Just came back from a whole week of travelling (more than 50 hours in the air). Gonna take a slight breather before doing another 60-70 hours over the next few weeks. The thing is, I managed to rush back in time for the Singapore Slingers’ match against Pure Foods Tendy Juicy Giants (you read it right) on Tuesday night!
I think all who were there that night must agree that we’ve never experienced basketball entertainment like this before, and it doesn’t even matter whether you’re a basketball fan or not.
For a start, this was the first time I’ve ever seen such a long queue at the SISTIC outlet for the Slingers tickets, even when the game was about to start!
And after you got the ticket, there’s another crazy 15 minutes snake-like queue to get into the Stadium!
I doubt any Singaporean would believe you if you told them all these queues were to watch a basketball game in town! We’re not even talking about NBA or NBL teams here!
Check out the close to 6,000 crowds :
There was some martial arts showcase during the half-time show where this exponent kicked a baseball bat into pieces (albeit after many tries) :
One of our star players Darren Ng, who also happen to be a qualified medical doctor, tried his own kungfu stunt :
Gurmit Singh, one of the top celebrities in Singapore and Malaysia who just got into a celebrity basketball team, was eager to see how his own celebrity team could trash the Slingers :
I guess he quickly figured he couldn’t :
So he thought maybe he can beat them on the Kungfu stuff :
But in the end, I think he just beat them with the pen, by signing tonnes of autographs. I know he is HUGE in Singapore and Malaysia, but I didn’t know the pinoys and expats love him too!
And we needed lotsa cheering power to even try to be heard above the pinoy cheering (Their enthusiastic cheering made it sound like a roaring 10,000 crowd I swear..) :
Both teams played amazingly well, and I give an extra thumbs up to the Slingers because we were bogged down by injuiries and even Dr Darren was still down with a flu.
Many pinoys in the crowd were understandably disappointed by the refereeing decisions, but you must understand, this is all new to us here in Singapore. Even our referees have to get used to this kinda crowd and standard of play.
In the end honestly, it didn’t matter to me whether the Slingers won or lost.
Because Singapore sports has just won, BIG.
More pictures taken from the Canon Powershot S5 IS
Media Slog : Gurmit Singh cheers for Slingers
Player Blog : Darren ‘the doc’ Ng
Singapore top mama blogger : East Coast Life
Jason.sg with great courtside photos
My world and me with a great video
OMY Blog awards Youth Finalist - Jaymes
(the next game against an NBL team Sydney Spirit this Sunday 5th Oct 4pm, get your tickets QUICK before you have to do long queues at SISTIC counters again!)
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:02 am
[...] boy am I glad I managed to make it back 2 days again for the Slingers’ record-breaking game and catch up with old friends, especially Gurmit - both of us haven’t caught up for a [...]