Basketball

After having enjoyed great games at the Maracana Stadium in Rio (football), Roland Garros in Paris (tennis), Newlands in Cape Town (cricket), the Velodrome in Marseilles (rugby) and the Arena in Berne (ice hockey), it is time to experience a great game of basketball in the Verizon center in Washington. This evening, the Washington Wizards were playing the Charlotte bobcats. Suspense suspense, not really, since the Wizards lost 85-93, after having led at some stage by 6 points. Their shoot success rate let them down. Still there were some impressive combination and rapid play. In the end, this is not enough to help their standing in the league.
The match is not the whole experience though, with almost as much activity during the breaks and off the field. Very striking is the live singing of the national anthem at the start of the match as well as two reminders to the audience to stand up and cheer for the war veterans.
Then there was the crowd... the super noisy crowd. Behind us was seating a big group of young African-American ladies who would continuously shout, whistle and woo for their team. My seven co-spectators said that I should not be so cheap (did I ever hear that before...) and have gotten better seats! I just looked at them like some sort of local vuvuzela! Finally, there were also the cheer-leading ladies, the beers and the hot-dogs - all what the crowd needs to leave happy.