November 30th, 2004 was my 14th birthday and to celebrate I went to the Nets v Bobcats game with a friend. Arrived at Continental Airlines Arena with my Nets gear on about an hour before tip off. My parents, myself, and my friend watched shoot around and took in the sights from our standard "screecher seats" .

During pre-game, Gary Sussman (if I recall correctly) drew the crouds attention to the Jumbo Tron for a birthday celebration. Team Hype was up in the nose bleeds, I saw them in the next section calling out for a "Lauren". (My name is Warren, so I thought I was hearing Lauren when in reality they were saying my name). I thought to myself "What a lucky girl..." Turns out we had sat in the wrong seats... Team Hype was making their way over and I started to notice they were looking for me! "Are you Warren? Is it your birthday?" My poorly groomed, acne riddled face was in awe... (partly from how hot some of those girls on team hype were and party from what was happening).

They presented me with a Nets T-Shirt and wished me a happy birthday on the Jumbo Tron. That was the coolest moment of my life! Until they handed me a ticket. "You'll need this for access". I looked at it. Right away my eyes drew to the MSRP on the ticket- $488. "Come with us, you and your buddy are sitting courtside!"

So Team Hype led my friend and I down to the lower level and then took us on a tour of the arena! They showed us the locker rooms, the entire Bobcats team walked right by us. The NETS were still shooting around and as we got close to the court Richard Jefferson came over and greeted us! There they were... Towering over me. My team! Joking around, getting loose, shooting around, talking smack, all of this right in front of me.

We were escorted to our seats (corner baseline next to the nets bench). Who's 10 feet away? Jay-Z . Got a head nod from Hov oh yeah.

Jason "Index Card" Collins has a potty mouth and didn't think Emeka Okafur was handsome or gentlemanly. Vince Carter is a fan of Beyonce's behind: who isn't? Being so close to the action was an experience I will never forget.

http://espn.go.com/nba/recap/_/id/241130017/boxscore?gameId=241130017

shout out to nothingbutthenets for the edit