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Saratoga2
12-28-2007, 12:01 PM
I was in Cleveland to visit family over the Christmas holiday and decided to take son in laws to the Cavaliers game against the Heat to see Lebron, Shaq and Dwayne. I hadn't been to an NBA games since I was a big fan of the Celtics as a young person.

I was amazed at how the TV time out has turned the game into a spectacle. There seemed to be 2 TV time outs per quarter, each of what seemed like more than 5 minutes. There were question and answer games, break dancers, guys jumping off of trampolines. The game was secondary to the rest it seemed. The Cavaliers provide large posters and encourage the fans to hold them up and wave them every time a Cav hits a 3. When that happens, we couldn't see the play at the other end.

The game featured Lebron trying to do a lot of one on one in the first half and Dwayne trying to do the same thing in the second half. Shaq is no longer a force on the floor. Foul shooting was on a par with what Duke has done recently. After laying out nearly $200 for tickets I had hoped for more and will forgo any further trips to an NBA game. Are all NBA games spectacles, or is it just in Cleveland.

Perhaps the advent of TV time outs has really hurt the pro game and the college game as well.

sagegrouse
12-28-2007, 12:15 PM
I agree with you about the circus surroundings distracting from the game.

I heard somewhere that these productions are done centrally by the NBA and provided to the teams for their (presumably optional) use. Does anyone know if that is true?

sagegrouse

weezie
12-28-2007, 12:32 PM
I hope you also enjoyed the endless cacaphony of music, sound effects, recorded clapping, trumpet sounds and drumbeats that make some NBA venues (DC can you hear me?) torture chambers. Fans are reduced to glazed eye, open-mouth stupors.

YmoBeThere
12-28-2007, 12:48 PM
It's been that way at NBA games for awhile. It has been a few years(4 or 5), but my experiences were similar...maybe less over the top.