Cason's Commentary #3

For those of you wondering about our usual commentary from Brittney Cason about what's happening at Time Warner Cable Arena during Bobcat games, well we do have this commentary in which she posted from last week, and here is her latest entry from Bobcats Break.

As a nightlife writer for Charlotte’s most prominent weekly paper, I have come to the conclusion that Time Warner Cable Arena is the biggest bar in Charlotte. Granted, it’s a sporting complex and family friendly environment… but it has several bars within it that when combined, equates to being the biggest and best bar in Charlotte (Bar Bobcats). In addition to the many watering holes located all around the arena, there’s Back Court… a bar located behind the players tunnel on the floor level, Front Court… a bar located on the Founders level for club seat holders and those lucky enough to score a VIP pass, and Rock the Roof Top… a bar open to everyone and located on the 200 level outside section 217.

But the cocktails at the concession stands have very little to do with the overall appeal of the arena. The music they play is better than that of any club’s DJ or bar’s jukebox. I always find it hard to remain seated; I want to rush the court and dance with the Lady Cats. There’s even cool sound effects – especially when the Bobcats dunk the ball. It makes you feel like you’re in a video game. I found myself reaching for the B button to slam dunk… SWOOSH! But it’s not just a party, it’s a show … oh, and a game.

At the last party-show-game against the Portland Trailblazers, the Bobcats brass arranged for recording artist Mike Phillips to perform the National Anthem with his saxophone. He held a key for so long I thought he was going to pass out. I was applauding and cheering along with the rest of the arena. At halftime, he was back and performed for the arena along with a band.

I spent most of my night in Rock the Rooftop, which was… rockin’! I had lower level tickets, and I still opted to go to the 200 level because there’s not a bad seat in the house. Granted, I am a midget (or vertically challenged if you want to be PC about it), but the Bobcats are giants, thus from up high they look normal sized.

Across from the rooftop bar is a mini basketball court where kids can play full-on mini games of basketball. I wanted to play and was actually tempted to stand in line with the kids, but then realized that not only would I most likely be dominated by a 10-year-old, but that I would probably weird out the kids and their parents.

As for the game… it was a close one, which resulted in a very dramatic finish. When a fourth quarter battle for the ball escalated into a bit of a frenzy between the players, the savvy Bobcats production team started playing “Why can’t we be friends?” I admire how the Bobcats promote peace. But the highlight was when Greg Oden from the Trailblazers fouled out. I was singing “Hit the road Jack” with the rest of the arena.

Even though the Bobcats lost, they played hard… and the crowd still had a great time.

The next home game is Sunday, Nov. 22 (which is SpongeBob Square Pants night at the arena). Now I know it’s for the kids, but don’t pretend like you’re not excited too. Because I know I am.

"The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of Brittney Cason and do not necessarily reflect those of the Charlotte Bobcats, its staff, management, or ownership."

Cason's Commentary: Checking Out the Scene

We have got another installment of "Cason's Commentary" from Brittney Cason over at Bobcats Break, and in this edition, she talks about the atmosphere at a Bobcats game. And as always, "The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of Brittney Cason and do not necessarily reflect those of the Charlotte Bobcats, its staff, management, or ownership."

I remember my first Bobcats game. It was both mine and the Bobcats first year in Charlotte – and it was my first NBA game… ever. I was scheduled to work my part-time gig at the time, but my friend invited me to the game with the lure of really good seats and promise of nachos. So, I faked a sickness and utilized a sick day I’d been hording to go to the game. And considering from that point on, I have coined going to the games as my “favorite thing to do in Charlotte,” I feel as though I had just cause.

The games are a good time from the very beginning. For starters, the Bobcats have quite a dramatic introduction (I only wish people got that excited whenever I entered into a room). The lights in the whole arena go dark, the music and the tone in the announcer’s voice intensify and a cinematic video highlight reel begins. But this not your typical video introduction featuring a mish mash of highlights or fire balls shooting unnecessarily across the screen. The Bobcats introduction video can only be described as epic – a mini movie that pumps excitement into the air and sets the scene for the entire night.
With that said, let me also point out the game starts at 7 p.m., not 7:30. So if you want to see for yourself what a great moment the introductions are (and believe me, they live up to the hype)… you should plan to arrive on time.

