boutons
10-28-2004, 12:17 PM
... of the Texas Triangle 2004/2005 Pre-Season:
THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS!!!
The Spurs' annual, grueling "rode-in-rode-out road trip" took them first to DAL and then to HOU (home is where Laredo is), in one bone-crushing, exhausting week.
Your SpursTalk.com roving reporter was dispatched to Laredo by timvp (where do I mail my expense report? cash is fine.)
A phone call to Laredo Entertainment Center said tix were not sold out, and perhaps more tickets would be released in the afternoon. Good enough, charge up the digicam batttery, "Get Your Motor Runnin, Head Out The Highway", .....
Driving tedium was relieved by the magnificent mountains and breathtaking valleys, rivers, and forest along IH35 between San Antonio and Laredo. IH35 was bacially bumper to bumper trailer-tractors between SA and Laredo, going down and coming back, carrying cocaine and illegal aliens inbound, and $$$ outbound.
Laredo has tons of all kinds of mature palm trees.
Got to LEC about 18:00 for 19:30 game, several 100s already lined up waiting for doors to open. Parking was free, thanks.
Ticket office said "sold out". Not to worry, surely I could score a ticket in front of the ticket office. Two municipal bicycle cops in hot pants said their were looking for scalplers, so I moved around to LEC door C which had a long line of people entering there, and plenty of others coming from the parking lot.
Nobody was obviously hawking tickets, and the one guy who looked like he was, was actually looking for a ticket. We agreed to direct any offers to each other. He did come back later saying he scored a ticket, but there was only one.
Nearly everbody was in Spurs gear and colors. One guy had a Rocket red game jersey on, but on the back it said "Duncan 21". :)
19:30 arrived, no ticket, game starts. fuck timvp!! :)
I spotted a TV monitor inside the LEC visisble from Port C entry that was showing the teams warming up, so I parked myself there, hoping they would show the game, with another monitor not too far away showing the World Series game. The bball video feed was good quality and seemed to be the Houston station feed, but without ads. And just "raw" video, WITHOUT clock/score overlay. And just in case TV viewers couldn't figure it out, the TV flashed a "replay" title before and after every ..... replay. duh
So I watched the game from outside the LEC, through the glass and 30 feet from the TV, with no scores, and no toilet, and no beer becasue the beer hawker wouldn't sell to me outside the doors. fuck fuck fuck.
At halftime, I wandered around took some flash pics of the plants in the xeriscape next to where I was watching TV. Almost immediately, a lady with a neck tag and her shaved-head security white guy came out and started eyeing me, and then the earlier police duo showed up a minute or 2 later to ask me, all friendly like, if I had scored a ticket. Homeland Bogus Security wasting Laredo's Finest resources checking out middle-aged, fair-skinned guy in a Spurs hard-hat taking pictures of plants (I guess if I had been taking pics of Castor plants, their "check out" would not have been so ridiculous)
Other halftime activities included discovering a lunar eclipse, which must have been unique to Laredo since there was no mention any any national/local press all day. :)
A warm and breezy evening made standing for several hours quite pleasant.
I had no idea of the score all game, and was gratified to see HOU pressuring Spurs late in the 4th qtr, indicating HOU were behind.
At least I got to see the game. :)
Wilks looked great on both ends. I think we're set for PG depth if Beno can stay healthy.
Rasho hit 2 or 3 jump hooks. His 2 dust ups ended with Yao had Yao on the floor. I had to laugh at that
Massenburg continues to surprise me, looking at his career stats. He could actually be of some real help blocking shots, rebounding, and even a bucket or two while Rasho takes a breather, rather than just being a journeyman warm body. Tony even make a power postup move, got cutoff and looped a passed around the defender to nearby, wide-open Mal Eek! right under the basket, who let the ball sail through his hands and out of bounds. :)
TMass had a crowd-wowing hard block, all ball, batting it from the top of its arc, in the air all the past the 3 pt line towards mid-court, right into Tracy's hands who caught it and hit a 3, stealing the thunder from Tony's block. That's what's Stacy's supposed to do, and it looks like messing up the Spurs' paint is something Tony M can do. Go Tony.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/Laredo_entertainment_center.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/Laredo_entertainment_center_ticketless_TV_SRO.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/watching_SpursHOU_2004_10_28.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/lunar_eclipse_Laredo_TX_2004_10_28.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/LEC_agave.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/LEC_grass.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/LEC_palm_1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/LEC_palms.jpg
THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS!!!
