Wind In My Head: Slam Dunk
Wind In My Head
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Slam Dunk
On Wednesday night, I went to my first professional basketball match. I have been to school games, court side at that with the opportunity to get splashed with the sweat of 18 year olds. But this is my first real pro game, in an airconditioned venue, cheerleader girls and hotdogs from stands. The only problem was that we didn't have foam fingers that we could buy.The game was between the Singapore Slingers and the Perth Wildcats. The Wildcats won, 107-100 and by the end of the match, I could convincingly yell "DEE-FENCE!" and an occasional "GO SLINGERS GO!".
I wish the stadium was more filled with spectators though, it would have made it all the more exciting. As it is, I think there were about 1000 of us and a good percentage of them were caucasians. In fact, the loudest Slinger fan was an Aussie bloke who seemed to have lungs of steel and could belt out cheers for the Slingers a million times better than the Slinger girls who were a sad sad excuse for cheerleaders. Mr Cheerleader singlehandedly managed to rally all the Slinger fans behind his cheers, me included. The Slinger girls, well, were not very athletic, not very spunky, not very peppy, not very good looking and not very inspiring, cheer wise.
And yes, they are twirling Chinese fans around, all lending to the whole Caucasian stereotype of the Oriental mystique. Bah.
Also, it reminded me a little bit of Veronica Mars (my new favourite tv show), not.
LILLY: Why’d you join Pep Squad, Veronica?
VERONICA: Umm, the PE credit. You?
LILLY: Veronica, I suffer from too much pep. I needed a pep outlet.
Pep that the Slinger girls sorely sorely lack and desperately need.
Thank goodness the basketball action was fun enough but it did mean that time outs weren't really welcomed. I went away from the game, a little hoarse and a whole lot more educated. It didn't make me want to go out and play some ball though. Some tell me that 19 was a really old age to start ballet, but starting basketball at 30, erm, no thank you. I can't even shoot tissue paper straight into the waste basket from 2 ft away properly, let alone a huge basketball from 20 ft like this Slinger dude.
.Much less slam dunk like this dude.
In ballet, I was told that I had wonderful elevation and "hang time" when I jumped, but I don't think I could have, on my best day, do that, unless I had rocket launchers on my feet!
But it was good fun, especially since it made mid week seem a lot more bearable. The kids that were there seemed to have had a whole lot of fun too, especially since it was a school night, but I would much rather my kids be watching that than stuck in front of the television/playstation/computer.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, basketball game, Singapore Slingers, Perth Wildcats
Ondine tossed this thought in at 12:35