A few weeks ago I was having brunch with some workmates and we suddenly decided we HAD TO go to an NBA game. Since the three of us are in Brooklyn we decided to go to a Brooklyn Nets game at the Barclay Center, which is also a great opportunity to see the stadium, built not too many years ago.
So that’s how we ended up – not before some trouble buying three tickets next to each other – with tickets for the Nets – Celtics game at the beginning of February (on a Tuesday).
After finishing work, and having a beer in our lovely bar downstairs, we headed walking towards Barclays Center, about half an hour away. When we were arriving we already started seeing tons of people with basketball shirts, people selling hot dogs, drinks, and tickets. There were about 20 queues to get inside the stadium where they would check for COVID passport, ID, and tickets.
There is something nice about Barclays Center and it is that from the entrance you can already see the huge screens above the court, so you immediately feel you are inside and close to the action, which had already started a few minutes before. American stadiums feel like malls, there are shops, restaurants, bars… And of course, we grabbed some hot dogs, beer, and went to our seats in almost the highest row in the stadium. So many things happened all the time, apart from the game. There was a concert, people trying to win prizes, singing, t-shirt shooting… So even if the game was clear who was going to win from the first five minutes, the whole experience was fun and quite incredible.
After the around two hours the match lasted, we headed walking towards our homes, thinking already we should go back again for another game.