That Lucky Dog

Hey there friends, boy do I have a story for you today.  Last Friday night was the first game of the season for the Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball team, and they had their opening game in the new Barclays Centre in Brooklyn New York.  Naturally with Miles and I, being from Ky, and being huge fans, had to go.  Miles decided to treat himself and bought a really good ticket on the 20^th row behind the basket.  The night of the game he got decked out in his UK tee shirt and hat, and a pair of white skinny jeans; with me in his pocket we all set out to enjoy an evening of college basketball. 

Dog cheering on Cats what has the world come to

Barclays centre AKA the house that Jay Z built

Upon arrival at the stadium, the girl who scanned our ticket informed us we were going to have to be moved.  I could see the hair raise on the back of Miles neck as he felt the precious ticket he had purchased threatened by this mysterious “moving.”  We proceeded to the table we were directed to.  Once there, we explained what we were told to the gentleman behind the table.  He looked at us, then at our ticket, and then he agreed that they would have to move us, but he said they were going to upgrade us!  Now Miles was a little more excited.  He leafed through a stack of tickets and said, “how about I put you on the side of the court in row 1 seat 1?”  Well we about fell down from shock as adrenaline rushed through our body, this was too good to be true.  With our new ticket in hand, we advanced to our new seat. 

The seat was awesome!

 The next big shock was to come right before the tip off of the UK Maryland game.  The stadium was filling with fans as we reveled in our front row seats we were approached by one of the entertainment promoters for the arena.  The girl informed Miles that they needed a Kentucky fan to compete in a contest on the floor, and asked if he would like to do it.  Now Miles has never really been described as good at basketball, and I could see the apprehension play across his face, but I could also see excitement and the thirst for adventure.  After thinking for a second he agreed.  Just a little bit into the first half he was taken from his seat, and escorted back behind one of the baskets.  At the under eight minute media time out the promo team took the floor.  This was to be a shooting contest; the contestant could shoot a layup worth one point, a free throw worth three points, and a three pointer worth five points.  After each shot attempt the contestant had to change shooting location.  Miles waved to the crowd as he was announced and then took his position at the layup marker.  He had expressed a fear of getting over agitated and shooting a brick for his layup, but later explained that due to modeling experiences and being in front of crowds he became calm on the floor.  The buzzer rang and he put up his first layup… and it went in!  Bouncing excitedly out to the free throw line, he executed his second shot attempt.  The free throw went in as well.  There was another layup and another free throw that were completed, and a three pointer and a free throw missed, in the remainder of the 30 seconds alloted time.  This gave Miles a total score of 8 which was enough to make him the winner, for which he received a nice gift card.  He also became a minor celebrity of the Kentucky crowd and was congratulated by many wonderful fans, both at the game, and at Jack Demsey’s, the official UK bar in NYC. 

Miles shooting ball on the Barclays centre court during a UK
in front of 18,000 people!!

Upon hearing the story retold at the bar Vinny, the owner of Demsey’s, expressed dismay that Miles had not been wearing a Jack Demsey’s UK shirt on the court.  To this Miles countered that he still didn’t have such a shirt, the oversight on both parts was hastily corrected.  So all in all Miles and I pretty much had the best night ever.  You could even say we together are a lucky dog.  Also for the record this is probably the only situation where you will find a dog cheering for a bunch of cats, but hey UK is special what can I say. 

With all this being said there are two things that made both Miles and I extremely proud that night.  The first was the fact that UK did pull off a win on their season opener, but the second is far more important.  The day previously, the UK basketball team had hosted a fund raiser telethon to raise money for hurricane sandy relief.  Before the game the basketball team, on the behalf of the University of Kentucky, and the state of Kentucky, presented the New York Red Cross with a check for one million dollars.  That is something that can make you very proud of where you come from and what you stand for.  Thank you to my home state for making that positive change in the world and the Kentucky Wildcats for facilitating that positivity. 

A $1,000,000 check given by the Kentucky
Wildcats to the New York Red Cross

Miles and I had a lucky night

GO BIG BLUE!!!

-SM-

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