Wizards vs. Pacers 2018

My son's school had tickets for the family night at the Washington Wizards basketball game on March 17, 2018. The Wizards were playing the Indiana Pacers, a close rival. It was an exciting game.

Like last year, we had the inexpensive, high up seats in the stadium. Unlike last year, no good samaritan gave us better tickets, so we staying in the nose-bleed seats.

View from our seats

My son chilling before the game

The stadium had the typical pre-game activity going on--players warming up and a little indoor blimp flying around.

Testing the camera's zoom feature

Blimp or car--you make the call!

One of the challenges with high up seats is deciding weather to watch the jumbotron or the actual action on the court. Before the game, they had one of many ceremonies honoring people at the game, including two children named honorary co-captains of the Wizards for the night.

Captains easier to see on the big screen than on the court

With preliminaries done, they were ready to start the game. That included introducing each of the starting players with their own bursts of flame!

Lights swirling around the stadium

These players are on fire!

The mascot was not introduced but he kept wandering in and out of our attention span. So did the cheerleaders.

Mascot cracking someone up

Actual view of the mascot from our seats--choose the jumbotron

Cheerleaders warming up the crowd

The game started with a slow build in the action. The teams were fairly even during the first half.

View is about the same on the jumbotron and in real life

During one of the commerical breaks, they presented a Dunkin' Donuts race on the jumbotron, which was the same race we had seen before at Camden Yards during a Baltimore Orioles game. Not very exciting.

Donut run without a delivery=no fun

Another commercial found the Wizards and Geico honoring a woman from Boys and Girls Club, which was nice.

Surrounded by mascots

Jumbotron view

They also played a game called Hot or Cold, where a lucky audience member would be blindfolded and the crowd had to guide her to the mascot at the center of the court. Well, they secretly replaced the mascot with the girl's uncle who just got back from deployment. It was a touching surprise.

Hot or Cold contest kickoff

Surprise!

During another commercial break, they had another challenge, this time for the players and in honor of Saint Patrick's Day. The jumbotron displayed an "Irish or Not?" slide and then showed the players trying to guess if certain items were Irish or not.

You ready for this?

Wrong guess, Kelly!

Tomas didn't even know who Ed Sheeran was (neither did I, so I don't blame him)

Bradley rightly identifies curling as not Irish

The Irish may not forgive him for this mistake

Something is out of sync here

During half time, we went in search of snacks. The pretzels weren't hot yet so we bought some chicken tenders and fries. Since the stadium is sponsored by Capital One, the concession stand gave us a ten percent discount on the food for using our Capital One credit card.

During the final half, the game became more exciting as the Wizards developed a slim lead. At another commercial break, they had the weirdest contest I ever saw--the human bobble head contest. Guys had pedometers strapped to their heads and they had to nod up and down as fast as they could for thirty seconds. Thirty seconds doesn't sound like a long time, but let me assure it was.

Advantage jumbotron

Later, some restaurant got in on the action. Chick-fil-A had parachuting snacks. Being in the nose-bleed seats, we looked down on the people getting the prizes.

Parachuting chickens!

Local bar and restaurant chain The Green Turtle had a shell game that one fan got to play. She won thanks to the crowd helping her out.

Shell game with virtual turtle shells!

Cheerleaders in their second half outfits

The Pacers had a bit of a comeback late in the game but then the Wizards opened up a wide lead, leaving them triumphant with a score of 109 to the Pacers' 102.

More game action

The big finale

We had a fun time and got new t-shirts. Unlike last year, I was smart enough not to ask what size they recommended. Last year they gave me a medium which was too small for me (though it was the tallest stack of t-shirts by far). I asked for a large and got one that I can wear without it being too tight.

T-shirt giveaway

We had a great time and will probably go back again next year.

Wizards Basketball 2016

The kids' school had a special deal for the DC Wizards game against the Milwaukee Bucks. The ticket (which was in the nosebleed seats) included a free t-shirt from Custom Ink. We took the Metro into DC which was convenient as Gallery Place Metro lets out on the same block as the Verizon Center. The ride was half an hour, occupied by a DS.

Not playing a basketball game

We got their easily and avoided all the guys looking to buy and/or sell tickets to the game. We had half a hour before the start of the game, so we explored a bit. My son said he didn't have desert at home, so we bought donuts.

Some of the shopping available at the stadium

This particular night was kids' night, so a bunch of activities were set up. My son was not interested in trying any. Some of the tables were also trying to build buzz about the new Star Wars movie. Some cosplayers were in attendance too.

Not my son posing with the cosplayers

We took an escalator up to the 400 level and found our seats. The view lets you see everything!

View from our seats

We were still 15 minutes early. Munching on our donuts, some guy and his son came up to us and made us a offer. Their tickets were upgraded and they wanted to give us their original tickets further down in the stadium. We gladly accepted. The guy told me that one of the tickets still had $15 in concession credit that we could use (they used the other ticket's credit). We headed down to find our new seats.

The old ticket on top, the new one on bottom

On our way back down the stadium, we saw the concession stand giving out the t-shirt, so we grabbed our new shirts.

New shirt!

After finding the stairs (all the escalators were set to going up!), we were able to locate our new seats near the main floor. They were great.

View from our new seats

Looking back up at the old seats

The game began soon. To get the crowd excited, the announcer started naming the players as they entered. The announcement was accompanied by a massive flame burst for each player.

Firing up the crowd, almost literally

The game was fun and action-packed. The Bucks did well early on, taking a small lead over the Wizards. The lead never got large and our team was able to tie things up by half time.

Game in action

One of the entertaining activities at half time was the cheerleaders doing a Star Wars performance with light sabers! Our seats were on the side considered the back, so we saw mostly the backsides of the cheerleaders for most of the performance. Parts of the choreography had them facing different parts of the stadium.

Dance of the Light Sabers

We went out to get a snack with our ticket credit. A tub of cotton candy and bottle of water cost $11! We still had some credit left over, but not enough to get anything.

Another fun time-killer during the break between third and fourth quarter was a baby race. Three babies (who were up awfully late, if you ask me) were brought to a track and had 45 seconds to make it to the other end. Or as far as they could. For the first 30 seconds, only two of the tots put their hands across the starting line. It was not the most exciting race ever.

Tot race

The announcer thought it would be a good idea for the crowd to make some noise to get the babies going. It didn't work. One of the babies finally got going after about 35 seconds, cinching a victory.

We have a winner in lane 2!

The game ended with a Wizards' victory, 110 to 105. It was a very satisfying game and a happily uneventful trip home. The Metro wasn't too crowded and the car ride was traffic-free. We had a very fun night.