Spurs/Raptors Post Game Report from Toronto (Pics Included)

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Well, for those that weren't aware (though I would never shut up about it) I shelled out $230 for a single ticket to see the Spurs play the Raps. i usually sit with my friends in the upper bowl, but this year I wanted to go all out.

I was in section 108, row 1, which is the first row just behind the courtside seats.


I also got to meet Ginobili prior to the game! He was very polite and signed the DVD inlay card to the 2007 Championship dvd. I wanted to tell him that I modeled my game after his, and to prove it, I was leading my men's league in turnovers......but I simply smiled and thanked him for his time.


All I can say in regards to the experience is wow. I honestly think I'll be shelling out for these seats every year. The view was obviously incredible, but it was the little things that made all the difference. Like seeing the way the players communicate with each other on the court. When Manu got trapped in the corner near the end of the game, he immediately spoke to TD and Finley about what they should've done on that play and they all had a quick discussion on not letting it happen again. I never saw too much of this kind of communication on the Raptors side.

I also noticed how Timmy is ALWAYS taking the initiative to applaud his teammates. Whether it was patting Jacque Vaughn on the back and telling him not to worry about forcing a timeout, or tapping Oberto on the head playfully for getting a little down on himself for committing the foul. You could probably see all these things on TV to an extent, but in person it just gives you a whole new perspective/appreciation for the team. There were also tons of people with Ginobili jerseys tonight which is always nice to see, especially when Manu didn't fail to deliver. There will also be tons more buying his jersey after his performance tonight.


It was also nice to see Horry and Manu joke around with silly shots prior to the game. Manu was sitting down on the floor while trying to shoot 3 pointers. He went 1/7 or something, which incidentally is about 9 percentage points higher than Stoudamire over his last 3 games.

Hmmmm

Fabrico, Manu, and Delfino got together prior to the game and it sounded like Manu was saying "I'm gonna destroy you guys tonight and go for 34 and 14" in argentinian, but I think Delfino thought he was kidding.


As for the game itself, I learned a couple of things in person:


First off, Francisco Elson S U C K S

Like wow. I think some of the Raptor fans felt that he was some tall dude that won a radio contest to play for the Spurs because he looked lost out there. His "jumper" is beyond terrible, and you don't realize how atrocious his D is until you see him walking around like a headless chicken. Once again, you could probably see all of that on TV, but in person it's just......terrifying.



Duncan is godly.

His patience and footwork is something to really behold. I loved watching him in person just pick apart the defense. He makes it look so easy, it's ridiculous.

The most comical moment of the night was thanks to Mr. TD when he committed a blatant shooting foul and immediately got all bug eyed and went up to the ref and asked "what happened"?

My entire row started cracking up. (maybe you had to be there)



Manu is crazy crazy intense. He was more than just on fire because when he was out there his body was literally red all over. The crowd would groan every time he had the ball after halftime, and would yell "Nooooooooo" every time he shot the 3 ball. He won a lot of fans tonight.


Bruce Bowen has skinny legs.


Either Fabricio Oberto is growing a rodeo road trip beard or he has officially become homeless. He looked like he rolled out of bed and hadn't shaved since the Rockets were in title contention. His hair looked brutal too, but as long as his strong rebounding performances continue, I'll leave all the hygene complaints to Mrs. Oberto.


As for my quick closing thoughts, the one thing I truly hate about NBA games in person is the obnoxious commercialism that plagues today's games. I understand it's a business blah blah blah, but I swear I thought I was getting epilepsy with all the annoying lights flashing and the fact that every time I would try to see the player stats they would be interrupted every 30 seconds with Miller Lite advertisements.

The music was the WORST. Not only would this horrific dance music from 1991 be played during GAME TIME, but it was so loud that I had finally understood why the Spurs fourth quarter execution sometimes sucks.....they simply can't hear Pop during timeouts. I couldn't even hear the person next to me when making small talk. To top it all off, Toronto might have had the ugliest cheerleaders in history. I mean, for a city with a population of 7 million, these were the 12 best broads you could bring out? I almost begged for Bonner in a mini skirt at this point.


My apologies for this being a novel and a half, I'm now gonna get to the pictures (which are gonna be disappointing unfortunately):

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0563.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0504.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0507.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0511.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0524.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0526.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0531.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0542.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0550.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0552.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0553.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0554.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0555.jpg

[jag]

Great pics, great write up...you got some excellent seats.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

I was afraid the write up was too wordy, and the jokes were too terrible, but thank you!

[Hemotivo]

great!
:tu
thankyou

[duncan228]

I also noticed how Timmy is ALWAYS taking the initiative to applaud his teammates. Whether it was patting Jacque Vaughn on the head and telling him not to worry about forcing a timeout, or tapping Oberto on the head playfully for getting a little down on himself for committing the foul. You could probably see all these things on TV to an extent, but in person it just gives you a whole new perspective/appreciation for the team. .

