Florinc Florin
Well-Known Member
Hello!
My name is Florin, I'm 41 years old and I'm from Romania.
I've been watching NBA basketball since the first broadcasts here in 1992, if I'm not mistaken, and I fell in love with this sport.
I've written on this site before about how I became a fan of the Utah Jazz team. I don't want to repeat myself, but still very, very briefly, in case anyone is curious, everyone here was fascinated by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and they were rooting for them, but I didn't want to be like everyone else and I was watching games with the idea of finding a team to root for. After watching many games, I ended up watching a game of a team with a strange name and seeing Stockton and Malone... I discovered another level of the beauty of basketball and I remained a fan of this team, probably for life.
Even though I hardly post on the site at all, I constantly follow what is written here. I was a member on the old site, back then I wrote more often, and what I really liked at the time was the chat function that I used especially during the games. That was around 2003. I probably became a member looking for information, because the interest in the NBA in Romania after 2000 had started to decrease, 2007 being the last year I could watch a season broadcast on TV. But anyway, the broadcasts were becoming rarer and focused on the teams that were most popular at the time. But my need for the Utah Jazz was too great, so at some point I ended up listening to the games on the radio, me at night, the charming voice of Hot Rod Hudley and my imagination. It was like you could feel every movement of the players from his voice, every grimace of joy or sadness after a throw to the basket, every gritted tooth in the fight to recover the ball.
Years have passed, the internet, technology has evolved, we have come to be able to enjoy watching anything, any sport, from anywhere, something unthinkable 30 years ago, but this ease has also taken away a lot of the charm of things...
And so I got to the subject of this post, I have in mind a list of things I want to do in this life, places I would like to go, two of them being in the USA. I have never been to the USA. Even if it is not relevant, the first would be to see New York, especially the Statue of Liberty from a boat, as one of my great-grandfathers, who was and worked there in the 1890s, inevitably saw it, and the second to go to a Utah Jazz home game.
I started planning this in 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic came and turned my plans upside down, not just about getting to Salt Lake City but also my life plans in general because I had a business in which I had invested all the money I had and which went bankrupt due to the pandemic. However, in the meantime, things started to evolve positively and since last year, the idea and desire to go see the Utah Jazz returned to me. Of course, I'm aiming for a series of several home games, not just one, and I even saw that they had six consecutive home games in January, but what made me not go last season or this is also the reason why I'm watching the games with increasing difficulty, namely the feeling, I think correct, that some games are lost on purpose. I played basketball, now I only play table tennis, I'm a competitive person, even though I understand how the order of the draft picks works, and that it can be something good for the future of the team, my nature doesn't let me accept losing on purpose.
I think the best parallel I can make is between the Utah Jazz and my boy. He plays football (soccer), for me the score doesn't matter, it can be 10-0 for the opponents, I can accept that they were better, but I want to see that he fought for every ball, that he threw himself forward for every shot, that he ran the whole game, that when he comes off the field, at the end of the game, with his equipment dirty with mud and torn, he can hold his head high. And at that moment I'm proud of him, and he knows it. And he also knows that there's another game coming up, in which he'll run even harder, and he'll sacrifice even more at every phase, and it won't be 10-0 for the opponents, for sure. That's what I would like from the Utah Jazz, to see them try anything to win, not like I've seen in some games where they put in the reserves at the end and when a player played well, they replaced him with the third reserve. I can't see that, it's torture.
So, with the hope that the team will return to what I knew Utah Jazz meant, and it certainly meant decades, namely dedication, competitiveness and respect for the game, when I feel that again, I would still like to fulfill my wish of getting to see them live and I have a short list of questions:
1. Where should I look for accommodation in Salt Lake City? Which area is close to the arena and grocery stores? Do people walk to games or use public transportation? Would it be weird if I walked? Here, for example, it's seen as something normal, I prefer to walk to work if the weather is good, which is about 5 km from where I live, about an hour's walk.
2. Are tickets easy to buy? Is there a specific website you recommend? Are there still physical tickets that you can buy at the entrance to the arena? Here everything is very different depending on the country, some are very permissive, others, like Greece for example, in order to get a ticket to a match you have to create an account on a government website, enter your details so you don't end up being a hooligan. What are the areas in the stands that you would recommend and why?
3. Do people still socialize? Are there places where fans can gather before and after matches? I know that some time ago people discussed here on the site how they could meet at a certain match. Is that still done?
4. What habits are generally accepted and which are not? Alcoholic beverages don't interest me, but for example I smoke regular classic cigarettes. Is anyone still accepted who does that there or are you seen as a weirdo?
5. Considering spending a week, maybe two in the city, taking into account that I will also have to adjust to the time zone, what other activities do you recommend? Is there anything you consider a must-see? Maybe in the city, or maybe somewhere further away? Is it worth renting a car for this purpose? I mention that I am not a winter sports enthusiast.
6. In general, I am the type of person who takes care of themselves, I prefer to cook my own food, but still, to have a complete experience, what restaurants do you recommend? Is there anything specific to the area? Any dish not to be missed?
Thank you to those who were patient enough to read everything I wrote, and I await with interest the answers, which may be just punctual on a certain topic. And any other information that could be useful to a stranger and that I did not think of, I gladly accept!
