Sports writer - Grant writer

Tag: basketball

Sports in Unexpected Places: Celtics in Autumn

On Friday night, I visited  the Topsfield Fair, which is a giant agricultural fair that marks the end of the fair season in Massachusetts. (For my fellow New York natives, it’s like a less state-pridey version of the New York State Fair, without the dairy bar and the New York State Lottery booth. Which, I mean, are the only parts of the NY State Fair I remember.)

Dodging downpours while leaping from exhibit to exhibit, I came across a vegetable display that any Boston sports fan has to give major props to: The Boston Celtics in Gourd Form.

A diorama of the Boston Celtics done in gourds from the Topsfield Fair.

The Gourd Celtics (Photo by me)

A local Cub Scout troop submitted their autumn gourd Boston Celtics display to the vegetable diorama competition, and obviously won first prize. What better way to celebrate your defending Eastern Conference Champions than to make semblances of them in gourds?

Oh no! Kendrick Perkins is down. Out three weeks with a bruised pumpkin. (I don’t know how well you can see the writing on the “jersey,” but it did read Kendrick Perkins.)

The Kendrick Perkins Gourd is down.

Oops. Kendrick Perkins Gourd is down. (Photo by me)

Major kudos to this Cub Scout troop for giving us a great example of Sports in Unexplained Places. Congratulations on winning first place.

People Now Have Heard of Where I Went to College: My Bearcats Are Dancing

bingwinsign

"Even SUNY Programs Need 2 Dance" (Photo: Pressconnects.com)

Now the rest of the country knows my little school. Binghamton University won the America East Men’s Basketball Championship yesterday, securing their first NCAA Tournament bid. Over 5,000 fans packed into the Events Center to watch the game, and the ESPN2 announcers couldn’t heap more praise onto my trusty little alma mater that could.

“I’ve covered a lot of games,” said one of the announcers. “But this has to be one of the most electric atmospheres I have ever seen for a game.”

Continue reading

They Hate Me: Western NY’s Toxic Back and Forth Relationship with Basketball

Pravin commented earlier this week on my treatise on New York State sports fandom with a great question on basketball in Western New York:

And where does basketball fit into all of this? Is there a particular team that people in Western New York prefer to root for? I’d imagine that the Knicks–not even factoring in their past seven seasons of futility–represent everything that upstaters hate about downstate. There is the connection between the old Buffalo Braves and L.A. Clippers, but not even the most ardent fan of the A.B.A. would retain that kind of loyalty.

Now, I have been in quite a few relationships in my day, including some of those of the on-and-off, back and forth, toxic variety.  (Who hasn’t in their day?  The degrees of severity vary, but everyone’s had at least one.)  But none come close to the toxic back and forth relationship that professional basketball has had with my home region of Western New York.  Professional basketball took Western New York and toyed with its emotions – “You want an NBA Championship? Here you go. Oh, wait – you aren’t “big enough” to support professional sports!  Sorry, let’s move the team away.” – until a whole generation and their children decided enough was enough, and ceased following the NBA all together.

Continue reading

© 2024 Kat Cornetta

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