I made my way there and realized that the audience was pulling their hands into the aisle, thereby provoking the leaving players to clap their hands. Of course, I decided to join this action. I chose a row where there were least of all those who wanted it, or rather, one person, and rushed to the end of this row. However, this one man turned out to be a major American. And I couldn’t manage to squeeze so that my arm protruded in the aisle so that it could not be overlooked by the basketball players leaving the playing area.

Photo by Oleg B.

Suddenly I saw the same Chinese woman approaching the aisle - the captain of our team, who scored so many goals into the basket, which allowed our team to snatch victory, and me a second glass of rum... Oh, no, I couldn’t miss such a chance! Then, remembering the elements of jiu-jitsu, holding a smartphone in one palm with the video recording function turned on, I stuck my second palm in so that my hand and the hand of the Chinese woman touched...

Photo by Oleg B.

Photo: Oleg B.

It was my lucky day when the New York women's team won. And I won three times - the first time, receiving a free glass of rum, the second time, winning it in a bet, and the third time, receiving the clap of a basketball star from the most prestigious basketball association...

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