Royalty Tours USA

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Royalty sees a local basketball doubleheader in NYC!

Prince at MSG for St. John's basketball
Sunday morning I got up and I returned the Toyota Camry I rented from Avis for the day. I drove 262 miles safely.

After I returned the car, I took public transportation to midtown Manhattan. I went to Madison Square Garden to see the St. John's Red Storm play the Pittsburgh Panthers at Noon.

I met up with the King and our pals Frank Anichiarico, Rich Wolber and Vinny Ascanio in the lobby.

As for the game we saw, the Red Storm trailed the Panthers, 30-27 at halftime. Early in the second half, the Johnnies took a brief one point lead but that didn't last long. The Panthers got their act together as they went on to beat the Red Storm, 63-47 before an announced of 9,129 which consisted of a number of Panther fans who made the trip to NYC.

After the game, the King and I went home to relax for a little while since we had some time to kill before our second game of the day.

I was waiting to hear from fellow roadtripper, Sean MacDonald who was flying in to JFK from Dallas where he spent a few weeks seeing different sporting events and venues.

Sean is originally from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He spent 15 years in Japan. He recently moved to Singapore where now calls home.

Sean flew in to NYC because he was working here for the rest of the week. I was hoping to meet him for dinner at Junior's Restaurant before we went to the Barclays Center to see the Nets play the Memphis Grizzlies.

Unfortunately Sean got in later than expected which changed our dinner plans. I wound up going to 2 Bros Pizza which is located across the street from Junior's instead. It worked out as Sean told me he would meet me outside the Barclays Center at 5:30PM or so. I had his ticket that I arranged to get for him. In addition, he wanted to take pictures and he wanted to check out the arena for himself. The King came later and we met up with him inside the building.

Prince at Barclays Center

As for the game we saw, the Grizzlies raced out to a 14-4 lead just five minutes into the game. They went into a dry spell and they let the Nets back into the game. As a result, they trailed by three, 19-16 after the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Grizzlies started to surge again as they out scored the Nets by eight to take a five point lead at halftime, 43-38. In the third quarter, both teams were absolutely awful. They both combined for 25 points. The Grizzlies still lead, 55-51 after three quarters. In the fourth quarter, the Grizzlies went into another mental lapse as they let the Nets regain the lead by five, 72-67 then the Grizzlies got down to business as they used their grit and grind style to wear out the Nets down the stretch. As a result, they scored the last nine points of the game as they extended their winning streak to seven as they left Brooklyn with a hard fought 76-72 victory.

Stay tuned for a special post that I'm going to do about a few special people I know who work for the Grizzlies.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman











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