(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.