On this night, one of the timeout promotions was the “hug it out” cam. During this game, they zoomed in on some couples, pairs of pals, and some Storm Troopers (present for a Star Wars promotion) who had to give each other a hug on camera… and guess what, I got busted too. There I was on the jumbotron, staring at the jumbotron. And I think I spent most of the second quarter of the game responding to texts from friends scattered throughout the arena who saw me.

Halftime goes really fast in basketball, too fast for my liking. I hadn’t even made it up to Front Court (bar/restaurant inside the arena) before the game started again, and I was having so much fun I didn’t want to return to my seats. In fact, I never did return to my seats as I made my rounds around the arena. Because the arena is like a playground; every section has its own form of entertainment. There’s even an actual playground for little kids in the upper level. My friends had to caution me that I was too big for the activities.

Last call in the arena is the third quarter, but not at Front Court on the Founders level that hosts the arena’s postgame party on weekend games – and considering we’ve won every home game thus far, there is a purpose to party. Front Court has become a bit of a Charlotte scene – and there were a lot of people seen on it. Check out my photo gallery and see if you were seen on the scene.

Brittney's gallery can be viewed HERE.

Cason's Commentary: Let the fun begin

As you recall last year, we invited Brittney Cason, one of Charlotte's most talked about writers to become a part of the BobcatZone team. This season, she's writing for our partners over at Bobcats Break and she'll also do some contributions to this blog as well. In this first installment of "Cason's Commentary", she talked about the experience of being at a Bobcats game, and as always, "The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of Brittney Cason, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Charlotte Bobcats, its staff, management, or ownership."


I love basketball season… not necessarily because I am an avid basketball fan, but because I just really like going to the arena. It’s a show, a sporting event and party all under one roof; an arena of entertainment. And lucky for me (and Charlotte), last Friday was the season home opener against the Knicks.I got to the arena just in time to hear Anthony Hamilton sing the national anthem – and to show my hat head off to the people seated in my section. Once I sat down I didn’t want to get back up. There are so many attractions during the games with the action on the court, on Bobcats TV and in the stands. Before I knew it, it was halftime and BREAKSK8 from MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew were breaking, and breaking it down on the court … on roller-skates.


Meanwhile, Michael Jordan was sitting on the player’s bench and there were some points where I thought he was going to jump up and start playing!


For the second half I went on my own arena exploration. I hit the Back Court, Rock the Rooftop, the and Front Court (all social hang outs with bars and great atmosphere). Because it’s not just about the game, it’s also about the gathering… with a side of arena food and giant beers. Each area has a different vibe – Rock the Rooftop is more like a tavern, while Front Court on the Founder’s level is more like an upscale lounge & restaurant with a full bar, dinner buffet, and DJ (who’s there on all Friday and Saturday night games).


Now, back to game . There’s so much free stuff to win… like t-shirts. Lots and lots of t-shirts. They gave out t-shirts to fans upon entering the arena, meanwhile the Lady Cats threw shirts out during time outs, with Bruce Springsteen tickets in them. And don’t think the people in the upper level get left out; Rufus and the Cats Crew fire up t-shirts with sling shots and t-shirt cannons. The Lady Cats were also giving away three-pound pretzels known as the Victory Knot. My friends were jumping up and down along with all the little kids in the arena trying to win one because they bet me I couldn’t eat one by myself. I agreed to their bet in attempt to hang tough, but luckily they didn’t actually win the monstrosity of a pretzel so I didn’t have to undergo an attack of carbohydrates.


When the game did eventually end, I stalled exiting the arena. Not just to watch the Rhythm Cats playing by the exit, but for the post game party at the Front Court Bar. Games are typically over at 9 – 9:30 p.m., which is a weird time in nightlife where its too early to go out to a bar, but too late to go home and come back out. So the Bobcats alleviate that problem and occupy you in the interim as Front Court is after the game.


