New Orleans Pelicans: Scenes from inside the game against the Nets

It feels like forever since I’ve seen a Pelicans game in person, and the Nets game was one I am glad I was able to take in, even with the loss.

As I’ve mentioned before, although my friends and I have season tickets to the games, due to Covid and the restrictions on fans, we were unable to secure tickets to every home game this year. That, combined with our preseason draft where we picked the games we were hoping to attend, left my husband and I with very few “real” games we were able to attend. Then, the added bonus of changing work schedules prevented us from attending a couple of the games we actually had tickets for.

But on Tuesday, I had nothing on my schedule for the night other than the game. My friend and I made our way to the Smoothie King Center, and after going through the entry protocols for security and Covid, grabbed a beer and found our seats.

For this game, we were almost behind the backboard on the Nets end of the court. Not bad but certainly not great seats. Plus, they were not the seats we paid for, as this section is a significantly lower price than our regular seats.

New Orleans Pelicans: Fanbase is not helping the team

I’m gonna take a moment to complain but our fans absolutely sucked on Tuesday. Very few people cheering on the good plays and more people interested in trying to snap photos of James Harden or Kevin Durant, who were seated near the Nets bench in street clothes.

The “oohs” and “ahhs” were louder for a few of the Nets’ plays than some amazing plays by the Pels.

Case in point, what you are hearing in the video is piped in crowd noise. Because during this play, sure there were cheers, but they were really hard to hear.

Sure, Kyrie Irving is good and had some fantastic plays against a better (to me) defense on Tuesday night. But has this fanbase already forgotten that we have one of the best young players in the league who continues to awe with play after amazing play in Zion Williamson?

What you don’t hear in the video is his loud yell, trying to get this team fired up as they clawed back in the second part of the 3rd quarter after a lackluster start to the second half. I was literally the only one in our section standing up after that.

Look, let’s face it, the Pelicans are not as good of a team as many of us hoped. But they aren’t as bad as much of the local fanbase is making them out to be.

There is still much work to be done for this team, and wins are still to be had before the season ends.

Are they going to make the play in games? That’s doubtful. But overall, they can finish strong and reenergize the fanbase that has lost interest due to some lackluster play at times, a fan experience that just isn’t easy for anyone in the arena, confusion over where to watch the games on TV and a year of stricter Covid protocols than most of the U.S.

I have one more game confirmed before the end of the year and you can bet I’ll be there. I’ll likely be the loudest one in my section cheering for the Pels for every good play. Here’s hoping there are plenty of them!