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The Rules of Pacers Digest

Hello everyone,

Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.

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Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.

Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.

Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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#DetroitInvasion

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  • #1

    #DetroitInvasion

    (UPDATE - I have the first batch of photos out on pg 4)

    As some or all of you know, a bunch of Area 55 and G2 Zone got together and setup a road trip to the last Detroit game. They had vans rented out and a block of tickets bought and needed to fill them up to cut costs, which allowed me (via Twitter) to jump on board at the last second...like 8 hours before the trip, which was pretty cool of them. Also thanks to Trader Joe for almost going but then not which kinda pushed me over the top.

    During the trip I discovered that a lot of A55 and G2 aren't really PD members or only like to lurk, so I was meeting a ton of people that I didn't even know by PD handle. El Pacero of course, and IndySportsGirl Shelly who I met during the SAC/GSW trip, but apart from maybe Kyle that I've talked to when talking to Pacero, I didn't really know those guys and I don't think they really know all of us. Some knew me by name from reading here, but they weren't "fluent" in the nuances of PD personalities and debates.


    So normally I would assume that it was almost a moot point to post a thread detailing much of what we discussed and shared on Twitter already since "all of you" were already there or following all of us, but I guess that's not really true. So I'm going to try to knock out a recap from my POV, mostly without names which will have to be filled in later. Hopefully the people that talked to me for hours will forgive me going by "dude with wig" or "Gumby Pacer" or "Airport Crew #1 and #2" for now. I also will get pix up but I'm still sorting some of them out.


    Okay, so the plan was a couple of vans that held 12-15 (un)comfortably would meet at 10:30 AM, a few others would go in various cars, and we'd all meet up at the Palace...or something, and we'd figure it out then, or we wouldn't. The 2 vans started around the same time and we didn't see them again for about 8 hours. Ditto most of the car groups. I think by Anderson we were certain that we had no idea where the other van was. I spent most of the time talking to Joe, and a little bit of time talking to son of PD's Hoopsfanatic and time rolled along pretty well.


    I'll throw Barb under the bus, err van, and say that Yahoo/Google had "helped" her with directions and had us off the highway to "cut the corner" from 69 to 94. Near Detroit Marcus (right?) made a "recalculating" error that brought us about 8 feet from guardrail head-on "fun", but averted disaster at the last second. Probably thanks to his 3 gallon jug of Hawaiian Punch/return trip pee jug.

    So we ended up getting there a bit later and the other van had gone on to Chili's, some local Detroit Tex-Mex place.

    We wanted to start the PTO without them (man, I already forget what that stands for...parking lot tailgating org maybe...get ur krunk on is the jist) so we looked for a liquor store. One of the ladies (g/f of Fireman Pacer?) in the van was familiar with all things Michigan and told us we needed to find a Party Place, which to me falls under the "well no s***" answer, but is actually what they call places you buy alcohol, like an ABC store or something. We found one, and that was what it was called. And it's really a party place, it has every single item you ever ran out of at any party ever. When you ran out of bobbing apples and cotton swabs and Courvoisier at that one Halloween party, this place had you covered. Also, slushies.

    Beers bought, me with an almost Cuba Libre (lime juice sold out, so just rum n coke, meh) we went to the $10 parking lot and got our drink on. That lasted about 5 minutes and we decided to find Will Call and get some of the tickets that had been left there instead. This brought us face to face with THOUSANDS of people coming 3-4 hours early for a Pistons game!?! WTF ?!? Later we found out that it was partially workers and partially families who had kids there for Hoopers party. You know, the world famous Hooper (so like, Burt Reynolds is here tonite, I don't know). We later found out that a "Hooper" is that lame horse mascot having one of those macot b-day parties that I've now seen about 5 of (seriously, Rowdy had one in Houston last year).

    Also CAMERA PEOPLE, while we were up there I asked about my camera and they gave me the "no problem" without even looking at it. I had the standard "BILF approved" short lens that I haven't been able to take to several other arenas, but I wonder if I'd had my longer 200mm if they'd let that go to. Maybe in the "who are we to say no" mode of needing fans. However, NO BAGS. So if you go I think you'll get shut down on a camera bag. I didn't have mine to find out.