All in all, the Bobcats won their season opener (in exciting fashion…double overtime!), but even if they had lost, you could still walk away from the arena feeling like you won … because regardless you’ll have a fun night if you attend the games. Larry Brown orchestrates a good game and the Bobcats orchestrate a good time over all.


I’ll see you at the next party…er, I mean, game.

-Brittney

We will post some of Brittney's commentaries here regularly on this blog as the season progresses as a part of our commitment to give you her opinions of the experience at a Bobcats game.

Duke vs. Carolina: The Rivalry of all Evil(Updated version)

VS.

THE RIVALRY OF ALL EVIL

University of North Carolina Tar Heels

vs.

Duke Blue Devils

NOTE: This is an updated version of the blog that I first posted back on February 11, 2009.

Sure, I do cover a lot of the Bobcats and NBA happenings here in my blog that I've been doing for the last 4 years, but I'd like to talk about one of the biggest rivalries in all of Sports.

Yeah, I know there is a lot of rivalries that I've seen in my years, including Yankees/Red Sox, Packers/Bears, Jets/Patriots, and Celtics/Lakers, not to mention the Knicks/Celtics and Patriots/Colts rivalries that have been developing over the last few years but there is one rivalry that captures all of us basketball junkies here in not only the great State of North Carolina, but the entire country and that rivalry is the always entertaining rivalry between the Blue Devils of Duke University and the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina.

This rivarly garners a lot of attention from not only the media here in this state, but from the media all over the country, including the boys from Bristol, Connecticut at ESPN, as well as some of the local sports talk radio guys here locally in the Charlotte area, and when I talked to Bob Rathbun, one of the ACC Basketball broadcasters for Raycom and Fox Sports South back in the 2008-09 Bobcats season, he says that "For those of us that cover the conference, Duke/Carolina means something special." This rivalry always happens twice a year, and some of us call the Duke/Carolina rivalry "World War 3", but I call it "The Rivalry of all Evil", which has been that way for many, many years, since the two schools are separated 8 miles apart.

You see, a lot of bad blood has been taken place everytime these two teams met during their history, with Carolina leading the series all-time with a record of 130-99 overall, and of course, the fans always get involved with this long storied rivalry and many parents usually tell their kids to "Root for Carolina because Duke's bad", while it's the other way around for the Duke families to tell their kids to root for them instead of Carolina.

For example, you have the infamous "Cameron Crazies" that always taunts the Tarheels by saying "Go to (bleep) Carolina, Go to (bleep)!" whenever they come to historic Cameron Indoor Stadium and over in Chapel Hill, the Tarheel fans always wear their Carolina Blue shirts that says "Layeth the Carolina Smacketh Down" or "Duck Fuke" when Duke comes to the Dean Smith Center, and this rivalry has generated not only some huge moments, but has produced a lot of famous names in this "Rivalry of All Evil", from Michael Jordan(Bobcats Chairman and CEO), James Worthy, Vince Carter, Raymond Felton, Sean May, and Tyler Hansbrough for North Carolina, to Jay Bilas, Mike Gminski, Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Shane Battier, JJ Redick and Kyrie Irving from Duke, and of course the coaches that are often in the center of it all from "Coach K" at Duke and for many years, Dean Smith and to now with Roy Williams.

Both teams have combined to win 10 national championships between the two schools, with Carolina winning 6 of them, while Duke won 4 titles, with the most recent one coming back in 2010. and believe me, this rivalry doesn't produce stars, they create stars, with a little bit of history in draft picks between the two schools over the last 3 decades.

So, in closing, I have decided to ask you this question: Whose side are you on: Duke or Carolina?

Brittney Cason to join BobcatZone team

On Saturday night, we here at BobcatZone announced that Brittney Cason will be joining the team here as a blogger and once a month, she'll do her "Cason's Corner" commentaries about the team and the NBA in General.