Duncan is godly.

His patience and footwork is something to really behold. I loved watching him in person just pick apart the defense. He makes it look so easy, it's ridiculous.

The most comical moment of the night was thanks to Mr. TD when he committed a blatant shooting foul and immediately got all bug eyed and went up to the ref and asked "what happened"?

My entire row started cracking up. (maybe you had to be there)


Thanks for the wonderful recap.

I appreciate the detail. I've had thoses kinds of seats for games but never for the Spurs. It's my biggest personal wish, to be able to see the Spurs play in great seats...and to see Duncan put on a performance live like you had Manu do for you.

Thanks also for the Duncan moments. I do see his patience and footwork on TV, I can only imagine how breathtaking it must be in person.

The pics are great, thanks for sharing.

Getting recaps like this is as close to being there that I can get having watched the game on TV.
Appreciate your time and effort in putting it together for us.

[lefty]

A friend and I had the exact same seats in a Raps-Heat game !!!!!!

Way to go "seats buddy" :elephant :elephant

[san antonio spurs]

I was afraid the write up was too wordy, and the jokes were too terrible, but thank you!
Great recap and pics Amused.
Where do you live? I usually go to all spurs raptors games in TO but couldn't for this one. Maybe we can have a GTG of our own next year at the Air Canada center.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

I live way up north in the maple/vaughn area (next to richmond hill)

I also work the ticketmaster outlet so if you ever need help with finding specific raptor seats lemme know.

Although I graduate in May, I really hope I'm not still working the same ticketmaster job next season! :)

[lefty]

Great recap and pics Amused.
Where do you live? I usually go to all spurs raptors games in TO but couldn't for this one. Maybe we can have a GTG of our own next year at the Air Canada center.

I wanted to go to that one too but I couldn't (ah work !!) (I live in Montreal)

It should have been a Sunday game !!! :madrun :madrun

[xamila rey]

it was a really nice recap, i really like it! thanx for sharing ur experience.
I am going to see the spurs on march 2, hopefully i can get nice pixs like urs.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Hopefully next season (or maybe in the Finals.....ahhh who am I kidding) we can arrange a toronto GTG.

I am always impressed with the Spurs fans turnout at these Rap games.

[lefty]

I live way up north in the maple/vaughn area (next to richmond hill)

I also work the ticketmaster outlet so if you ever need help with finding specific raptor seats lemme know.

Although I graduate in May, I really hope I'm not still working the same ticketmaster job next season! :)

Can you repeat that ?

http://www.movieprop.com/tvandmovie/Seinfeld/jackie.jpg

[jag]

Hopefully next season (or maybe in the Finals.....ahhh who am I kidding) we can arrange a toronto GTG.

I am always impressed with the Spurs fans turnout at these Rap games.

How did you happen to become a Spurs fan?

[Amuseddaysleeper]

it was a really nice recap, i really like it! thanx for sharing ur experience.
I am going to see the spurs on march 2, hopefully i can get nice pixs like urs.


I wanted to get more action pics but they came out blurry.

i also wish this pic came out more in focus, as I love this pose from TD:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0529.jpg

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

Nice recap :tu

and cool pics from courtside

Wasn't wordy or anything at all; pretty lucky game to go all out on, too
because the Spurs played really well tonight

[duncan228]

I think we all love the pre game ball hug.

[san antonio spurs]

Oh great, I work now in Quebec City and come very often in Toronto and Montreal for work. We can GTG definetely next year for the spurs game.

[lefty]

Oh great, I work now in Quebec City and come very often in Toronto and Montreal for work. We can GTG definetely next year for the spurs game.

That's a good idea

[Amuseddaysleeper]

How did you happen to become a Spurs fan?


Umm to make a long story short:


I grew up in Saudi Arabia and we had this american family that would sell basketball cards. We would only get like 2 games a week (at 3 in the morning) so it was hard to accurately follow basketball. I was 12 at the time.

My friends and I decided to pick our favorite player randomly. I simply settled on David Robinson because he was left handed like I was.

I went on to garner 240 different D Rob cards (which I still own to this day 12 years later)


I moved to the states in 1998 (atlanta) and was able to follow the spurs much more closely, and have been an upbeat glass is always full fan ever since :)

[lefty]

Umm to make a long story short:


I grew up in Saudi Arabia and we had this american family that would sell basketball cards. We would only get like 2 games a week (at 3 in the morning) so it was hard to accurately follow basketball. I was 12 at the time.

My friends and I decided to pick our favorite player randomly. I simply settled on David Robinson because he was left handed like I was.

