Free Ballin’

Why are you here? I’ve asked so many people that question, over the last four months. Are you originally from Sacramento? Do you have family near Greenville? Was it Orlando, death, or tiki? I want to know why people are where they are. Family, school, work, and work-release are common answers. But people move to [...]

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A whirlwind tour of the West Coast finishes in Portland, where I watched the Trailblazers edge the Timberwolves, last night.  It was a terrific game, regardless of Roy’s protest that the team had allowed themselves to get distracted by the game tomorrow night with the Lakers.  That’s not the only reason the game was close.  [...]

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I’m hitchhiking out of Charlotte today, up to the house of a friend of my mother’s, in Little Switzerland, NC, which I’m told is sensational, overlooking Mt. Mitchell (tallest peak east of the Rockies.) My next game is the Clippers/Celtics, on February 25th, in Los Angeles.  My plan is to stay in Little Switzerland for [...]

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A number of people have asked me what I thought of my week in Asheville, NC, and I have virtually nothing to say. I didn’t do Asheville. The allure of Asheville is the lifestyle and the attitude of the people who live there, and I had almost no interaction with anyone there, with two notable [...]

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This is long as hell, and I don’t feel like editing it; transcribing is enough to put me to sleep, anyway.  So yeah, typos and whatever.  Instead, I’m going to back through and just putting asterisks in between sections, for your convenience.  How’s that? *** Nobody wants to take the 1:25 AM Greyhound from Orlando [...]

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I left Washington D.C. on Wednesday, Nov. 12th, on the 8:30PM Greyhound to Oklahoma City. I arrived in OKC around 6AM on Friday, the 14th, something less than when I departed. Oh, I was fine, but I’d had maybe 4 hours of restless sleep since we’d left and Greyhoud buses are not made for people [...]

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Indiana is a good example of a bad team. Danny Granger seems to be big-time (I’ll give you more impressions when I see them play in a few days) but they have a third of their cap-space tied up in two non-stars, Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy, for three more years. Neither can defend their [...]

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I haven’t encountered many, because I haven’t had as much of an opportunity to go out and about as I’d like (as explained in previous post) but also, the Thunder don’t seem to have entrenched themselves in the community, yet. It’s perfectly understandable; it’s a new team and the way the Thunder came to OKC [...]

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Tonight is the highly anticipated first game for Free Ballin’ for the ’08-’09 season, between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets. I’m excited, and I’m also meeting Jake (with whom I’m riding-sharing to Dallas) at the game; his girlfriend had tickets. Of course I also need to find a place to stay tonight. [...]

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I went online to get tickets last night, but I didn’t feel like paying Ticketmaster $17 for $10 tickets, so instead I just went to the Ford Center early this morning.  Too early.  OKC doesn’t wake up until noon on Sundays, and the Ford Center’s box office didn’t open until 1PM. Actually, all OKC downtown [...]

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