Although I'm definitely more of a baseball fan, the Arena is only about 5 minutes from my house, plus the event included a tour of the arena, as well as access to the shoot-around before hand. It was also opening night, and although the Kings were already 0-3, I figured it would be fun.
We first met at the security entrance to the arena, where a mural had just been completed for the 2009 season, featuring Kevin Martin, Jason Thompson, and Tyreke Evans.
Our meeting was actually held underneath Arco, which is basically just a bunch of tunnels filled with wires, pipes, and a lot of other random stuff. I don't think they've updated their "wall of TV's" for quite some time now.
As you might have guessed, the above is a row of the players cars. They just pull directly into the Arena, and park only a few steps from the locker room.
Every little bit of space seemed to be used for storage in one way or another. Hidden in one corner was a couple of extra backboards, as it's always good to have a few of those on hand.
When it was time to enter the actual arena, we got to go through the same tunnel that the players use, which was pretty cool. Basketball players definitely make much more of a grand entrance than those in baseball, who basically just walk out of the dugout.
We were there almost two hours before game time, and we're only a few rows off the floor for the shoot-around.
When game-time approached, we had to move back to our actual seats, which were still pretty good. We were told that Bobby Jackson (who has recently retired, and is now working with the Kings) had upgraded the seats from those that we were originally supposed to be given. Thanks Bobby!
P.S. The Kings beat the Memphis Grizzlies in overtime, for their first win of the season!
2 comments:
I'm from the same town as Kevin Martin and played softball with his dad for years. I've been out and he would be in the same place. Very relaxed guy and easy to talk to. He used to play in the Gus Macker tournament every year too.
From what I've heard, Martin does sound like a pretty cool guy, which you can't say about everyone in the NBA.
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