    Okay, so everything in pre-game lock down, 2 airline rums in coke bottle gone, and 3 hours still to go with the other van and the Pacero car not there yet, a bunch of us trekked across the "highway" to the nearest and onliest restaurant/bar by the Palace. The place was nice and we caught zero grief or stares from people as far as I could tell, which was the theme right up until tip-off. Standard bar stuff and it's actually a pretty nice layout. We did almost die trying to walk across to/from the place due to the whole divided 4-6 lane road thing.


    My favorite moment was while drying my hands in the bathroom two guys are talking and one says "if this gets to be another blow out, what do you want to do..." How great is that, they are making plans for the possible destruction.


    Back at the parking lot the Airport Crew arrived, Gumby arrived, Pacers Ironman (is that the theme, not sure?), etc. Marcus, who is not driving back, is in the tank as much as me so I feel right at home. Not one person even batted an eye at a new guy joining in. Just biz as usual. The guys wig/mask/suit up and off we go as a pretty healthy group into the Palace. They wand pretty heavily and it definitely seems a bit more security conscious than BILF, but as Pacers fans we caught no extra grief.


    So it's 45 min or so before the game. The Pistons come out to shoot...we boo, loudly. Pacers come out...we start going through the A55/G2 player specific chants. We see Danny. He starts getting a chant. How loud are we? Players are giving us waves or point outs for our cheers, and I'd almost swear West was bopping along to some of them (he does headphones I know, but this seemed in unison and only when we were going). Gotta think that got them a little fired up.

    This is when the first security girl showed up. We have basically rows 1-4 of a section, about 20 seats, with plenty of people sitting behind us and a few next to us. It's not packed, but even on the end where we were it wasn't empty. So the thing is with A55/G2, you ain't sittin'. That's not going to fly, which is no problem for me. But between "distracting" chants and just constant standing, a lot of fans were getting a non-standard "viewing experience". I have no idea if one of them complained, but I'm betting they did.

    Security girl says nothing specific, just "respect those around you" which we took to be a euphemism for "maybe could you sit down", but since it wasn't overt or an order, that's not happening. She leaves. No fans around us have said anything, but some clearly are sensing that moving might be a good idea. There are plenty of empty sections to move to, and on the side at the same row level, so really if I were them that's what I'd do anyway. I'll spoiler this part by saying that by the end of the game the 4-5 rows behind us were empty and no one but us was left in our rows. Just an island of empty seats surrounding us.


    Sidebar - A55/G2 are organized as hell. You know that of course, but I mean even on the fly. It's like Operation Wall St. The group has pretty good order and can quickly defer to keep everyone on the same page as needed. Guys have different ideas on how to handle it, but over the course of the game there were no arguments except for fun and really there are no points where the group doesn't act as one unit. That's a big key to how loud it is.

    Having said that, I'm a courtside guy so you just can't shut down my instinct for courtside style taunts over chants, so I did a little heckle "jazz" and through out my taunts to fill in the notes between the notes. I'm pretty fond of "its the orange round thing in the middle" after a run of bad shooting by the other team.

    And having said "having said that", the other thing they are good about is keeping the stuff pretty positive, not dirty or nasty toward the other team (I'd say I'm way snarkier when I get going, ie a bit mean). This helped later in the night when avoiding a fight was needed.


    Okay, so this part is easy enough to fill in. You've been to games, imagine the normal A55/G2. That's what you heard. And that is ALL you heard. I could hear the echo of us at times. The place was far from full, but it wasn't empty. I took a photo from another section over on the side looking back toward our group, and looking from the outside like that our group was pretty small. It's 50 vs 10-15K. So even if they could only put a small group in unison, they should easily be able to out cheer us with just 500 of that attendance. And they did not (but they tried later).


    So now you get some more security visits. Again, smiles, just keep it friendly, and the security guy literally walks down our row. Not the aisle, I mean THROUGH US. He's not telling us to stop, he's not looking for anything that I can tell. This is literally just a show of force. Meh, no biggie, doesn't bug me, doesn't seem to bother or deter any of us. However when this guy comes through later in the game he does CROP DUST us. Intentional? Hard to say, but definitely possible.


    We've been waiting for Danny to check in. You can feel the buzz in the group even in the midst of this non-normal situation there is this other thing lingering on the edge. We see the sweat bottoms come off and the knee flexing begin. Oh baby. We are pointing, yelling to each other, prepping for it. After the time out he comes in and we go into a massive, loudest-thing-of-the-night DAN-KNEE, DAN-KNEE. Epic. The Pistons have been awful, the crowd is shook, and this really catches them off guard. It's a road game for the Pistons at this point.

