nygamereport

August 21, 2003
Madison Square Garden
New York, New York

6:00 PM Hour and a half till gametime
Me and my brother arrive at the Garden, and already the place is packed. Basically everyone is in And 1, head to toe. I remembered that I forgot to bring a camera, so I ran back down to Penn Station to get one. Big fucking ripoff: $24.50 for a disposible camera with flash. So I took to the one without flash, for only $12.50, something that I would regret later. Before I entered the main doors, this guy asked me if I wanted to fill out a survey for And 1 and in return they'd give me a free CD. I said OK, cus I had plenty of time to burn, and walked over to this long table with a shit load of people crowded around it. Most of the questions were a bunch of bullshit, asking where I heard about And 1 and how often I access the internet. Then I turned the page and saw the question: "Name, if you can, 3 NBA players endorsed by And 1." I could hear a lot of people around me asking each other the answers. I heard one guy say, "Umm.. what's that nigga's name, the dude wit the 'fro?" I scribbled in, "Skip, Ben Wallace, and Ricky Davis." Then "Name, if you can, 3 And 1Streetball players." Easy. "Skip, Shane, Main Event." (My three favorites.) Then two questions were "Name your favorite streetball player" and "...your favorite NBA player." I answered Skip for both of 'em. Then, in a shamless plug, I wrote my website underneath the question asking for my e-mail address. Chyea.

6:05 PM
I enter the main doors, after getting my free CD, to see Main Event and Shane behind velvet ropes being interviewed and talking to the crowd. My guess is it was for the Streetball show on ESPN. Security wasn't letting the fans go to their seats yet, so everybody was just standing around. Shane was holding his kid in his hands, and would randomly mumble some shit out to the crowd, getting a reaction. Then security told them that they had to go to the locker rooms, cus they were about to let everyone in.

6:25 PM
I finally get to my seat, we were the first ones in. The seats weren't bad, I mean they were close but the only thing was they were behind the basket so you couldn't get a good view. As I walk in I see that there is already a game running. They had that fucking New York Liberty floor down, and somehow it made the court look smaller than usual. I guess these were the open run games (they played about 3 games), with each team representing each borough. Escalade, Half Man, and Shane were announcing the game, terribly. Shane was mumbling so much I had no idea what he was saying. I recognized some of the players running the floor, there was Captain Nappy, I'll Be Right Back, Lenny Cooke, and others that I can't remember right now. On the sidelines I saw Bone Collector, don't know why he didn't play. Sitting next to him was the World Famous DJ Clue. They were at these nice courtside seats, later they were asked to move because they were in the wrong ones. I left my seat to walk over to the floor to get some pictures, I see Duke Tango behind the NY team's bench, talking to some people in the crowd. As I get closer, I see High Octane, Main Event, AO, Sik Wit It, and Flash walking around in the middle of the court during one of the games. They don't give a fuck. They players had to play around them. I took some pictures.

7:00 PM Half hour till gametime
With all of the open run games over, Main Event or Half Man, I forget which one, makes the announcement that they're gonna go back into the locker rooms and be out in about 20 mins. I walk over to the entrance to the locker rooms, and got some pictures of Clue, AO, Escalade, and Bone Collector. A couple minutes later, Bone comes back out to go back to his seat, but a security guard wouldn't let him walk across the court. He obviously didn't know who he was and/or didn't notice that he was just walking all over the court 10 minutes ago. They were in each other's face for a good 2 minutes, till Bone Collector finally backed away and went back into the stands and walked around the court. The bigger man walks away. And I got a picture of it.

7:45 PM 15 minutes past gametime
The players start filing out onto the court. Earlier I saw a family all rocking Skip To My Lou And 1 jerseys. I knew it had to be Skip's family. I figured that there was his mother, his stepfather - Steve Eleby, and his twin sister. There was also some little kids with them. All I can think is "Where's Skip?" I still didn't see him out there.

7:50 PM
A man steps out of the locker room, wearing a bright orange shirt with short sleeves that were really long. He had on jean shorts and was holding an And 1 shoe box under his arm. Everyone(players and media) starting walking up to him. Take a guess who it was. But why wasn't he dressed?

