Santa Cruz Warriors Game

Whether you like sports or not, specifically basketball, I am sure you heard that last night was Kobe Bryant's last game after having played for 20 years with the Los Angeles Lakers. Now I myself am not a Laker fan but I grew up watching this man playing, constantly hearing about all the GREAT things he did and all the records he was breaking. Regardless of my personal feelings about the team, there is no denying all the great things he accomplished and the five rings he got. So in somewhat of an honor of his retirement I decided to do a post about the first D (NBA Development) league game I went to with my friends.

I love basketball and I have a roommate who played for a good amount of her life so she really loves it. So this year, randomly, she asked me and Andrea if we wanted to go to Santa Cruz's last game of the season. Andrea and her have actually gone to a game every year so I was very happy I got invited this year as well. I have only ever been to Clipper's games, I have been to about 4 or 5 games I would say and while those are great, prices (especially now that they've become bigger) can get pretty high up there. Now I know you could get tickets like in the nose bleed seats but I just believe if I am going to go to a game, I want seats that are going to give me a better view, if not the same, that I would get if I stayed home and watched it. So the tickets in the area I usually sit at, aren't the cheapest. Any sports tickets in reality aren't always going to come cheap. But when I was invited to this game, I realized that there is a cheaper way to still get to experience the sports you love.

So we bought the tickets like 4 or 5 days before the game and we were still able to get good seats for $30. We bought and printed them out ourselves. The day of we got there about 10 minutes before the game was set to start but we got a little side tracked by these food trucks that were outside and conveniently had signs informing everyone that you were allowed to take the food into the venue, so of course we bought food. We did plan on going out to eat after the game ended but because it was around dinner time and none of us had eaten anything since lunch we all just got something to kind of hold us over. So I ordered cheese fries which Andrea and I ended up sharing and Lyla ordered a wrap of some sort with a fried artichoke inside. After we got our food we realized that not only had the game started but we now needed to wait in one of the many long lines to get into the stadium. We got in line and it ended up moving somewhat quick so we only ended up missing like 10 minutes of the game, but not an actual ten minutes because of time outs and foul balls and whatever. We got in, found our seats relatively quickly and sat down.

Now I don't know how all stadiums are or if they're the same for the most part but how I would describe the stadium the Warriors play at reminds me of like a high school gym, just maybe slightly bigger, depending on what high school you're comparing it to lol. But I really enjoyed that set up. As I said I love going to games, only if you are going to have a good view and I feel like even if you got tickets all the way at the top, it still wasn't a bad view of the game and I can only imagine how much those tickets are! I think the fact that the venue was smaller as played into the atmosphere of the fans and the stadium. It honestly just reminded me of being at a high school basketball game, I wanted to break out into cheer lol. But the fans were very active and loud and were constantly cheering, going along with all the little chants. The players were also so unbelievably close, it was cool. The environment was great and I feel like sometimes you lose that incredible fan experience in really big stadiums, unless it's a big game but that's different.

So we watched the whole game, which was intense. They were losing for I think until half time or maybe the third quarter, and then they caught up and it was just a constant back to back battle after that. Which I love because that means the game is good, it's unpredictable and it can take a turn at any minute! The game actually ended up going into over time! Which I loved. So we stayed for that and of course, they won! It was really cool when it came down to the last few seconds, the shot clock went out and all that was left was one possession. It ended and then we kind of ran to the lockerish area so we could say bye to the players as they went into their little tunnel. And then, we found out the players were going to come back out to sign autographs, which is SUPER COOL! How often does the NBA do that, for everyone that wishes to stay?! So after much debate we finally got in line and continued to wait by the locker area which was honestly so nifty (funny word) because when they came back out to go sit at the table, we stuck out our hand and a good amount of them, I think everyone but like one or two players, gave me a high five back. Then we continued to wait in the line until it was our turn and we just talked briefly to everyone on the team as we slid down the table with our free poster we got that they signed. And then it was over :(.

I was actually really sad when it ended but it was such a fun time, I want to go again and I want to try to go to more D league games, not just for basketball but for other sports as well. D league games, for any team near you, I would recommend, just try it out and go, even if it sucks, you will have gained an experience and not lost alot of money.