    Unfortunately Danny misses shots and the Pistons make a run. Here was the first sign that the crowd was angry because they started getting into it. Yes Detroit closed the gap a bit, but they never took the lead and barely sniffed any kind of "back in range" moment where they were clearly better suddenly and had a real shot. This was the bench and Granger just back, not the starters. But man did the fans start getting louder for a bit.

    This is what I've seen in DAL, GSW and Sacto where we (Gnome, me, Frezno 4) were at our loudest/tauntiest. You do that and the crowd starts wanting to cheer you down. When it's just 2-6 of you that can be done if the team helps (the Kings didn't). But 40 organized vs random crowd with team not really making a serious comeback? Please.

    Fireman Pacer (name please, he was in my van even) reads a tweet - they just showed you on TV, which he yells to us like the excited Nintendo Kid. He gets the expected reaction of "yeah, they put us on TV all the time", especially since with a road game like this you know they are going to. But we are seeing those tweets saying it's coming through on TV and radio in the background. At one point someone tweets that they can hear our "Boom Baby". It doesn't fire us up more because honestly there wasn't a much higher level we could go to, but it's fun to know it's working as well as you could hope.


    Pacers get it going again with the starters and by halftime the outcome is looking certain. The Pistons have an epic fail first half of scoring going, it's a disaster these fans have seen before. I thought this would break their spirit. I was wrong.


    Anyway, we go to half and as I mentioned it's Hoopers b-day. So Boomer (the uniform) is there along with the 1/2 size Benny the Bull and a few others. Standard stuff, but it was ultra bizarre seeing Boomer there with how we were cheering all game. But you know it's not the real Boomer or tied with Pacers (I assume) when he doesn't come up to our section at any point. I think the real Boomer would have done that, so it was kinda like seeing a con-artist. Still that didn't stop us from doing Boomer chants and cheers during the routines. Mascot dunk - we cheer Booomer. They gang tackle Boomer - we boo. Inflatable Boomer (yep, they had him too) gets his own Boomer chant. So even the mascot party is kinda being ruined. It's epic. It's turning into Brawl payback a little, it's that bad.



    TIMEOUT for COCKTAILS - I can't skip halftime without giving the Palace huge props for some outstanding mixed drink bars. Not just some 10 bottles of various standard rums, vodka, etc, but actual cocktail stuff with actual cocktails listed. Classic and crazy stuff. I see El Presidente on the board. I see Hurricane on the board. El Presidente is rum, vermouth, curacuo, touch of Grenedine. It's as old school as they come and you have to explain it at most bars. But here it's a main menu item. Now when I order it the girl has to ask for help from another bartender because people never order it I guess (like 2 in the last few months), but still it got made right and was on the menu.

    Later I came back for a Hurricane, also not from mix which kicks butt in terms of bar coolness. And a DIFFERENT drink stand (ie, BILF has like 3 identical "mixed drink" vendor spots) right next to this one has stuff listed like Gin Martini (vs non-standard Vodka martini). I get one and they even ask if I want it dirty (I don't). Holy s***, I love this place. It's like Ball and Biscuit but in a freaking arena concourse. The martini is in a plastic martini glass. The guy has me sip off the first pour to empty the rest off the shaker like a real bar.

    So say what you will about Piston fans, but their actual arena is pretty awesome. I happen to be a cocktail fanatic so this stood out, but trust me that the concourse design, color schemes, paint, seat quality, everything was pretty top notch. Frankly the fans deserve less. There will be photos. It's not retro cool like BILF, but in terms of glossy new arenas it's pretty sharp.



    GAME ON
    Okay, so during the 2nd half it started getting chippy. Peanuts got thrown toward us. Ushers were told. One guy just before half started talking s*** to us and got chanted down with a 30-40 strong "Scoreboard" chant. He's still yapping coming out of halftime but none of us are paying attention to him at this point. Kinda sad.

    Another guy behind us is trying to shout out stuff about the game, and is starting to turn on us basically. "PEYTON MANNING SUCKS!". I laugh thinking that his "Danny Granger" sounded like "Peyton Manning". Hey, did he just say Peyton Manning, ha ha. Then someone else says "did he just say Peyton Manning" and you realize that it is what he said. This makes it so much funnier. This gets taunted with "he's in Den-ver" or something. Also there is some single cat calling going out from our group which gets reigned in so this doesn't turn into a real fight.

