I went to both games and lived the whole experience of feeling the suns as your home team, loved every minute of it.
For the dallas game the arena was not full, there were some spots here and there but still the Najera effect (like you said) was still in effect, there are a lot of dallas jerseys and a lot of najera's. It would have been great to have him made an appearance, but I guess his boss would let him travel, i think he's the coach of the dallas Dleague team. his boss did made the trip actually (Cuban) and my mate and I were shouting to him all game long about why he traded Najera back in the day
You guys have talked about the performance of the team, i believe both teams were really struggling to keep up with the CDMX attitude or a different arena, lighting or something, thats why te game looked relaxed at times. I confirmed some thoughts I have about our team while watching on league pass and got some new insights from watching the game so close. There are many things you cant get thru the tv but you can catch live. I was sitted 4 rows behind the mass bench for the first game.
1. I hate Brandon Knight, ball hog, and a bad one, not like Thomas who would disrupt the offence to score by himself, Knight can't score and sometimes even take a decent shot. Seriously, bad trade whatever, just throw him away. I McD can get a 1st for him i will build him an altar in my backyard.
2. Love Tyson, the guy really tries for his age, he looked really fit live and still got some athletic ability, oviuoly life has sought up and he takes a few plays off but he can bring it when he wants. Also I have NO IDEA why he's not called for a moving screen on every screen he sets! really thats a bad habit but I guess the refs respect his status and calls him for it only once in the game, he still throws an elbow every pick to the little opposing PG
3. alan williams became some sort of ambassador for the suns and participated on several events around the game, too bad coach would not give him minutes, the fans would have recognised him, still his presence in the bench looked like the right kind of guy to have on the bench, jumping and rooting for the team all the time.
4. i was interviewed by Suns.com, hope to see that interview online sometime, the amazingly good looking reporter asked if i could speak english and then asked me classic questions about the suns, when I became a fan and all that, and asked me about my jersey, I guess she had no Idea Luis Scola have played for the suns. I was rocking my scola jersey (latin american legend!) my suns retro hat and my purple and orange barkleys!
5. The guy with the 'fro form in-house entertainment can speak spanish, that was nice, the crowd connected.
For the spurs game i was sited like 10 rows from the court on the opposite side of the benches, and i was sited 3 rows from commissioner adam silver, he was a very nice guy with everyone who asked for a picture, and i got to pickup a stat sheet the officials gave him, quite a nerdy souvenir, but it has the official attendance of the arena and the sweet words: "Brandon Knight DNP". He was fitted right next to amad rashad. maybe millennial kids don't know him and almost nobody asked him for a picture, but my mate got one with him and he seemed pleased and surprised, also Silver turned around surprised. Also quite a good guy, I asked him I he could give us the mobile number of his main man Michael Jordan.. and he laughed with his trademark laugh while shaking my hand. I mean, we grew up with inside stuff!
In the spurs game the suns sure looked like the team with a week in mexico already, thats what got us the W, the crowd was all pro Spurs at the beginning of the game, going crazy (reasonably) over Manu, but as the game went by the suns made them believers, really, all of the casual crowd went home a Suns fan, oh and the bootleg t-shirts outside the arena, by the end of saturday's game, all of bookers t-shirts were gone!
There's rumours that the suns want to make mexico a second home and come every year, If thats the case that's a great first step. Booker will love the mexican all star vote!
Overall, I had an amazing weekend. Loved both games and both experiences, I always go to the NBA Mexico game but having my team and eating the spurs will make this year the best. I saw the suns on preseason in 96 and 2009 but nothing compared to the regular season.
Some photos since i don't have you all on Facebook except for sose and charles_smith and Mori
