Chris had given me two tickets to a Suns game as part of my Christmas gift. It was Sunday's game against the Dallas Mavericks (April 1) - an excellent choice. The tickets were located on the upper level behind the basket - not normally considered a prime location, but it is my favorite place to watch basketball. On TV, I'm always complaining that the camera focuses too closely on the ball, and after a made basket, focuses on the scorer while ignoring the entire setup of the next possession. From this location we had a great view of the entire sequencing of each possession.
And the Suns are the right team to make this particularly interesting. The best play was an oft-repeated favorite where Leandro Barbosa cuts back-door while Steve Nash throws a bounce pass through a keyhole. It was fun being able to see them peeking at each other down the court while setting this up. The short video below (from a Sacramento game) shows how well this works (complete with the camera missing most of a play while focusing on the scorer from a play that's already history). Three straight trips, Nash-to-Barbosa! This is how basketball is supposed to look. By the third time, the defenders appear to realize they have a problem.
By the way, the Suns won in a blow-out over the team with the best record in the league. So that was fun. Plus the section beside us had some mouthy-but-funny fans who said unkind things about Dirk Nowitzki. And the NBA is just awesome in general. (Don't get me started about the college game.) You can read about the game here.
The team handed out "thunder stix" to fans in our general area, and Patricia finagled a set. It's not clear that every fan should be entrusted with these devices. Look at the photo, you can tell she was having too much fun.
So now our Christmas gifts are pretty much fully realized. All that's left are a few cookies packed and shipped to Patricia from Iowa. But it's already April, so we enjoyed great mileage out of this year's gifts.
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