I went on to garner 240 different D Rob cards (which I still own to this day 12 years later)


I moved to the states in 1998 (atlanta) and was able to follow the spurs much more closely, and have been an upbeat glass is always full fan ever since :)


Exact same thing for me !!!!!! :dizzy :dizzy :dizzy :toast :toast

[Amuseddaysleeper]

haha no way

That's hilarious.

You shoulda seen the look on my face when my friend told me SA had gone 20-62 that season :lol

[san antonio spurs]

But I have a question for you guys. Lefty is from Algeria and Amused from Saudi Arabia which tells me you must be muslims. Will I be allowed to drink with you guys :depressed ?

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

The most comical moment of the night was thanks to Mr. TD when he committed a blatant shooting foul and immediately got all bug eyed and went up to the ref and asked "what happened"?

My entire row started cracking up. (maybe you had to be there)
:lol
I don't think i get sick of Duncan's innocence plea, when on t.v., it must have been hilarious to see it up close.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

I'm not as uhh good of a muslim as I should be :oops


I'll leave it at that!

[lefty]

haha no way

That's hilarious.

You shoulda seen the look on my face when my friend told me SA had gone 20-62 that season :lol

Tough news indeed.

I was in Algeria in 1992, watching the pre-olympic tournament in Portland; I fell in love with D-Rob because he was a lefty (yeah Mullin was the other lefty, but David was so impressive) like me.

Thus my Spurstalk username....(plus I love Manu who's a lefty too)

[jag]

Umm to make a long story short:


I grew up in Saudi Arabia and we had this american family that would sell basketball cards. We would only get like 2 games a week (at 3 in the morning) so it was hard to accurately follow basketball. I was 12 at the time.

My friends and I decided to pick our favorite player randomly. I simply settled on David Robinson because he was left handed like I was.

I went on to garner 240 different D Rob cards (which I still own to this day 12 years later)


I moved to the states in 1998 (atlanta) and was able to follow the spurs much more closely, and have been an upbeat glass is always full fan ever since :)

Interesting story, i guess it's funny how things work out like that.

In a way i'd like to think of you as a lucky guy...there was always that small chance you could have picked Raef LaFrentz...another "sharp-shooting" lefty. There's no telling how your NBA experience over the course of your life would have changed.

:toast

[lefty]

But I have a question for you guys. Lefty is from Algeria and Amused from Saudi Arabia which tells me you must be muslims. Will I be allowed to drink with you guys :depressed ?

Alcohol and women are always welcome in my (small) harem

[mrsmaalox]

That is so cool; sounds like you had a wonderful time! Thanks for the recap and your pics are :tu

[Amuseddaysleeper]

:lol
I don't think i get sick of Duncan's innocence plea, when on t.v., it must have been hilarious to see it up close.


When Duncan retires they need to come out with a Bug Eyed dance or something in his honor

I also love how he runs with his thumbs up.

He's got these "surf's up!" motions with his hands when he jogs.

He's definitely unique :lol

[Amuseddaysleeper]

thanks again guys!

[san antonio spurs]

I'm not as uhh good of a muslim as I should be :oops


I'll leave it at that!
Works for me :smokin

[lefty]

Works for me :smokin

ME too!!!

[san antonio spurs]

Alcohol and women are always welcome in my (small) harem
:lol

[ShoogarBear]

I wanted to tell him that I modeled my game after his, and to prove it, I was leading my men's league in turnovers......but I simply smiled and thanked him for his time.

:lol


To top it all off, Toronto might have had the ugliest cheerleaders in history. I mean, for a city with a population of 7 million, these were the 12 best broads you could bring out?

Oh, man. I've been to Toronto. There is no lack of quality there. This just proves it's not really a basketball town.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

yeah, the women up here normally aren't too shabby at all, but the cheerleaders were just......discouraging.

I think The Raps are lucky to be in a town with such a big population that you're bound to get enough people to pack a game almost by default. Of all the Raptor games I've been to, the only one that had a great crowd was game 1 against the Nets (for obvious reasons).

[J.T.]

Cool pics. :tu

Told ya Manu was nice and signed everyone's stuff. Isn't his signature pretty wack though?

[Amuseddaysleeper]

haha, yeah for all i know he could've scribbled a curse word in spanish and put the number 20 next to it and I wouldn't have known the difference :)

[timvp]

Very nicely done. Glad it went well for you :tu

They showed a bunch of Spurs fans wearing Manu jersey's on the telecast. Perhaps you were one of them . . .

And uh, if we ever need a big game from Manu, you need to sit first row again.

Thanks.

[Kori Ellis]

Great pics and recap :tu

Very cool story about how you became a Spurs fan too.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

thanks guys

much appreciated :)

[J.T.]

