New Experience

So yesterday I witnessed my first game seven in person. My brother, friend, and I attended the Hawks and Bucks game yesterday. We bought our tickets at the stadium, and the ticket vendor told us we only had two options, either the upper deck "nose-bleed seats," or mid level seats. We sprung for the lower level seats, which are a little further away than we are accustomed(I've been spoiled by my brother's occasional corporate tickets).

From when we sat down, until probably the middle of the second quarter, most of the stadium was sparsely populated. It was shocking, and a little annoying. Usually the place is quite ruckus, and wild. Maybe it was because it was a Sunday afternoon, or that there was a Braves game going on at the same time. But when the Hawks had built a nice double digit cushion, I looked around again to see the place filled. It wasn't as color coordinated as the Oklahoma City games, where I'm pretty certain they just hand out blue t-shirts, but there was a considerable amount of white throughout the crowd, but not enough for me to consider it to be a "white-out."

The place really started to explode in the second quarter as they built a twenty point lead. Everyone was getting into it, including us. I don't normally do the "D-Fense," chants and such, but we were screaming myself hoarse. A vendor even came by all the rows and handed out noisemakers to boost some crowd involvement. Needless to say, we tried to distract the Bucks foul shooters with them. But as quickly as the crowd got into it, the air was sucked out of the stadium in the last two minutes of the first half when the Hawks had a defensive lapse, and the Bucks closed the gap.

The Hawks came out after halftime and dominated throughout the rest of the game. The crowd was loud and even proved adversarial to a cheesehead Bucks fan sitting a few rows down and to the right from us. They kept showing him on the big screen, and the crowd rained down boos on the man. I have some respect for that fan, because whether he came from another state, or lived in Atlanta, he still showed a lot of heart in a hostile environment and supported his team through thick and thin, holding up a "Fear the Deer" sign even down twenty in the fourth quarter.

It was an amazing experience, and for those of you who are fortunate to have the opportunity to go to a playoff game, do it! You won't be disappointed.