    He switches to "Championship" and "Tayshaun Prince" as a reference to the Prince block of Reggie, 2 guys no longer involved with these teams. This does not work in his favor because it breaks us out into "Where is Tay-Shaun" loudly. The more he presses us the more it gets us back on our game. We are back into full-on "Dee Dee Dee Dee-fence" and a slew of scattered Ric Flair "woos" which is my favorite because it's not all at once but just 2-3 people at a time feeding off each other so it just keeps going and is so freaking annoying if you aren't involved.

    But this dude doesn't stop. More peanuts, ice or stuff. Not "holy s**, we are in trouble". This is the sneaky, cowardly, every now and then style. Harmless but douchy.




    PERSONAL TAUNT MEMORY - I don't know how much the rest of the group was paying attention or really understood my sense of humor, but I swear the following is true and is right in line with my "don't take that s*** Larry Sanders" right before he lost it last year. For whatever reason after a Will Bynum foul or TO with our group cheering, I went into a loud, sarcastic "You shut up about Will Bynum, he's my favorite, you leave him alone" rant. I've just randomly decided that now I'm a massive Will Bynum fan. Why? Because they are getting killed and Bynum is an odd guy to like and it just feels silly.

    Maybe 1 minute later Will punches Tyler. I am loving this, I can't believe it just happened. Now I get to go into even more "Will Bynum, you're my favorite" taunts. The court probably couldn't hear me even, but god I'd like to dream that they could. Maybe I'm just entertaining myself and confusing everyone else, but I can't get over the timing and randomness of my choice.

    Also for their Russian (or whatever) center I basically went through all the names of other Russians I could think of when taunting him. "You're the best Garry Kasparov".





    A section on the other side of us organizes and starts some chants. It's about 8 people, not as organized and with no specific chants. We crush them like Drago on Apollo.

    But we've stirred up the animals and it bears a striking similarity to the Brawl. Their team is getting killed and most fans of most teams would just be sick of the whole spectacle. People in other cities would be more like "well at least your team is good and you support them, I wish our team was good". Like we hate the "fake" Miami and NYK fans and get a bit annoyed with Bulls fans. But if Squad 6 or some OKC fan group or Memphis fan group came to the BILF a few years ago when JOB was coaching, how angry would you be at them vs sad that our own team was crap.

    It would bug you, but it wouldn't make you want to fight those people. To some extent you have to admire fans that travel, and I'd say that Gnome and I have gotten nothing but that wherever we go. Even on my solo games I end up talking to fans about their team, their arena, etc and they are amazed to find out that you travel to see your team.

    But these Piston fans are pretty hateful. Not all I'm sure. I'd say that at times we ran into fans in the arena/concourse that were way more friendly about it like Gnome and I are used to. But the people that are hanging around to jaw at us with the game way out of reach...that's where it's Brawl like.

    A dude on the lower level right near the baseline (ie, pretty nice seat) is standing looking up at us FLIPPING US OFF during the 4th. Your team is getting crushed, we are a 50 yards away, and you are flipping us off. Haters gonna hate...or maybe it was KStat. zing


    So when it comes time to leave security has returned and is hanging with us. We've all agreed to stay as a group to let the others clear out, and then to travel as a group, and it seems like security has something similar in mind. When we finally go they wait till we completely clear out and then FOLLOW US in the concourse "just to make sure". I don't think they were there to keep us from hurting others, I got the sense that they knew their fanbase or that section of people (gasoline alley fans vs snakepit fans).

    We get outside and go over to the team bus area to wait. It's setup so one of the main parking lot exits is right by it. People left the game early and we didn't run right out ourselves, but there is still a surprising number of people still leaving. Constrast this with our PD talks after the game and the empty garage by the time we break it up.

    The problem with this is that windows come down to flip us off or Pacers sucks or whatever. They get the same treatment as the rest - Scoreboard or Go Pacers. It's a wedding reception line of haters getting dumped on one last time. It takes forever the bus to come out and by the time it does we are freezing. I don't think either bus (media/team) even acknowledged us which was a bummer, but the wait allowed us to taunt every single Piston player as they left, or most of them. We started joking that seeing our dedication vs their fanbase had them calling agents looking for a trade.

