Behind Enemy Lines - Game 6 in New Orleans Courtside

Alright, so here I am again, sharing with you my experience of Game 6 4/28 at the Hive in New Orleans, LA.  What was supposed to be a calm flight, and walk over to the arena ended up being nothing of the sort.  Jazzfest was happening in New Orleans, and while that made the trip extra special (all kinds of Jazz musicians all up and down Bourbon St playing to get people in the mood), it also meant that flights into New Orleans were completely packed.  So when the plane I was supposed to leave Little Rock, AR on was delayed due to something happening to it in Philadelphia (I'm looking at you Lebron, why the hell did you delay my plane!) I had to make the choice of whether or not to try and sell my tickets, or jump in a car and haul ass.  Obviously it did not take long to decide and my car was delivered to the airport by my ex so I could get to New Orleans in shortly under 5.5 hours (Hello Googlemaps saying it takes 7 hours and 45 minutes).  By the way, a special shoutout to the 2 workers of the Southwest booth who tried to get me on any other flights even though it would lose them money, and a very not nice anti shoutout to Continental who had open seats but did not want to sell them because they were too busy (sitting on their ass and telling me they would get to me in a moment).

Anyways, you guys aren't here to hear about my drive down, you guys are here for the pictures and video! With that said .. I'm not posting all of the 3gb of video/pictures I have in this post.  Just some of the highlights.  If you would like to see all of footage, please check out  Vmuse's Youtube channel and Vmuse's Flickr

Here is where I entered, unlike the normal entrance in which I had to get in line and wait for over an hour to be near the front, I walked up about 10 minutes before we could be let in and was one of the first people in.  At this point I need to give a shout out to the Hornets fans.  For one, there was this little old lady who had season ticket courtside seats, and she knew her game.  I can forgive her for thinking Kobe's injury was all fake because it was cute seeing someones little old grandmother talking basketball with one of the security guards.  One thing I did notice was that everyone there expected a Lakers win.  Most of them were just happy that they were able to see one more game in New Orleans before the end of the season.  It was rather heart felt and touching to see them care that much about their team, even knowing they were not going to win.  Some other teams need to see the spirit of New Orleans and mimic it.  David Stern ... if you even think about taking away the Hornets from this city I am 100% sure you will have a fight on your hands.  At this moment though I think we should just jump >.>

So here I am, they are like head on over to the Capital One lounge and get some food.  I respond by asking how to get to the court.  I want to see my Lakers warming up!  Food can wait.  So I get in, and it's pretty surreal.  There are Lakers there, a few people on the bench, the ushers ... and that's it.  It was kind of humbling to not even be around other fans.  It also led to this.

Here I am ... taking pictures of the Lakers and ... wtf someone is taking a picture of me!?!?!?

via latimesphoto.files.wordpress.com

Well Hello LA Times.  By the way Matt Barnes, I'd like the royalties on any of these shirts you sell in New Orleans in the next month or so.  The amount of people who stopped me and asked for a picture of the shirt was amazing.  So yeah I definitely represented you well Barnes, or at least Ron Artest thought so ....

Ron-Ron likes my shirt! (40 second mark) (via TheVmuse)

Where exactly was I sitting might you ask?

This is where I was sitting for Game 6!!!! Amazing! (via TheVmuse)

Here are a few misc shots and videos from the warm ups!

Bynum jump shot

Well Hello Coach!

Not gonna deny, Pau looks kind of goofy stretching

Air Hugo and Air Hugo Jr.  It was pretty adorable!

Just a quick look around the arena, and then a look at their Gatorade.

Just some warmup footage

So yeah from down below that scoreboard looks huge!

There is totally a Lamar joke here ... I mean come on?

But then Lamar ends up throwing a curve ball at me!  WTF Lamar ... eat some candy!

Hey look, a Luke shot!  Thankfully you didn't see any in the game!

No hate though, swagbro definitely is a hilarious guy.  Here's my LUUUUKKKKEEEE moments from the game:

Is Ron Ron imaging a big burger on Luke's shoulder or something?

At the 5 second mark, Ron Artest is talking to Kobe about Paul Pierce I think?

Now for more random pictures/video from game footage and timeouts.

This is the opening 9 minutes, from the opening prayer all the way until tipoff.  Also if you're looking for the Honeybee's I think this is one of two video's they are in

Bynum showing us his inside skills

CP3 said questionable fouls on Okefor early ... not sure how it was questionable (or how he would think its questionable, look his back is turned!)

Likewise ... how did Pau actually think he could argue this foul?

Kobe trying to invoke the Black Swan ... did it work?  What do you guys think?

Timeout video

Gasol pissed off ... can it be?  He seemed to have more emotion on the sideline than I've seen him have in game for awhile.  Sign of things to come?  Let us hope so!

Just a quick look at the Capital One lounge

That's it for the videos I'm posting (there are plenty more, go check out the channel) and here are some of the photos I was able to take.  Feel free to docfunk them.

For l3oh, Kobe's shoulders

Gasol / Artest trap that made CP3 turn it over (and get pissed off)

Pau Llama

Kobe says, "You want me to do WHAT?"

Shots like this will "haunt" SCG's dreams for the coming days

Bynum = Not Sure if Serious?

Phil is tall ....

It's pictures like these that make me wish I had a professional camera

DUDE, You're stealing Lamar's candy!  Jerk!

Jump Ball!

Phil was tired of the play of a few players, yelled down for Gasol and Bryant to get back in.

Fisher wanted something, didn't hear what he asked the guy for.

More Kobe

Kobe trying to influence the ref even when he's not on the court.

and finally Phil doesn't like that New Orleans scored back to back baskets, so he looks over to Kobe and screams "FINISH HIM" .... not really but it really was like get the hell in there and end this.

Again, there are more photos and videos, just follow the links.  I hope you enjoyed this post at least 1/100th as much as I enjoyed being there and sharing it with you.  To the Hornets and the city of New Orleans, thank you very much for 3 wonderful games, and 4 wonderful days/nights.  It was an immense pleasure being there and I wish you all the luck (when you're not playing the Lakers).

You know ... all this traveling and posting of pictures got me hungry ... I wonder what I should go eat?  Maybe I should check out what I could eat in Dallas?