Comments on: Following the Pistons from 6,000 miles away

By: V

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:00:01 +0000

Hey, Ohad, nice article. With the baht currently trading at 33, it’d be an even more expensive fake jersey. But, then again, from a country which sells fake Johnny Walker Black, what would you expect?

By: Ohad

Ohad — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:27:35 +0000

IsraeliPiston,
And wake up at 4am to listen to simi riger and ofer shelah?they’re nice commentators but not nice enough to get up that early. Maybe during the playoffs some of the sports bars will air the games….

By: Laughton

Laughton — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:45:53 +0000

Yep, you got the right place. Blowholes, Natural Bridge, lots of old people and roundabouts.

By: IsraeliPiston

IsraeliPiston — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:46:53 +0000

Ohad,

I know how you feel

maybe we can catch a rare tv game together

IsraeliPiston

By: Kyle

Kyle — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:34:32 +0000

seriously. to me it totally puts in perspective some of the short-sighted and insulting moves stern has made to try to raise revenues. right now there are millions of people sneaking in the games for free one way or another and millions more just reading box scores. a one time, 10 dollar charge for LP games on the internet would make millions and generate millions later in increased merchandise sales.

god bless the internet and god bless the nba. a match made in heaven.

By: Tronk

Tronk — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:58:08 +0000

All I can say is that I love technology. I’ve been a huge Pistons fan since the late 80’s and it used to be a pain in the butt to try and locate any basketball info up here in Canada. The land of Ice, Snow and Hockey.

The only way I could stay up to date would be to read the local paper and check the box scores and nba standings. Most of the time this was even out of date, since the paper wouldn’t have any of the west coast games as these finished after the paper was sent to the print press. I’d watch the local sports shows, but they would give the NBA about 5 minutes of coverage during the hour long show. For watching games, we would get between 2-3 games a month, as I was on basic cable. Very frustrating.

Now that I have satellite tv, and internet streaming games… I’m in heaven. I’ll never miss another game

GO STONES!

By: kevin s.

kevin s. — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:54:19 +0000

Nope, I meant Albany, but also meant SW, not SE. I know I was in that town at some point, because we stopped there for the blowholes or something (are there blowholes? Maybe a landbridge?). I just don’t know if the rest happened there or in another town south of Perth.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:58:20 +0000

great story! really cool to hear about your dedication to the pistons. when i went to israel on a trip last year i was really scared that i would miss a couple games from the pistons-bulls playoff series. but to my surprise i actually got a chance to watch a couple of them and the best part- they were commercial free! but i understand that most games are not broadcasted like the playoffs are.

By: Laughton

Laughton — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:20:24 +0000

Kev, If your referring to the SE of OZ perhaps you mean Albury?
Its a town on the border of Victoria and New South Wales. I have been there for work stuff and all I remember was that it was bloody cold, well, colder than anywhere else i have been. Which brings me to a time when I was in Kuwait and a BB game against some US soldiers….:)

That was kinda a forced shot wasn’t it?

Too much beer….

By: Ohad

Ohad — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 07:11:38 +0000

Matt G - thanks. I’ll give it a shot
Jordan - a few years ago we had an option to buy NBATV but our cable/satalite had an altercation with them and they just stopped in the middle of the season.
It’s amazing to see how many other people have o go through what i do to catch the games…
Another little story is when i was in Thailand a couple of years ago and i saw in one of the markets a Ben Wallace jersey. It was obviously a fake and i asked the guy how much it was. he said 3000 baht (~80$). now if you want to spend the night in a goot hotel it could cost you about a third of that easily. I tried to negotiate with him but he wasn’t going any lower than 2500 so i let it go. looking back maybe that was a good choice.Don’t know if i’d wear it now…

By: yak

yak — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:20:16 +0000

If any of you gentlemen make it here for a game, and I am attending said game, first beer’s on me. I love how with all the “me first” attitudes and “bad role models” (pacers/former pacers) the team I support transcends the boundaries of SE Michigan. It’s easier to walk around other cities wearing a Kobe/Bron/Kendrick Perkins(hahaha) jersey, since it’s hip(or whatever the kids are saying, I”m 27). We are becoming America’s Team, and obviously beyond. Cheers

By: kevin s.

kevin s. — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:50:39 +0000

I remember Albany, I think. Our tour stopped there, and we went to the Albany Night Club (I think it is actually called that). There was a Phys. Ed. teacher from NZ (a total drunkard, ironically, which is why I liked her, beyond her looks).

After hitting the club, and other various drinking games, she and I went to look for food. Nothing was open, so we asked a police officer where to find food. He pointed us to a bakery that was not to open for several hours, but whose proprietor would feed the miscellaneous while baking.

We each had some sort of meat pie with tomato sauce (free of charge, which was rare), and a danish of some sort. I kept thinking I should just kiss the girl from New Zealand, cause why the hell not? The stars were amazing. There is nowhere in the United States where you can see the glalaxy the way people in SE Australia do, or even anything close. Don’t go camping and think you have any idea. It’s not close.

I didn’t kiss the NZ PE teacher, drunk as we both were, and laissez faire as she was. Up until that trip, I had not learned to have confidence in myself. I regret that night, for that reason, beautiful as it was.

The pastries, however, were delicious.

I think it was Albany.

By: Mike Payne

Mike Payne — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:12:01 +0000

God, I feel so proud to be a Pistons fan right now. Practically in tears. You all need to plan a trip out here for a Pistons game in Auburn Hills…

By: Rob G

Rob G — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:52:13 +0000

I thought I had it bad being exiled in DC. Thanks for the very interesting read, Ohad. And Matt - kudos to you for letting DBBers chip in once in a while; it adds to an already quality blog.

By: James

James — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:31:34 +0000

Yeah Laughton one of my mates is a diehard Sonics fan so I can talk to him about NBA.. The rest are mainly bandwagoner’s.. So there’s not many people I can talk to about the NBA..

Two years ago I went to my first NBA game (and only one) which was the Lakers/Heat game (05-06 season) at the Staples Center where Shaq and Bynum both had big dunks which led to an altercation.. The game was simply amazing and was such a good experience..
When I’m older I would love to travel to Detroit and go to my first Pistons game ever! Can’t wait till that day..

P.S Laughton I have that DVD as well and love it! I could watch it all day haha..