October 10th, New York Liberty lost to Minnesota Lynx 93-95 after forcing overtime in game one of the WNBA Finals and I was in distress to say the least.
When I saw tickets listed at $48 flat to see this game, I jumped on the opportunity immediately. We bought our tickets the day of and prepared for a night of intensity.
This was my second WNBA game, but this time it was different because it was game one of the finals.
It meant business.
Getting off the train and walking up to the Barclays Center, I felt the energy immediately. The endless amounts of Liberty jerseys in line, the MC outside getting everyone amped up for tip off, and the light up wrist bands handed out upon entry, set the tone for everyone inside and outside the arena.
The first mission at hand was to get popcorn before they ran out like last time. Respectfully, how does a huge arena run out of popcorn? I was mind blown and settled for a pretzel that ended up being rock solid and practically bathed in salt.
Anyway, that is not the point, we got our popcorn this time first thing. When we had finally gotten to our seats, we noticed everyone around us had these white towels saying “New York Ain’t For Everybody”.
Our seats were the only two without them. We knew our ride to the arena went too smooth, so us getting our towels taken had to be the one thing that had to go wrong.
Remember I said that.
Fast forward to first half, everything was going great. Liberty team was making shots left and right taking that lead right from the Lynx. Anytime Breanna Stewart (Stewie), Jonquel Jones, Sabrina Ionescu, Leonie Fiebich, and Courtney Vandersloot had the possession of the ball, my friend and I broke the sound barrier yelling over their successful shots.
As always, I have to mention how their mascot, Ellie the Elephant never fails to captivate the crowd. 
I always wonder who is in the costume because I have never seen a mascot portray such sass and maintain a level of hyped up energy the way Ellie continuously does.
All I know is whoever it is, must love their job.
Half time rolled around and I couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that Rick Ross was our performer for the night. It was just so unexpected for me.
The crowd started to become dry for the most part since everyone took this as their opportunity to leave and come back when the game started up.
Although, personally, I felt that if Ross had better stage presence, the atmosphere would have been more energized. As I’m writing this waiting for game five tonight, I am just thinking if only you saw the look on my face when I saw they got Fat Joe for tonight, and had Jadakiss for game two.
Anyway, second half started back up and it was back to that competitive atmosphere that I loved.
Until third quarter, when my stress levels sky rocketed because Liberty lost the lead due to a shooting foul. I was unable to sit back in my seat calmly with the way my heart was racing. The last thing I needed was to have a heart attack at my first in person finals game, obviously did not happen, but I needed to be dramatic for effect.
The energy in the room shifted as the clock winded down with two seconds left. I legitimately jumped out of my seat when Stewie drew a foul and tied the game back up at the free throw line forcing overtime.
If anyone knows anything about basketball, overtime is quite possibly one of the most stressful points of a game. It’s a make or break kind of timing.
For me at least.
During that little break before overtime started, I prepared myself for the intensity that was to come. I stress ate the last of the popcorn that I shared with my friend and downed the rest of my large soda.
The buzzer went off indicating it was time to start and I locked in immediately. Even the security guard left his post to come watch the final five minutes.
I wish I could say I knew what occurred to make Liberty fumble, but we lost our lead the rest of the game.
Missed shots, turn overs, bad passes.
Eventually we tied it back up and I saw a glimmer of hope for a game one home win.
Then what do you know, aside from us getting robbed of our towels, in the last two seconds, Stewie missed her driving lay up that could have tied it back up again.
We lost by two points.
My section was full of silence, my friend and I just looked at each other knowing we would need at least a day to recover from that stress that overcame us.
As we were in the crowd leaving the section, one singular man in a Lynx jersey was caught in the middle of us.
The highlight of that moment was booing him until he was out of sight.
It may sound crazy that an orange ball can affect my mood so quickly, but when a game of the sport you love gets that intense, it feels completely justifiable.
