Courtside With The Jazz

I had to work the day after Thanksgiving. Most people would dread working the day after the holiday, but I actually don’t mind it because nobody is in and there is usually nothing to do.

Out of the blue, I received a text from my awesome friend who invited me to sit courtside for the Utah Jazz vs. New Jersey Nets game on Saturday night!

Holy Radical! I’ve been to several Jazz games in the past. I have even sat in the Huntsman suite, but nothing could have prepared me to an entire game right next to the Jazz bench.

Plus we weren’t looking at the back of their heads. We were perpendicular to them so we could watch the bench the entire game! It’s almost like we were an extension of the bench. We could hear almost everything said from the coaches, players, refs, and opposing team.

It all started out with glorious parking right next to the Arena with the 100 Club. Then we were treated to a glorious pre-game meal with shrimp scampi, beef tenderloin and ice cream that we could bring down to our courtside seats!

Jon, Alex, Jen and I were practically jumping up and down in sheer joy as we approached our seats. Ok, ok. Jen and I were literally (not figuratively) jumping up and down in glee as we approached our seats.




We were able to scream stuff at the Nets like “Hey Sean Williams! Boston College called and they wanted their integrity back!” (he was busted for a lot of stuff in college). Or “Hey Rookie! Is it OK if I call you B-Lo? (Brooke Lopez shortened like Jennifer Lopez aka J-Lo).

I even learned the ref's name and was yelling fun stuff back at them. It’s amazing how the rich people sitting around us acted just as childish as I was.

The Jazz were down by almost twenty points to start the fourth quarter and I yelled out “Hey C.J. This is OUR house!” and he looked at me and he seriously looked disappointed that he was letting us down. Yeah, that’s right! He acknowledged me, but looked seriously concerned that he had personally let me down. The look on his face and the nod from him showed that he practically took it personally. He is now in my Top 5 of Jazz players.

But honestly, even though the Jazz ended up losing, it was an incredible experience. I was able to watch my favorite dunker of all-time (Vince Carter) and feel like I really was an extension of the team.

It’s practically motivated me to start a business so that if it were successful, I’d be able to afford to attend games like this all the time! (if anybody has any good ideas, just let me know…)

So here is a quick recap of all the Jazz games so that I can get caught up for the month of November:

November 17th - Jazz 109 Phoenix 97: I had nose-bleed tickets to this game but ended up attending a friend's wedding banquet. The Jazz were without Deron and Okur, but AK47, Brevin Knight, and (gasp!) Jarron Collins actually stepped up for this one. Shaq was held to one rebound and the Jazz blocked him three straight times in the 4th quarter for the win!

November 19th - Jazz 105 Milwaukee 94: Deron and Brevin Knight were both out, so Ronnie Price was the only point guard on the Jazz roster. He played a season-high 40 minutes while C.J. Miles (my new favorite Jazz player this month) scored a season-high 25 points to lead the Jazz to victory!

November 21st - Spurs 119 Jazz 94: No Boozer, Deron or Kyle Korver, but the Jazz actually played pretty well. The only problem: The Spurs shot the lights out! They made 15 of 25 three-pointers that led to a blowout.

November 22nd - Jazz 102 Memphis 94: No Boozer, no Deron, and no Korver. No problem. The Grizzlies are so young and bad, that the Jazz actually won the second game of a back-to-back on the road. But holy cow, Rudy Gay of the Grizzlies can dunk! Mehmet Okur had his best game of the season.

November 24th - Chicago Bulls 101 Jazz 100: No Boozer, no Deron, No Korver and no Harpring. The final 60 seconds of this game were insane with the Jazz and Bulls trading five buckets and no timeouts. Unfortunately, the Bulls missed their second to last shot, but the rebound bounced out to Bulls guard Larry Hughes who drained a difficult jumper as time expired to give the Bulls the win.

November 26th - Jazz 117 Memphis 100: Deron’s back! Deron finally came back from his ankle injury and dished out 15 assists in this blowout! Paul Millsap had a career night with 24 points and 16 rebounds while starting in place for Carlos Boozer, who has been out since bumping his knee in the Milwaukee game last week.

November 28th - Jazz 120 Sacramento 94: Another blowout thanks to the return of Deron Williams and a crappy opponent. The game was tied at the half, but the Jazz answered with 44 points in the 3rd quarter, including Williams bouncing a pass off the backboard alley-oop for a C.J. Miles dunk -- something John Stockton would have never done.

November 29th New Jersey Nets 105 Jazz 88: (revert back to beginning of article). Again a shout out to my friend Alex! One of the funnest nights of my life! It was nuts! And to make the night even better, we all went and played Gears of War 2 until 4 a.m.