7:55 PM
The players from each team line up on each sideline. The lights go out. Then this group called Pitch Black comes out. They start to put on the worst performance ever. The crowd starts to grow even more impatient and boos the group till the end of the performance. Then, the starting lineups. First Team NYC is called out. Members of the team included Future, The Professor, The Franchise, Lenny Cooke, and others I don't remember. When it came time for the And 1 squad, all of the regulars were announced, with Hot Sauce recieving the loudest ovation. Duke Tango, the announcer, referred to nearly every player as his "son..." Even DJ Clue was announced. He was all suited up, head band and all. Didn't see a minute. Then Skip's name was called, followed by a "will not be playing tonight." The was a loud ovation, but most didn't applaud because they were shocked that he wasn't going to play. AO also was DNP.

The game was OK, but mostly disappointing. I'm probably just saying that cus Skip wasn't out there. I haven't seen this many missed layups in the WNBA. There were a lot of turnovers, mostly from players trying to do too much. But every once in a while when a player, mostly Hot Sauce, got the ball the whole Garden would stand up(which was really annoying because I couldn't see from my seats I had) and then they would do some crazy shit. No new moves really, nothing I haven't seen before from the past tapes. I don't know if it's because they held the game at the Knicks homecourt, but the score at the half was really low, with the And 1 squad up by 2 or 3.

HALFTIME
Skip was signing autographs for some kids after he was talking to some guy. I walked down and handed him my free CD that I got earlier. Our conversation went as follows:

   "Yo, how come you're not playin?"

   "I don't know, something with the NBA, they don't want their players to be involved."

   "...But you're not signed yet.."

   [No response.] He didn't look up because he was signing some girl's backs. He handed me back my CD.

   "Thanks."

I walked back to my seat, looking at the autograph. He signed it ,"Skip To My Lou." I guess when he's at a NBA game he signs "Rafer Alston" and at Rucker and And 1 games he signs "Skip." And oh yeah, I got pictures.

10:30 Final
The And 1 team lost, The Professor hit another clutch buzzer beater to give NYC the W. The crowd reacted like it was the infamous 4 Point Play by Larry Johnson a couple years back - except there was about half the crowd. Duke Tango made his traditional post game announcement: "Next time you take a shot, make sure it's over your opponent and not at your opponent..." then told the fans that the players were going to be signing autographs at gate 66. I went to gate 66, the line was long, really long. Fuck that. Me and my brother walked to the stairs to leave. I look up and whose in front of me? Future is walking out with I'm guessing his girlfriend. I didn't say anything to him.I thought it was cool how he walked out the front door like everyone else. Not to many people recognized him, but he did sign some autographs.

11:00
I walked out next to him where they were handing shit out like crazy on the street. I got a free Dr. Pepper, a Drag-On Promo CD, and a Converse Headband. I waited for a taxi (I had to go to Port Authority to get the bus) and next to me was Rafer's family again. I didn't say anything to them, even though I talked to Steve Eleby before. I'm kinda a pussy with all that. I just left them alone. The next day I emailed Steve and he wrote back to me:

"Hello #11,

     Yes that was us. Yes I was the one with the glasses, we are not like that you should have come over and said something. The girl with the braids was Rafer's twin sisiter. For some reason the NBA would not sanction the Garden. If he would have played he would have been fined $25,000. I wish you would have said something to us, his mother and I would have loved to talk to you. Feel free to get in touch with us anytime."

I should have.

Well, that's my report for the NYC game. The game probably wasn't as bad as I described, but I'm a diehard Skip fan and I was really disappointed. I still woulda made the same decision if I was Rafer, though. The pictures I took came out like garbage, but I'll still scan the best ones. I apologize to everyone, I shoulda spent another 12 bucks. I'm too much of a cheap ass.. Thanks for reading, I know it was a lot. Thanks to everyone who checks out the site. Peace.


back to :The Point God

MY PHOTOS WILL APPEAR HERE ONCE I GET THEM SCANNED.