Cason, a frequent writer for Creative Loafing and Charlotte Elevate magazines and host of "3 Wide Life", will be a part of our team here at BobcatZone, in which I started back in September, and I am proud to have her join our team of bloggers that will cover everything you need to know about your Charlotte Bobcats and the NBA in general.

When I first started the site, it was only me doing all the blogging, now I am starting to open the site to other fans that want to blog about the NBA and the Bobcats, and I made this decision for Brittney to become part of our team because she can write well.

Former Charlotte Hornet staffers have a lot of memories

This week marked the 20th Anniversary of when the Charlotte Hornets made their entry into the NBA and played their first game on November 4th, 1988 at the old Charlotte Coliseum. They had a lot of memories during their 20 years in the league, with 14 of them being here in Charlotte from 1988-2002, when the franchise moved to New Orleans to become the New Orleans Hornets.

Last night, I managed to interview some of the holdovers from the Hornets family when they were in their final year in Charlotte when I was at the Bobcats/Hornets game last night, along with a former Hornet who was one of the original Hornets when they came into existence and a guy who was their first General Manager in franchise history, and I'll tell you, they had a lot of memories from the first 20 seasons of their existence.


Carl Scheer-Former Hornets General Manager(1988-1990); currently Senior Adviser for the Charlotte Checkers

Carl Scheer, a longtime NBA executive, was hired by George Shinn as the team's first General Manager and served in that capacity until 1990, when he left the team to spend 2 seasons working with the Denver Nuggets. He returned back to Charlotte lead the effort to bring hockey back with the founding of the ECHL's Charlotte Checkers along with Felix Sabates back in 1993 and he is currently a Senior Adviser to the team. He had one special memory of the first year of the Hornets, and he says that "My favorite memory was when we threw the ball up and the season started since we were a new franchise back in November of 1988".

Dell Curry-Former Hornets player(1989-2000); currently Bobcats color analyst for SportSouth

Dell Curry and Muggsy Bogues were known as the originals when the Hornets started and the fans loved Dell's three-point shooting during his time with the Hornets, leading to longtime Public Address Announcer James K. Flynn's signature "DC for Three"! catchphrase. He was also known for his clutch game winning shots as well, especially this memorable shot. "The one against Golden State when I shot it from the corner." Curry was one of the team's two popular players along with Bogues that skyrocketed the Hornets from a unknown team to a popular team. Nowadays, Curry is a color analyst for Bobcats telecasts on SportSouth, while his son, Stephen is with the Golden State Warriors and Stephen's brother, Seth is at Duke playing for the legendary "Coach K".

Gerry Valliancourt-Hornets Broadcaster(1988-2012); anchor at WVUE-TV(FOX 8) in New Orleans and blogger for NOLA.com

When you think of Sports radio in Charlotte and Hornets Basketball in general, you think of the man who was known as the original "King of Sports Talk" in Charlotte, Gerry Valliancourt, or "Gerry V." Valliancourt was Sports Director at WCCB-TV(which was the television home of the team until 1992) when the Hornets first started and he had several years in Charlotte radio, with the former WCNT-AM(now WGFY, the Radio Disney affiliate in Charlotte), WFNZ-AM, and later at News-Talk 1110 WBT, which was the Charlotte Hornets radio flagship from 1988-2002.

Nowadays, he's currently an anchor at WVUE-TV(FOX 8) in New Orleans(the station is owned by Louisiana Media Company, headed up by Tom Benson, owner of the Hornets and New Orleans Saints), and he also writes about New Orleans and Louisiana sports for NOLA.com, the website for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and he had shared with me two interesting thoughts. He talked about the noise factor on Opening Night back in 1988, when he said that "The noise was a factor and I couldn't hear myself during the broadcast" and he also said about Charlotte trying to support the Bobcats, and he says "I think that it's time for Charlotte to support it's own team since I have friends here when I come back and visit them".

