So we've made it to the last of our three Samsung-sponsored "Enhance your experience" posts, the proceeds of which we're using to send $175 the way of the MACC Fund. See, we're not above selling out, but we at least do it for a good cause.

In any case, let's end with a discussion of the specific ways technology has made our NBA experience better. You can't top the experience of being at the BC, trying to keep up with Squad Six and seeing the game up close. But that doesn't mean our fandom can't benefit from a little enhancement, especially given that many of us live half a world away. So if you could only pick one, which would it be?  

(Not Reggie Miller's eight points in nine seconds)

Starting last year, I began reporting at all the Bucks home games for Brew Hoop. And by "all," I mean all but four: the crackerjack home opener, Tyreke Evans laying in last-second magic, a lame loss to the inept Wizards, and the night some kid rookie point guard scored 55. I was raking leaves at the 'rents house an hour and a half north of Brandon that night. My timing is too much.

And this -- this is the first time I have posted video footage straight from a gameday at the Bradley Center. The first time, and not the last time.

This past Tuesday, I had just found my spot on press row behind the visiting team's bench -- a pretty good spot no matter, now made even better because I suspect that I won't have my view blocked by standing/dancing Cavaliers all game when they come to town. I set down my laptop, camera, and all sorts of corresponding wires. It was 5:30ish, a couple hours before tip. I walked back toward the west hoop, where a few of the Trail Blazers were warming up.

Brandon Roy made his way along the arc, making a strong majority of his shots. The fact he did so hardly surprised me -- his impossible (not my video) game-typing buzzer-butter 11 months earlier felt like 11 minutes ago when I arrived back at the scene. That game remains one that stands out, one of the best still, almost a year later (the Bucks conveniently won in overtime).

I walked back to get my camera and take a photo (you may have noticed I like to start each story with a photo), and Roy moved to the corner, to the place on the court where I could stand closest. A couple feet away now, he swished the shot. I snapped a photo. He swished another. An NBA swish - a magnetic swish. So I toggled to the video capture setting, and hit record. He was winding down now, but wasn't missing yet. I had captured the tail end of one swish, and the final two, before Roy, the player whose game reminds me of Kobe Bryant more than anyone else going today, stopped shooting the corner threes.

Despite the video-backed-up fact that Roy is awfully comfortable shooting from there, he doesn't even really do so. He only attempted 14 right corner threes all year last year. Not his shot, but it reminds me just how good these guys are -- just how good all of these guys are. And how last year I would watch Dan Gadzuric hit sideline jumper after sideline jumper after top of the key jumper in warmups. I wish I had recorded that.

The good folks at Samsung are sponsoring a campaign around the theme of how technology "Enhances Your Experience," which means that a) I have an excuse to talk about two of my favorite topics (sports and technology) and b) we'll be able to donate $100 to the MACC Fund just for taking part in the promotion. That's a win-win...which unfortunately is the exact opposite of how the Bucks have started their 10/11 NBA season. 

But never mind that for a second. It's hard to tell what's more amazing about technology--how quickly things have changed or how quickly we've come to take all this access to video, stats, and each other for granted. Remember: ten years ago there were no blogs, no League Pass Broadband, no Bucks games in HD, and no Sports Blog Nation. Heck, when I was in college in the year 2000, we had to plug into a wall to get internet. THE HUMANITY!   

Now I watch the Bucks on League Pass while chatting it up in our game thread and tweeting on my phone. When the Bucks aren't in HD--because of my LP feed, not because FS Wisconsin doesn't carry it--I complain about watching in mere regular definition. And all that connectedness is nice, because when your team is getting hammered by the T'wolves and you're watching by yourself in Boston, you need to share the pain with someone. And yes, I'm absolutely putting off writing the recap for the moment in the hope of thinking happier thoughts.  

So to me that's probably the best part about all of this. There's no doubt that I experience the game in a better way now that I have HD and access to games and highlights both on my laptop and over my phone. But in many ways the real value comes from sharing the fun and the frustration with other people who care as much as I do--whether it's talking about the last game with my dad on the phone (season tickets since '92!) or going back and forth in our comment section with readers who I'll probably never meet and live halfway around the world (note to Dave and Johann: I hope you prove me wrong!). People sometimes complain about the internet physically isolating us from the outside world, but that ignores all the information, ideas, and perspectives we have a chance to share because of it.   

So dear readers, that's my roundabout way of saying that you enhance the experience even more than the amazing technology that helps bring us together. So because I don't say it enough: thanks for reading, thanks for commenting, and thanks for being a Bucks fan with us.

And now that I've buttered you all up...do you really need to recap that Minnesota game? OK, give me an hour...