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NBA Theme Day: What was the best game you ever attended live as a fan?

By Net Income
Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

As part of the SB Nation community of NBA blogs, we are participating in a theme day, in which we were asked to answer the question: What was the best game you ever attended live as a fan? Please share your own story in the comments below.

The game wasn't a playoff game, had no impact on the playoffs, in fact. It was too early in the season. What it did have was historic significance -- the first game at Barclays Center between the now New York rivals, Nets vs. Knicks. It almost didn't happen. The game was scheduled to open the Nets brand new arena three weeks earlier, but Hurricane Sandy intervened and it was postponed.

It was also the first game between the two teams since they played their last game in New Jersey, a debacle at the end of the season when Knick fans had taken over Prudential Center, booed every time a Nets player took a foul shot, chanted MVP whenever Carmelo Anthony touched the ball. It was an ugly send-off after 35 years wandering through the swamps of Jersey.

I sat in Section 230 in a group of NetsDaily fans, anxious that what had happened in Newark could happen again. I whispered to myself,  "not this time, not in our house." The game went back and forth, as close as Brooklyn and Manhattan at the Brooklyn Bridge. Net fans and Knick fans alternated chants. (My personal favorite intoned when Raymond Felton had the ball, "Where's my cupcake?")

There would be no let-up in support, no stoic resolve when the Nets slipped behind. It was all about volume, about shouting and standing and chanting that now famous, goosebump-inducing, rhythmic, pounding "Brook--lyn," until it hurt the vocal cords as much as it hurt the guys in orange and blue near us. 

Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 35 points, but his last second shot in regulation scraped off the front rim. Deron Williams (16 points, 14 assists) was then able to launch a bomb from just inside the mid-court line, but it bounced away to force overtime.

And in OT, we won, 96-89. Then came the most memorable part. As seconds ticked down, throughout the giant hall, the chant reached its crescendo. "Brook-lyn, Brook-lyn, Brook-lyn," It carried onto the concourse and down the escalators through the main entrance onto the plaza and down the escalator to the subway platforms and ultimately in our heads, on our trains, in our cars. It was emotional and exhilarating all at once.  

Who owned New York? We did ... and for the very first time.

What was the best game you ever attended as a fan, NetsDaily?


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