The Spurs' annual, grueling "rode-in-rode-out road trip" took them first to DAL and then to HOU (home is where Laredo is), in one bone-crushing, exhausting week.
Your SpursTalk.com roving reporter was dispatched to Laredo by timvp (where do I mail my expense report? cash is fine.)
A phone call to Laredo Entertainment Center said tix were not sold out, and perhaps more tickets would be released in the afternoon. Good enough, charge up the digicam batttery, "Get Your Motor Runnin, Head Out The Highway", .....
Driving tedium was relieved by the magnificent mountains and breathtaking valleys, rivers, and forest along IH35 between San Antonio and Laredo. IH35 was bacially bumper to bumper trailer-tractors between SA and Laredo, going down and coming back, carrying cocaine and illegal aliens inbound, and $$$ outbound.
Laredo has tons of all kinds of mature palm trees.
Got to LEC about 18:00 for 19:30 game, several 100s already lined up waiting for doors to open. Parking was free, thanks.
Ticket office said "sold out". Not to worry, surely I could score a ticket in front of the ticket office. Two municipal bicycle cops in hot pants said their were looking for scalplers, so I moved around to LEC door C which had a long line of people entering there, and plenty of others coming from the parking lot.
Nobody was obviously hawking tickets, and the one guy who looked like he was, was actually looking for a ticket. We agreed to direct any offers to each other. He did come back later saying he scored a ticket, but there was only one.
Nearly everbody was in Spurs gear and colors. One guy had a Rocket red game jersey on, but on the back it said "Duncan 21". :)
19:30 arrived, no ticket, game starts. fuck timvp!! :)
I spotted a TV monitor inside the LEC visisble from Port C entry that was showing the teams warming up, so I parked myself there, hoping they would show the game, with another monitor not too far away showing the World Series game. The bball video feed was good quality and seemed to be the Houston station feed, but without ads. And just "raw" video, WITHOUT clock/score overlay. And just in case TV viewers couldn't figure it out, the TV flashed a "replay" title before and after every ..... replay. duh
So I watched the game from outside the LEC, through the glass and 30 feet from the TV, with no scores, and no toilet, and no beer becasue the beer hawker wouldn't sell to me outside the doors. fuck fuck fuck.
At halftime, I wandered around took some flash pics of the plants in the xeriscape next to where I was watching TV. Almost immediately, a lady with a neck tag and her shaved-head security white guy came out and started eyeing me, and then the earlier police duo showed up a minute or 2 later to ask me, all friendly like, if I had scored a ticket. Homeland Bogus Security wasting Laredo's Finest resources checking out middle-aged, fair-skinned guy in a Spurs hard-hat taking pictures of plants (I guess if I had been taking pics of Castor plants, their "check out" would not have been so ridiculous)
Other halftime activities included discovering a lunar eclipse, which must have been unique to Laredo since there was no mention any any national/local press all day. :)
A warm and breezy evening made standing for several hours quite pleasant.
I had no idea of the score all game, and was gratified to see HOU pressuring Spurs late in the 4th qtr, indicating HOU were behind.
At least I got to see the game. :)
Wilks looked great on both ends. I think we're set for PG depth if Beno can stay healthy.
Rasho hit 2 or 3 jump hooks. His 2 dust ups ended with Yao had Yao on the floor. I had to laugh at that
Massenburg continues to surprise me, looking at his career stats. He could actually be of some real help blocking shots, rebounding, and even a bucket or two while Rasho takes a breather, rather than just being a journeyman warm body. Tony even make a power postup move, got cutoff and looped a passed around the defender to nearby, wide-open Mal Eek! right under the basket, who let the ball sail through his hands and out of bounds. :)
TMass had a crowd-wowing hard block, all ball, batting it from the top of its arc, in the air all the past the 3 pt line towards mid-court, right into Tracy's hands who caught it and hit a 3, stealing the thunder from Tony's block. That's what's Stacy's supposed to do, and it looks like messing up the Spurs' paint is something Tony M can do. Go Tony.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/Laredo_entertainment_center.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/Laredo_entertainment_center_ticketless_TV_SRO.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/watching_SpursHOU_2004_10_28.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/lunar_eclipse_Laredo_TX_2004_10_28.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/LEC_agave.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/LEC_grass.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/LEC_palm_1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v501/bamboozool/SAN%20at%20HOU%20pre-season%202004_10_28/LEC_palms.jpg