It may cost a bit, but the most beautiful, unique seats in American sports can be found on the sidelines of an NBA basketball game. If you sit ‘courtside’, with your feet on the parquet, you can taste the sweat. The privilege has advantages and disadvantages: interaction between spectators and players is part of the game, but especially in the play-offs, currently in full swing, tempers can run high.
In the second game against New Orleans Pelicans, Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker ended up on his butt on the edge of the field last week after he shot from a difficult angle.
The American was at the feet of a father who took his baby from his lap and held it in the direction of Booker. The basketball player punched the kid and got up again. The touching moment was widely shared on social media.
Only in the NBA is such a scene possible. The front row seats are located less than two meters from the playing field, resulting in an unprecedented intimacy.
Thousands of dollars
The spectators they can afford will pay thousands of dollars for the seats. Those who wanted to attend the third game in the series between Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics on Saturday paid more than ten thousand dollars per ticket on resale sites. No seat was left empty.
In 2019, a record was set when two tickets for the final between Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors sold for a total of $ 130,000. It was the last game at the old Warriors stadium. The two supporters saw up close how the Raptors became champions.
Often there is talk between spectators and players. Sometimes it’s jokes, or pinpricks back and forth, usually in the spirit of healthy competition, but in recent years some supporters have pushed or crossed the line of the permissible.
In Boston, Kyrie Irving was constantly being cursed last week. The Brooklyn Nets playmaker was visiting his old club, the Celtics, which he had unexpectedly left several years ago.
Two middle fingers
Tired of the name-calling, Irving held up two middle fingers at the audience. The NBA fined him $50,000.
A year ago, a supporter, also then in Boston, threw a bottle of water at Irving. A series of incidents in the playoffs then showed the dark side of access that supporters enjoy in the NBA. Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks) was spat on in New York, Russell Westbrook (then Washington Wizards) was spit on a bowl of popcorn in Philadelphia.
“We’re people, not circus animals,” Kevin Durant said at the time of the incident involving his teammate Irving. Some onlookers seemed to have forgotten. The NBA responded by tightening its rules of conduct for the public. Violators are now more easily than before handed over to local authorities.
The agitated behavior of supporters would be due to the corona pandemic, some said. Others saw the influence of gambling that has become legal in more and more states. In the current play-offs, incidents such as those of last year have not yet occurred.
It is not always the most fanatical supporters who sit in front. In some major cities, the rows are populated by celebrities. Especially in New York and Los Angeles they jostle for the best spots. Former LA Lakers owner Jerry Buss started inviting stars to his club in the 1980s. Especially actor Jack Nicholson became part of the interior.
Rapper Drake
In Toronto, Canadian rapper Drake sits in the front row with the Raptors, in New York, with the Knicks, film director Spike Lee has his regular seat. Often the New Yorker gets excited screaming and stamping his feet into the game.
In addition to Lee, there are several A-category stars at every home game at Madison Square Garden, on the so-called Celebrity Row.
At the Knicks, a special department deals with inviting and posting the celebrities. They do not have to pay, on the condition that they are filmed for a screening on the large screens in the roof of the stadium. Regardless of the score, the biggest names invariably receive a standing ovation.
Taking a seat in the front rows is not without risk. Countless times throughout the season, players often dive after a ball at full speed to keep it within the lines. The millionaires sitting at the front are not spared.
At best, a drink, or sometimes a tray of beer, will fall. Other times, players lie on spectators’ laps or over their shoulders, their legs in the air. In 2015, a woman in the front row took the full 118 pounds of a diving LeBron James. Her expensive entrance ticket resulted in a concussion and a visit to the hospital.