Yeah, neat story. Puts my story about becoming a Colts fan to shame.

[carina_gino20]

Wow. It's cool that you had a very nice time there. And Manu and the Spurs didn't disappoint you. It's really cool sitting behind a team and seeing the little details you never see on tv. Too bad for me, because the one time I sat behind a bench, it was behind the Argentine NT and I couldn't understand what they were saying. :lol


Very nice recap and it doesn't matter that the pics were a bit blurry. :tu

[Deimosfobos]

Great recap... i would love to see the spurs in person, close to the court. In a few months i´ll go to Vancouver, canada for 2 years, maybe i will make a trip to one game.

[amy020]

thank you very much

[ploto]

Glad you had a great time.

[greens]

I was afraid the write up was too wordy, and the jokes were too terrible, but thank you!



Thank you very much for the recap and the pix! Your jokes and comments were awesome!

I always enjoy reading recaps from fans. And there is nothing like having good seats for a Spurs game.

I found it funny how you said...Bruce Bowen has skinny legs!

And on tv, it truly shows what an amazing leader TD is. One of the things I really like about TD is that he's always applauding and giving props to his teammates. He's very supportive. I also really liked how at the end of the first half, after Manu had that incredible start, when they were in the timeout, TD was patting Manu on the back...giving him support...I guess just applauding him for a good first half in a way...

And I've noticed that Manu signs autographs all the time, even on the road games...you see that in photos all the time. I'm glad you got to see him during an amazing game of his...And I'm glad that you got the chance to meet him.

Oh, did you hear what Pop said to get the T during the game?

[Spursofthemoment]

Great recap and pictures! It's hard not to like them even more after seeing a good game isn't it? They are exactly what team work should be. Even when it goes wrong you can tell they all feel at fault. If more teams were that way....well it would be harder for the Spurs to win so nevermind!

You got high scoring Manu, I'm jealous.lol

[genomefreak13]

Looks like you had a great time. I wish I could also see they play live. Thanks for sharing the pictures. If it's not too much to ask do you have an action picture with Timmy in it? can you also post it? Really appreciate if you can. Thanks!

[WalterBenitez]

Great pics!, nice comments, thanks.

[SouthernFried]

Wonderful recap and story.

[remingtonbo2001]

Great Pics

It's always nice to hear another Spurs fan talk about their love for 5 OH! :)

[Slomo]

...
Getting recaps like this is as close to being there that I can get having watched the game on TV.
Appreciate your time and effort in putting it together for us.This has been said many times, but it bares repeating, since this is the best way for us out of (San Antonio) towners to get glimpses into our favourite team.

Thanks again Amuseddaysleeper!

[Taco]

Nice Amuseddaysleeper!!!

Thanks for posting!!!!

[urunobili]

VERY nice recap and photos! thank you for sharing this with us!

[MoSpur]

Thanks for sharing. Glad you had a good time.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Looks like you had a great time. I wish I could also see they play live. Thanks for sharing the pictures. If it's not too much to ask do you have an action picture with Timmy in it? can you also post it? Really appreciate if you can. Thanks!



The closest thing I have to a TD action pic is this:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b395/Amuseddaysleeper/DSC_0535.jpg


I don't know what happened, I think I got too caught up with the Spurs to really stop and take some quality photos. So I mostly took pictures during dead balls and timeouts. I do kinda regret that, but oh well.


greens - I couldn't tell what Pop was saying. All I know is that he took one step onto the court and was pointing at one of the refs, and then he got T'd up.


and once again, thanks a ton for all the nice compliments everyone :toast

[Spurs Brazil]

Thanks for the pics and recap

[duncan228]

Thanks for more Duncan pics.
Even a little blurry they're great and much appreciated!

[Phenomanul]

Thanks for more Duncan pics.
Even a little blurry they're great and much appreciated!


I have one from a 2001 game where I sat right behind the Spurs' bench at Boston (when it was called the Fleetcenter). Duncan is standing behind Robinson, about 2 feet behind him, but leaning forward; his head was resting on Robinson's back. I thought it was an endearing "father & son" moment, until I realized Duncan was only using Robinson to stretch out his neck.

[duncan228]

I have one from a 2001 game where I sat right behind the Spurs' bench at Boston (when it was called the Fleetcenter). Duncan is standing behind Robinson, about 2 feet behind him, but leaning forward; his head was resting on Robinson's back. I thought it was an endearing "father & son" moment, until I realized Duncan was only using Robinson to stretch out his neck.

Do you have it handy to post? :)

[Phenomanul]

Do you have it handy to post? :)


No... I'd have to scan it first. But I'll try to remember to do just that sometime this week. :spin