Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Event or Game?

Went to watch the Rockets vs Grizzlies pre-season game yesterday at Toyota Center. Now all of us (Agnelites) grew up playing Basketball - we love the sport - playing it and even simply watching the intense inter-disctrict matches in Vashi ... flood-lights and all ... those days!
Circa 2006 - Houston - NBA ... move aside cement court and flood lights ... enter glossy wodden floors you can use as a mirror and air-conditioned arenas with comfortable seats ... hmmmm - this promised to be intersting -
Half naked cheerleaders with silver pom-poms, the Houston-Rockets mascot (a bear thingie riding a segway), Floor dancers, Power dancers, kiss cams, move-your-booty cams, dance cams , extremely clinical breaks (there was some entertainment at every time-out!) ...

We were losing (despite the amazing start) and still all the show-baazi continued ... unabated ... the mascot dude was in the stands entertaining people even when there was just 3 minutes left to play and the competition was fierce! All these characters were not even watching the game ... even this large group of dumb-asses (read Rockets fans) - who never stopped screaming - the 2.5 hours that we were there!

So here I am thinking ... am I watching sports or an event?
Was the game interspersed by these "entertainment" activities OR were the entertainment activities interspersed by the game!
In this country I can't tell! ... And I don't know what to make of it ...

3 comments:

brij said...

Personally I prefer sports as entertainment. It is surely ten times better than sports IS war.

Venky said...

I agree that sports is entertainment ... but it is basically a sport ... hence the confusion when other elements besides the sport take centrestage!
BTW - I dont think I completely understood the "sports IS war" comment.

De-Silva said...

For an actual play time of about 1 hour (12 mins * 4 periods plus 5 minute overtime(s) as I understand it), you said you stayed there for 2.5 hrs....what does that confirm for you? :-)

It's all about the glitz and the glamour and figuring out more ways to make you spend your money! :-) The sport itself has taken a back seat I feel.

I went to one baseball game in LA and decided that I'd had enough!