The Chris Moeller Archives

A night with the Bulls

On Saturday night, I attended my fourth NBA game ever and the first since the day Janet Jackson flashed her boob on national television (albeit at a different sporting venue later in the afternoon). The Chicago Bulls battled the Washington Wizards at the United Center in Chicago two nights ago and claimed a 117-110 victory. Hey, did you know Michael Jordan had retired?

I had last attended an NBA game in Chicago during the 1985-86 season at the old Stadium when Moses Malone and Julius Erving were still in uniform for the visiting Philadelphia 76ers. Jordan was in his sophomore professional season, but was sidelined at that time with a broken leg. The number of banners that hang from the building's rafters has changed dramatically since after six NBA Championships during the 1990s, but one thing that hasn't changed much is the number of banners on the opposing side of the arena. Chicago's Blackhawks of the NHL have still posted only three Stanley Cup championships-- in 1934, 1938, and 1961. (No foolin'-- here's a YouTube clip of action from their last championship victory.)

NBA scoreboards have gotten really fancy recently. Spectators can now follow the full statistics-- points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks-- of each of the ten players on the court. Like every other professional sporting venue today, the arena features the popular "kiss cam", in which heterosexual couples seated in the lower level seats are captured on video during breaks in the sporting action and must respond to public prodding by smooching with their significant other. The United Center adds the fresh angle of mixing in couples seated together that they must know are not actually together.

In keeping with this theme of embarrassing people who payed upwards of 50 to 70 dollars for a seat at the game, they also employ a device called "the oblivious cam", which focuses its lens on an unsuspecting customer staring off into space and tallys the number of seconds until that person notices everyone in a 16-square-block area is laughing at them.

On the upside, my donut won the Dunkin' Donuts scoreboard donut race so I won a free donut redeemable at any of their Chicagoland franchise locations, and since the Bulls scored more than 100 points and won the game, my game companion and I each won a free Big Mac at McDonalds.
Over all, I had an enjoyable time at the Bulls game. It was a little pricey, but I give the experience four out of six pizza slices on my evening fun-o-meter.

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There's a new title to rival Carrie Fisher's memoir at the sales counter this holiday shopping season. Stefan Kanfer, who penned a book already on my shelf called "Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx," has a new volume in hardback called "The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando."

If "you want something from an audience," the acclaimed actor Brando is quoted as saying, "you give blood to their fantasies. It's the ultimate hustle."

Great line. I give it five out of six pizza slices on my evening fun-o-meter.

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The Chicago Cubs are NOT bankrupt. I repeat, the Cubs are NOT bankrupt.

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It won't be God that bails out the automakers, it will be you and me.

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Quote of the day: "We are giving them how much money? For whatever it is, we should get the (playoff) tickets for free."-- New York City's then-deputy major Dan Doctoroff, in an internal email from City Hall in 2006, but disclosed publicly by a state assemblyman last week. Doctoroff is discussing with another city official the luxury perks negotiated for said officials between the city and the Mets baseball club in exchange for the city's multi-million dollar largesse of tax breaks-- a largesse bestowed, to be more precise though, by the taxpaying public. The Mets and Yankees have both received hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies for new stadiums to be opened next year.

posted by CM @ 10:15 PM