    Also a guy that Pacero ran into while smoking came up and started more friendly taunting while we waited for the bus. Again, he got the same treatment as the rest though he was a lot more fun about it. Pacero said he was his favorite of the night.

    At some point Pacero called into the Eddie White show while we were waiting I guess, but I didn't hear it. Maybe MagicRat or someone else captured it because that would be great.




    When we left we had the same broken groups, vans headed back to Indy, some cars going to the hotel (SportsGirl and Pacero group went there for sure). Note about the hotel - when they checked in the clerk first tried to say they didn't have any rooms and when he gave them a room he said "it's down there and I hope you die tonight". Oh Detroit, the charms of Savannah with the weather of Hawaii. PS - they didn't die so in your face.


    Our van wanted to find a restroom before we settled in, maybe some food for some of the group. This began the Voyage of a Thousand U-Turns, followed by the sequel, Journey to the Center of the Ghetto. Or maybe that's just Detroit. All I know is that when they give you your food using a protective glass lazy susan and buzz you into the restroom, it's probably not the place for out of towners to be at 11:30 SAT night. They had a ghetto White Castle that we didn't go to because of the bathroom aspect. What I mean is that this WC was specifically designed like an army bunker and was drive-through only. It looked like a photohut with a cement food storage area added onto it. All the regular fast food places were closed, so we really had no choice.

    I didn't have anything except a few fries, but the reviews from those who ate were pretty thumbs up all things considered.

    And look, I'm a downtowner. Just being inner-city isn't ghetto. But places that are clearly designed to stop gunpoint hold ups...they don't make them that way just for laughs.



    The drive home was long, boring and somehow more uncomfortable than the drive up. But everyone was great about it. No complaints, not even from the small girl (4-6?) that handled it like a champ both ways.

    The main theme for the van was "Punch it", meaning punch the gas. We got a lot of comedy miles out of that one, even at 4 AM.



    Anyway, not a smooth ending but I just did a few hours brain dump of all I could brainstorm. Others had different stories so this gives them a jump off point to add them in or to remind me on twitter if they want to keep lurking. I'll do photos tomorrow, at least some of them. I'm trying to go through the game photos mostly to see what's worth showing and what's just more of the same.
    Last edited by Naptown_Seth; 02-25-2013, 08:49 PM.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: #DetroitInvasion

    I live to push people over the top. I'm a perennial top pusher.

    EDIT: White Castle bit is so true. Stopped at a gas station/restaurant combo once that was questionable in college up there. It was....an experience.
    Last edited by Trader Joe; 02-25-2013, 09:39 AM.


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    • #3
      Re: #DetroitInvasion

      Also Seth, "fake" Boomer or "real" Boomer or "face off" Boomer, totally high fived Mr. West coming out of a time out.


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      • #4
        Re: #DetroitInvasion

        I might get around to the Saga of Team Sandman.... unfortunately no guardrail stories from us.....


        But there was a **** YOU BEN WALLACE yelled out the window driving into the Detroit past an oil tank painted up like a basketball with a Pistons logo on it at 75mph.....
        Last edited by Sandman21; 02-25-2013, 09:39 AM.
        "Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

        "And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "

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        • #5
          Re: #DetroitInvasion

          Pics or it didn't happen!

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          • #6
            Re: #DetroitInvasion

            Originally posted by Trader Joe View Post
            I live to push people over the top. I'm a perennial top pusher.

            EDIT: White Castle bit is so true. Stopped at a gas station/restaurant combo once that was questionable in college up there. It was....an experience.
            It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Appreciate the stories but I learned not to push too far. Close to getting my butt into trouble down in all places Orlando during the playoffs.
            You know how hippos are made out to be sweet and silly, like big cows, but are actually extremely dangerous and can kill you with stunning brutality? The Pacers are the NBA's hippos....Matt Moore CBS Sports....

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            • #7
              Re: #DetroitInvasion

              There is a pizza place on the east side of Indy that has bullet proof glass, turntable for your money. And yes it was outside of 465. Pizza was horrible also

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              • #8
                Re: #DetroitInvasion

                Originally posted by RWB View Post
                Close to getting my butt into trouble down in all places Orlando during the playoffs.
                Fez?
                "Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

                "And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: #DetroitInvasion

                  Thanks, Seth, for writing up the journey and it was great finally being able to associate a warm body with the "Naptown Seth" moniker I've seen here periodically over the last 3 years of my PD membership. Enjoyed talking to you on the way up. However, on the way back you were so dead to the world back in the rear of the van I figured we might have to hold funeral services for you at some point after crossing the Indiana line. *grin*

                  Our chat and your nice narrative of the trip below did trigger a couple of "light bulb" ideas for me.

