You may recall last year I was excited about OU’s run through the NCAA tournament, resulting in a Final Four appearance. The team was led by senior Buddy Hield, who won several national player of the year awards, and was picked #6 in the NBA Draft by the New Orleans Pelicans. He grew up in the Bahamas, was an exciting player to watch, and seemed like a great guy, too. Genuine and full of enthusiasm.
So ever since the NBA season started, I had January 14th circled on my calendar. That was the day the Pelicans would come to Chicago to play the Bulls. I told myself if Buddy was getting playing time as a rookie, I would consider going. Well, he was getting playing time, a good 10-20 minutes per game, and he had made the starting lineup. He had also been getting better each month, and was named the Western Conference Rookie of the Month for December. All of this meant I decided to go to the game.
I checked nbatickets.com and found some surprisingly decent seats (3rd level, at center court, on the 2nd row) that weren’t too expensive. It probably helped that the Pelicans aren’t a good team. I bought the tickets, printed them out, and made our plans. On Saturday, we took the train to Chicago and then an Uber to the United Center. This was the first time we’d used Uber, and I think it was both cheaper and easier than getting a taxi.
This was also the first time I’d been to an NBA game. Here’s what went down:
The game started at 4pm, with gates opening at 2:30. We got there a few minutes before gates opened, and there were already a lot of people in line. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait long, and getting through the gates went quickly.
We walked around the arena for a bit and got to see the Bulls’ trophy case:
Then we found our seats and were fairly pleased with the view. We had seats at the end of the aisle, which was convenient.
There were lots of championship banners for the Bulls and Blackhawks, who also play in the United Center.
I spotted Joel Meyers, the play-by-play announcer for the Pelicans. I’ve watched him announce Big 12 football games on Fox in the past. He has a great voice, and is an excellent announcer. I really enjoy his commentary. When the NBA season started, I bought NBA League Pass so I could watch all the Pelicans games, and I was thrilled to see he was now calling games for them.
Buddy makes his first appearance! He's on the sideline in the hoodie.
Buddy then proceeds to make lots of 3 pointers during warm-ups:
A giant remote-controlled Bulls blimp flew around the stadium several times:
The announcement of the starting lineup for the Bulls was quite a dramatic event:
The Pelicans win the tip!
I was surprised how little of the game you could hear. There was music playing a fair amount of time, and we were far away from the court to begin with. I could hear the squeaks of sneakers, but it was hard to hear the whistle at times. And you couldn’t hear the ball bouncing on the court, or clanging off the rim. But still, it was fun to watch and experience. There was all kinds of entertainment going on during stoppages, so it never got boring.
Unfortunately, Buddy had one of his worst games in a while. He only scored 2 points and got 2 rebounds in 12 minutes of play. So that was disappointing. No one really expected the Pelicans to win, and they didn’t, but they did make a game of it. Dwayne Wade came through for the Bulls, though, hitting several clutch shots in the 4th quarter.
The final score was 107-99, Bulls. During the 4th quarter, Chick-fil-A ran a “Fowl Shot” promotion: if the Pelicans missed two consecutive free throws during the 4th, everyone in attendance would get a free chicken sandwich!
It was funny just how intense and loud the crowd got when the Pelicans shot a free throw. They really wanted that free chicken sandwich! But they were denied; the Pelicans made their free throws. The vegetarian part of me was secretly pleased.
After the game ended, we stayed in our seats for a while to let the crowd disperse. I noticed Buddy walk over and talk to Denzel Valentine, who plays for the Bulls. He’s also a rookie, and also won a few national player of the year awards last year.
When we left the United Center, it was time for dinner. I’d researched vegetarian options ahead of time, and we decided on a place called Native Foods Cafe. It was too far to walk, so we got another Uber ride.
The restaurant turned out to be really good! It’s actually a vegan restaurant, which means everything on their menu is plant-based. No dairy, eggs, or meat. Everything we had was delicious, and that included an oatmeal creme pie and a peanut butter parfait for dessert! It was so good that now I want to go back to Chicago so we can eat there again.
After dinner, since we were only a mile away, we walked back to the train station and eventually caught a train back home.
The whole trip was a lot of fun, with a lot of new adventures.