Gil McGregor-Hornets Broadcaster(1988-2012)

Gil McGregor has been a fixture on Hornets broadcasts for over 20 seasons before he was let go last season, and he shared his three big memories. "The memories are when we defeated the Bulls for the first time(the game that started the 364-game consecutive sellout streak at the Charlotte Coliseum), when we defeated the Sixers(Barkley's charge) and the death of Bobby Phills".

Last season was a exciting one for the Hornets in New Orleans, a city that is rebounding from Hurricane Katrina back in 2005, it was so exciting, the fans played a vital role in the success of last year's edition of the New Orleans Hornets, and former Hornets television broadcaster Bob Licht, who was also the Hornets radio play-by-play voice during their time in Charlotte said that "The fans discovered a first place team and we sold out New Orleans Arena and the fans were the biggest success last season".

20 years ago: The Charlotte Hornets played their first game

On the eve of the New Orleans Hornets visit to Charlotte to face the Bobcats tomorrow night at Time Warner Cable Arena, a little bit of Charlotte and Carolina Sports history took place 20 years ago this week.

This past Tuesday marked the 20th Annniversary of the first professional sports game ever played in the Carolinas and that game was played by a unknown team that would become a household name for 14 seasons here in Charlotte, and that team would be none other than the Charlotte Hornets.


Let's turn back the clock to Friday November 4th, 1988, a day that will be remembered by a lot of people not only here in Charlotte, but for those throughout North and South Carolina.

It was a festive atmosphere out at the old Charlotte Coliseum off of Tyvola Road, lots of fans were dressed in tuxedos and gowns and the Charlotte Symphony provided the pregame entertainment and there was several dignitaries that were at the first Hornets game, including former North Carolina Governor Jim Martin and the late Carroll Campbell, the former Governor of South Carolina to honor the man who made the dream of bringing professional sports to the Carolinas, the Owner and Founder of the Hornets, George Shinn.

And the funny thing was that once the Pre-game ceremonies ended, the team's very first Public Address Announcer from 1988-1990, John Edwards(not to be confused with the former North Carolina Senator), was about to introduce the Cleveland Cavaliers and they didn't show up for the introductions, and do you want to know why? They stayed in the locker room.

23,355 packed the 4-month old facility, which was opened on August 11 of that year and the only key moment that bought the crowd to its feet was when the Hornets grabbed the lead in the 2nd Quarter 34-32, but in the end, the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated Charlotte 133-93 and the sellout crowd gave them a standing ovation in a city that was primarily a baseball town with the old Charlotte O's(who Shinn purchased in 1988 and renamed the team as the Charlotte Knights).

The Charlotte Hornets had two more memorable moments from year 1 of their existence, they won their first game in team history, a 117-105 win over the L.A. Clippers on November 8th at the Coliseum, but the game that ushered in the golden years of Hornets Basketball and the title of "Carolina's Team" took place on December 23rd of 1988, when Michael Jordan, now Managing Member of Basketball Operations for the Charlotte Bobcats, the city's current NBA team, led the Chicago Bulls to the Coliseum for a nationally-televised game on SuperStation WTBS and the Hornets won at the buzzer on a Kurt Rambis tip-in, 103-101 to start a 364-game sellout streak and the rise of "Hornetmania" here in Charlotte, an era that saw the team lead the league in attendance for 9 out of 10 years.

On the night following the Hornets first game, former Charlotte Observer Sports writer Ron Green, Sr. said that "It was a good day, the most exciting in Charlotte sports history, as fine a day a city like this can hope to experience." It was indeed a day that would go down in Charlotte and Carolina sports history back on that November night back in 1988, when the Hornets played their first game.

Now, the team is in New Orleans, keeping the nickname that they had when they were here and they'll be back in town tomorrow night to face the Bobcats, and some of us will wear the Orange and Blue of the Bobcats, while others will break out the old Purple and Teal of the team that was the original "Carolina's Team".

Oh by the way, the leading scorers for the Hornets in their first game were Kelly Tripucka and Kurt Rambis, who had 16 points each to lead Charlotte in the loss.