August 13, 2020
As we get deeper
and deeper into the restart the games become less and less significant due to
teams getting eliminated from the playoffs due to their records. Our first game of the day was the guaranteed
number one seed in the Western Conference Los Angeles Lakers against the soon
to be going home Sacramento Kings.
The Lakers rested
Anthony Davis and Kyle Kuzma while Lebron only played sparingly during the
first half. The highlight of the game
was me catching James on the bench eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
during the second half. I also captured
him performing general hygiene practices while the game continued in front of
him. He must have gone through three or
four wet ones wiping down his body during the third quarter. Because of the interest and importance of
this game, both bench shenanigans by Lebron were aired on the talk shows the
following morning. Sometimes it pays to
look away from the court action and see what the other players are doing.
Our nightcap was
Utah against San Antonio. That game, as
a result of games earlier in the day, meant nothing in regards to playoff
seeding as well. The Jazz will face
Denver in the first round of the playoffs and the Spurs, for the first time in
22 years, will not participate in the playoffs.
That is quite an amazing run that Greg Popovich, head coach of the
Spurs, has been able to endure. Each
year it seemed like he was able to find talent from around the world to add to
his team. His rosters have consistently
been packed with perhaps the most international complement of players.
The game was
delayed at the start of the second half because, ironically, the timekeeper had
a small accident with coffee and his shirt and didn’t get back into position to
start the clock to begin the third quarter.
We waited patiently, the referees nervously looking at the entrances to
the court, the players standing under the rims, as the poor timer came running
in after roughly a two minute delay.
The was another
contest decided by the reserves as they played a majority of the minutes.
Donavan Mitchell, the fellah that made fun of my Rice basketball shirt, was
pretty animated while on the bench.
Across the court from where both teams sit during the games, is a large
television screen that shows what we are putting on the air. It is pretty much a live feed of our broadcast
and it is obvious when anyone is watching the screen and not the game. I was shooting Donavan quite a bit to capture
his reaction to good plays by his teammates and whenever Howie would take my
camera I could see that Mitchell was enjoying seeing himself on the big
screen. It became a little too obvious
as he started really playing to the camera and we ended up taking him more and
more. I think we game him more air time
as a bench player than when he plays. He
was enjoying himself thoroughly hamming it up whenever he saw himself.
I saw Mitchell at
the resort later that evening as I was getting a snack. I told him he owed me a pair of shoes for
putting him on the air so much. He said
“Was that you?” I said it was and I wear a size 12. I will never get those shoes.
I checked in on
my father before going to bed as today was the first round of the Pierce
Invitational that both of us missed for the very first time. He had been to the eye doctor earlier in the
day and apparently cried on the drive home as he sobbed to my sister who took
him to the appointment “They’re probably all teeing off now…I wonder how the
mixer was last night…I bet they are all having fun…I don’t like getting old…”
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