My name is Florin, I'm 41 years old and I'm from Romania.
I've been watching NBA basketball since the first broadcasts here in 1992, if I'm not mistaken, and I fell in love with this sport.
I've written on this site before about how I became a fan of the Utah Jazz team. I don't want to repeat myself, but still very, very briefly, in case anyone is curious, everyone here was fascinated by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and they were rooting for them, but I didn't want to be like everyone else and I was watching games with the idea of finding a team to root for. After watching many games, I ended up watching a game of a team with a strange name and seeing Stockton and Malone... I discovered another level of the beauty of basketball and I remained a fan of this team, probably for life.
Even though I hardly post on the site at all, I constantly follow what is written here. I was a member on the old site, back then I wrote more often, and what I really liked at the time was the chat function that I used especially during the games. That was around 2003. I probably became a member looking for information, because the interest in the NBA in Romania after 2000 had started to decrease, 2007 being the last year I could watch a season broadcast on TV. But anyway, the broadcasts were becoming rarer and focused on the teams that were most popular at the time. But my need for the Utah Jazz was too great, so at some point I ended up listening to the games on the radio, me at night, the charming voice of Hot Rod Hudley and my imagination. It was like you could feel every movement of the players from his voice, every grimace of joy or sadness after a throw to the basket, every gritted tooth in the fight to recover the ball.
Years have passed, the internet, technology has evolved, we have come to be able to enjoy watching anything, any sport, from anywhere, something unthinkable 30 years ago, but this ease has also taken away a lot of the charm of things...
And so I got to the subject of this post, I have in mind a list of things I want to do in this life, places I would like to go, two of them being in the USA. I have never been to the USA. Even if it is not relevant, the first would be to see New York, especially the Statue of Liberty from a boat, as one of my great-grandfathers, who was and worked there in the 1890s, inevitably saw it, and the second to go to a Utah Jazz home game.
I started planning this in 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic came and turned my plans upside down, not just about getting to Salt Lake City but also my life plans in general because I had a business in which I had invested all the money I had and which went bankrupt due to the pandemic. However, in the meantime, things started to evolve positively and since last year, the idea and desire to go see the Utah Jazz returned to me. Of course, I'm aiming for a series of several home games, not just one, and I even saw that they had six consecutive home games in January, but what made me not go last season or this is also the reason why I'm watching the games with increasing difficulty, namely the feeling, I think correct, that some games are lost on purpose. I played basketball, now I only play table tennis, I'm a competitive person, even though I understand how the order of the draft picks works, and that it can be something good for the future of the team, my nature doesn't let me accept losing on purpose.
I think the best parallel I can make is between the Utah Jazz and my boy. He plays football (soccer), for me the score doesn't matter, it can be 10-0 for the opponents, I can accept that they were better, but I want to see that he fought for every ball, that he threw himself forward for every shot, that he ran the whole game, that when he comes off the field, at the end of the game, with his equipment dirty with mud and torn, he can hold his head high. And at that moment I'm proud of him, and he knows it. And he also knows that there's another game coming up, in which he'll run even harder, and he'll sacrifice even more at every phase, and it won't be 10-0 for the opponents, for sure. That's what I would like from the Utah Jazz, to see them try anything to win, not like I've seen in some games where they put in the reserves at the end and when a player played well, they replaced him with the third reserve. I can't see that, it's torture.
So, with the hope that the team will return to what I knew Utah Jazz meant, and it certainly meant decades, namely dedication, competitiveness and respect for the game, when I feel that again, I would still like to fulfill my wish of getting to see them live and I have a short list of questions:
1. Where should I look for accommodation in Salt Lake City? Which area is close to the arena and grocery stores? Do people walk to games or use public transportation? Would it be weird if I walked? Here, for example, it's seen as something normal, I prefer to walk to work if the weather is good, which is about 5 km from where I live, about an hour's walk.
2. Are tickets easy to buy? Is there a specific website you recommend? Are there still physical tickets that you can buy at the entrance to the arena? Here everything is very different depending on the country, some are very permissive, others, like Greece for example, in order to get a ticket to a match you have to create an account on a government website, enter your details so you don't end up being a hooligan. What are the areas in the stands that you would recommend and why?
3. Do people still socialize? Are there places where fans can gather before and after matches? I know that some time ago people discussed here on the site how they could meet at a certain match. Is that still done?
4. What habits are generally accepted and which are not? Alcoholic beverages don't interest me, but for example I smoke regular classic cigarettes. Is anyone still accepted who does that there or are you seen as a weirdo?
5. Considering spending a week, maybe two in the city, taking into account that I will also have to adjust to the time zone, what other activities do you recommend? Is there anything you consider a must-see? Maybe in the city, or maybe somewhere further away? Is it worth renting a car for this purpose? I mention that I am not a winter sports enthusiast.
6. In general, I am the type of person who takes care of themselves, I prefer to cook my own food, but still, to have a complete experience, what restaurants do you recommend? Is there anything specific to the area? Any dish not to be missed?
Thank you to those who were patient enough to read everything I wrote, and I await with interest the answers, which may be just punctual on a certain topic. And any other information that could be useful to a stranger and that I did not think of, I gladly accept!
