One of my favorite scenes from How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days is when Matthew McConaughey takes Kate Hudson to a basketball game and she has him running back and forth for concessions, causing him to miss most of the game. He of course, is compelled to keep her happy due to a bet.
Well, there was no bet on this date, and Bohdi and I had 12th row center court seats for the Miami Heat game. As a Los Angeles girl, I’d seen a Clipper game and too many Laker games to count, so I felt like I was cheating on my Lakers… for all of 5 minutes! At first I was jokingly pretentious, “Where is Jack Nicholson? Where is Diane Cannon? Where are the Laker Girls?”
But then the Miami Heat Dance team came out and when they did, they brought “the heat”… literally! They had cannons shooting fire and being in the 12th row, my eyebrows almost singed. It was freakin’ AWESOME! They 
have their own DJ, and while the seats were far from full, the crowd was ready to party!
The announcer was cracking me up! I wish this blog had a sound feature so I could imitate for you the way he said Lebron James and Dwyane Wade. I’ve got him down! If you ever see me on the street, ask me to do it!
After the first quarter, I was a Heat fan! I loved watching the teamwork (I’m used to “the Kobe show”) Lebron James and Dwyane Wade were so much fun to watch! And we were so close we could hear them talking, especially when Wade fouled one of the Detroit Pistons and tried convincing the ref, “He pushed me!”… uh, nice try, but even I could see it didn’t go down that way.
In between, the Miami Heat Dancers would come out and “dance” which I 
have to say, if there had been a pole, they would have been strippers, a far cry from the tie-dyed band that came out during a time out and danced with tubas- mad respect for tuba totin’ dancers!
But THE MOST exciting part was the halftime, half-court throw. I’ve seen this a ton of times, where they pull Joe Shmoe out of the crowd and he is supposed to throw a basketball from half court for money. No one makes it. The DJ pulls this guy out and tells him he can win $75K. He repeats this to the out-of-shape, short guy, at lest 5 times. And just as the guy is about to throw it the DJ yells in his ear, “75 Thousand Dollars!!” You could see the guy sweating on the jumbo tron. He hooks it over his shoulder, which from my perspective looked like it wasn’t going to make it even a quarter of the way, when suddenly.. Swooosh! No net! HOLY CRAP! The whole crowd jumped to our feet! We were going nuts! The DJ was going nuts! Joe Shmoe was standing in shock until Lebron ran out and tackled him! It was CRA-ZY!
And while the Heat won the game, I still think the $75K sink was the most exciting moment… the only exception possibly being Tom Cruise and his 
girlfriend sitting in the second row in front of us trying to avoid cameras in a baseball cap. I was so busy trying to get a picture to share with you, I missed most of the 2nd half. The irony was, when he got up to leave and I actually could get a shot of him, Tom turned out to be Christian Slater, which while disappointing to Bohdi, was still quite exciting to this Heathers fan.
Then in the last quarter, all of the fans were up on their feet flapping their arms yelling “Birdman”. I thought they were trying to psyche out one of the Pistons, though none of their names appeared to resemble the name bird or any kind of bird, so I was confused, until a Heat player with a Mohawk, completely covered in tattoos, came out on the court. He was Birdman and he was a little bit terrifying to look at… I mean, what is he going to look like when he’ 70? These are the things I think about. Maybe I was dehydrated at that point and needed water.
I think sport events make great dates! And this one was really fun!
I can totally see you getting into the game. Did you have any voice left the next day?
Great read. You totally captured the energy of the experience. 🙂
I still had my voice, though I was sore in weird places from the up and down chair dancing!
I’ve never had so much fun at an athletic event, especially given I wasn’t even there with you. 🙂
Wow Jess, I saw that 75K half court throw on the news, it was wild…..and you were there?!? What fun that had to have been — well actually I can see that it really was a fun time!
Uh, so what did you guys purchase from the concession stands?
How fun! I remember reading about the $75k shot and the tackle from Lebron. I can only imagine the frenzied energy in the building. Great date!
Did you know that Dwyane Wade is organized? I have a quote from him: “I’m organized. My house. My clothes. Everything looks nice. Suits with suits. Ties with ties. Matched out. I don’t feel like I can think in a sloppy environment.” 🙂
Love that! I bet Dwyane Wade has an awesome walk in closet!
Jessica,
I can relate to not immediately getting into the game but then being completely sucked in. That happened to me at my first Lakers game (not a sports fan but the owners box is not a bad place to be) and Seahawks (they were playing the Vikings and the people watching was insanely good).
Write on!~
Lisa Manyon
Wow, sounds like another awesome date! And I actually like Christian Slater more than Tom Cruise. Loved Heathers, too. 🙂
I so loved reading your rendition of getting swept up by the game – this is a perfect example of epigenetics or audience science – as humans there is nothing better than being in the energy of other humans all on the same wave length cheering on their favourite team – glad you had a blast!
Wow, what an exciting game – and to see that $75k shot and the tackle from Lebron! Glad to hear you had a fun date
Trudy
Sounds like you had fun at the game and had no relating with your date. You did not say one thing about how you guys got along, what you noticed about him, what you noticed about yourself with him. Shallow. You paid more attention to the game than you did to the guy you were with.
Clark, I can see how it seemed that way from this particular entry. People who’ve been following the blog know that this was my third date with Bohdi and that we’ve been spending a lot of time together in between. So, I will be more conscious to share the more personal details in the next entry. Thank you for pointing that out!
WOW! I’ve been there and seen all the people miss those shots. I can only image the excitement and intensity of that arena when THE shot was made! I love that you’re switching it up date wise … not everything has to be a mushy love fest, sometimes you just need to have fun … and know that you’re great friends as well as … well … I’ll leave that to you!
Gee, too bad you didn’t enjoy yourself… 😉
WOW!! I felt like I was THERE with you!! SUCH excitement. Thanks for sharing. You really do know how to ENJOY your life, Lady! Not everyone has fully developed that important life skill set. Brava, YOU!
Love,
Katherine
Author, Be True Rich
Be True Rich — love every moment of your life (like our gal Jessica demonstrates in every blog!)