                  Next time A55 and G2 Zone do a trip we might need to consider throwing it open to some of you regulars at Pacers Digest. I can personally attest that Naptown Seth proved to be a great traveling companion and represented PD very well on our trip (although I might mention that he was the last one to show up and we were beginning to think we might have to leave without him!).

                  Seriously though, if we want to "take over" an arena in the future we might want to consider sticking a few strategic hecklers from PD in key spots in the foreign venue -- like right behind the opposing team's bench, if we can manage it. A bigger road group, too, would allow us to maybe have a couple of tandem jeering sections that would make for a chanting/heckling "double whammy" that would make our unwelcome presence even more obnoxious and despised. Just thinking out loud here.

                  That said, I think Area 55 and the G2 Zone people that went did a pretty good job while there, as Seth mentions. When the Pistons came out for their warm ups and heard only the boos emanating from the upper decks from our section across the court, some of them looked up sort of puzzled and then kind of ashamed. From that moment on, I felt I was in a Pacer home court environment. Before it was all over, we basically neutralized a 17,000+ strong Piston attendance throng, ruined Hooper's Birthday; ruined The Palace's Kids' Night; and generally had an appropriately negating effect on virtually everything that had to do with the Detroit Pistons in their own Palace of Auburn Hills.

                  When the guys behind us started screaming at us: "Where Are Your Championship Banners?" we responded with "The Detroit Pistons Ain't What They Used to Be!" And when that strange drunken old man to our left stood up and yelled at us for an entire profanity-laced second half threatening to put womp on us (And our putting our hands to our ears indicating we couldn't hear him in response)....well, those were some really good moments from my perspective. To steal a line from Julie Andrews, these were a few of my favorite things. When it was all over, I actually felt a little bit sorry for the Pistons and their humiliated fan base.

                  Anyway, we need to think about doing it again sometime. Who knows? Maybe when we go to the Playoffs?
                  Last edited by IndyHoya; 02-25-2013, 04:01 PM.

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                  • #10
                    Re: #DetroitInvasion

                    The place Seth was talking about was called "Legend's Coney Island" or something like that. They were prepared for robbery to the max but their food was great! Great deal for the money.
                    Last edited by IndyHoya; 02-25-2013, 04:01 PM.

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                    • #11
                      Re: #DetroitInvasion

                      I'm always down for road trip. Would have gone on Saturday if something in the afternoon hadn't prevented it.


                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Re: #DetroitInvasion

                        Originally posted by IndyHoya View Post
                        Before it was all over, we basically neutralized a 17,000+ strong Piston attendance throng, ruined Hooper's Birthday; ruined The Palace's Kids' Night; and generally had an appropriately negating effect on virtually everything that had to do with the Detroit Pistons in their own Palace of Auburn Hills.
                        We were monsters and we didn't even care!
                        "Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

                        "And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Re: #DetroitInvasion

                          I'll most likely be going to the Cavs game on 3/18.

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                          • #14
                            Re: #DetroitInvasion

                            Originally posted by IndyHoya View Post
                            . . . ruined The Palace's Kids' Night; and generally had an appropriately negating effect on virtually everything that had to do with the Detroit Pistons in their own Palace of Auburn Hills.

                            Anyway, we need to think about doing it again sometime. Who knows? Maybe when we go to the Playoffs?
                            Originally posted by Sandman21 View Post
                            We were monsters and we didn't even care!


                            You ruined some peoples evening and think it's fun and want to do it again?

                            Look for Hill and George and Hibbert to quit having fan sections if you can't represent them with class!
                            Last edited by Will Galen; 02-25-2013, 12:18 PM.

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                            • #15
                              Re: #DetroitInvasion

                              Wow. Holy over-reaction Batman!

                              That was in jest. We even had the Piston fan kids sitting next to us converted over to the Blue and Gold by the time the night was over. Seriously. They were chanting with us.

                              No harm, no foul.

                              Plus, it was the Piston fans who were using profanity and middle fingers and chanting Pacers suck, not us. Our work was very very VERY PG-rated.
                              "Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

                              "And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "

                              Comment

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