Kelly Dwyer

Up until this week， the biggest NBA fan you know had never bought an NBA ticket.直到本周，你所知道的最忠實的NBA球迷也從未買過一張球票。

Ive had League Pass① since 2000， and have watched endless amounts of games through the years. Ive written about the NBA since 1997 online， during off hours in high school and college， and then on to working double shifts in my early 20s bartending and then rising at the crack of dont-even-ask to write for various sites you probably dont remember. Since the year 2000， from those fledgling sites to SI.com to Ball Dont Lie② in 2007， Ive had the distinct privilege of being afforded a press pass to see and write about games whenever I ask. Ive been to games before in the seats — a couple of parentpurchased excursions in my youth， and Roto Arcade②s Andy Behrens was kind enough to gift me a ticket a few years back — but never on my own dime.

從2000年開始我就有“聯(lián)盟通行證”，過去這些年我看過數(shù)不清的比賽。從1997年開始我就在網(wǎng)上寫與NBA有關(guān)的文章，我會利用高中和大學時的空余時間寫，20歲出頭時，我會在酒吧服務(wù)員這兩班倒的工作空閑時寫，之后還會在那些你也許都記不得的網(wǎng)站上寫過稿子。2000年從那些小破網(wǎng)站開始，到《體育畫報》網(wǎng)站，直到2007年開始在Ball Dont Lie寫文章，我擁有了媒體特權(quán)，當我需要看或?qū)懩硤霰荣悤r，我就可以提出要求。我以前也去現(xiàn)場看過比賽——小時候父母買票，要么是幾年前Roto Arcade的安迪·拜倫斯送給我的票。總之我從來沒花錢看過比賽。

Mainly because， living with a wife and two kids for the last seven years on a sportswriters salary， every dime counts. Other factors go into this — I dont want to spend my off hours living a busman③s holiday at an NBA game. My two daughters and wife are not sports fans plus we live two hours away from where my beloved Chicago Bulls play， and an hour away from where the Indiana Pacers play.

究其原因主要在于，過去七年，以一個體育寫手的薪水養(yǎng)著妻子和兩個孩子，每一分錢都很重要。而其他原因的影響則是，我不想把自己的休息時間變成一場NBA比賽里的工作時間。我的兩個女兒和妻子都不是體育迷，此外，我們住的地方距離我最愛的公牛有兩小時路程，距離步行者的主場也有一小時。

The Pacers are one of the best teams in the NBA this season， and though the teams attendance has improved along with their play， it has only jumped up from 29th out of 30 teams to 27th. Were I not an NBA freak who is afforded free press passes by the team， I would fall into the sort of typical category that is ignoring the Pacers to stay home and watch games for free on TV — local guy， fan of all sports， father of two. So how much of an investment is it， for this dad who freezes homemade soup and clips coupons while turning down the thermostat when the kids and wife leave the house， to go see a game live with the whole fam-damnly？

步行者是本賽季NBA最好的球隊之一，隨著表現(xiàn)的提高，觀賽人數(shù)也在增加，但步行者的上座率也僅僅從30支球隊的第29名上升到第27名。假如我不是一個享有媒體免費資格的NBA狂熱愛好者，我也會成為最典型的一類人——居家男人，各種體育的愛好者，兩個孩子的父親——而且會忽視步行者的比賽，呆在家里看電視上的免費節(jié)目。所以說，像我這種在妻子孩子離開時都會把家里做的湯放進冰箱冷藏，剪下優(yōu)惠券的老爸，去現(xiàn)場看一場比賽能花多少錢呢？

As mentioned， Ive never clicked on a ticket brokers website or used StubHub④before. Ive taken my kids to many other sporting events — high school football games， motorsports， minor league baseball and hockey contests — but those tickets are so cheap that I just go straight through the various official websites or buy at the box office.

如之前提到的，我從沒點擊過買票網(wǎng)站，也沒用過StubHub。我?guī)Ш⒆尤ミ^其他不少體育活動——高中橄欖球賽，摩托車賽，棒球小聯(lián)盟賽以及冰球賽。這些比賽的門票很便宜，我可以直接去他們官網(wǎng)或去買票點。

After perhaps 10 minutes worth of clicking on Sunday， though， I was able to find four seats for Wednesdays Pacers/Minnesota Timberwolves for less than $18. In the highest section， to be sure， but I was also mindful of the fact that the Pacers recently installed a massive high-definition scoreboard. Just in case the 10-year old-wanted to see if Derrick Williams closed out properly on the replay.

星期日花了10分鐘上網(wǎng)瀏覽，我找到了周三步行者對森林狼，四張只需要不到18美元的球票?？梢钥隙?，這些座位都在最高層。不過我想到，步行者最近才安裝好了一個巨大的高清記分牌，如果10歲的孩子想看看德里克·威廉姆斯的動作回放，這正好用得上。

From there， the planning. Wednesday night is a school night （that phrase， as an exkid， still gives me the creeps） so Tuesday night meant a far earlier bedtime. Theres no way in hell Im feeding my kids concession fare for dinner， much less spending huge gobs of money on it， so stir-fry chicken was made the day before — ready to quickly reheat after I got off from work and before we got on the road.

從那之后，我就開始各種計劃。周三是正常要上學的日子（曾經(jīng)作為孩子，這個詞還是讓我不寒而栗），所以這意味著周二晚上睡覺的時間要提前很久。我絕不可能讓我孩子把亂七八糟的零食當晚飯，當然我也不會在這方面花太多錢，所以炸雞是前一天準備好的——這樣我就能在下班后去看比賽前，很快把飯熱好。

Once we got to Indianapolis Bankers ， Im not a Pacers fan and the team doesnt know Im writing this column， but the “whoa！”you get from each kid as they make their way toward the court is worth every penny. Its not just the massive scoreboard， but the lights and speaker setup and gleam of the court and the whole bloody spectacle.

當我們踏上印第安納波利斯的球館后，我不是步行者球迷，他們也不知道我在寫這篇文章，但兩個孩子在走向場地時發(fā)出的“哇”的驚呼就已經(jīng)讓你付出的每分錢值回票價了。這不僅僅因為巨大的記分牌，還有燈光、音響、球場的光亮，以及所有耀眼的東西。

The seats were way up. Way， way up. To the kids， though， this doesnt matter. And to my wife， who could watch the game on the screen， this doesnt matter. And to the NBA nerd， always in love with watching the action from above （when given press passes I prefer the second tier to courtside）， I was back at my work station. Even though I had to ignore emails and Twitter so as to （very） happily answer 2 1/2 hours worth of questions from the kids about what that was and what that meant and “is it OK if I dance？”

我們的座位在很高的地方，非常，非常高。但對孩子們來說，這不重要。對我老婆來說，她能在大屏幕上看比賽，所以這也不重要。對于一個NBA宅男來說，我總喜歡從高處看比賽（所以和媒體席相比，我更喜歡二層看臺，而不是在場邊），我又回到了自己工作時的位置。但我會無視那些郵件和推特，這樣才能（非常）高興地回答兩個半小時里，從孩子嘴里所問出來的各式各樣的問題，以及“我能不能跳舞”這樣的提問。

We cant get our （very well-behaved） children to sit through a 3-D movie in a theatre without getting bored and asking what were having for dinner. Theyre kids， and theyll get restless； and yet at no point did the stimulation and entertainment at this game cease. All the things （contests， fan interaction） I roll my eyes at while attempting to write during timeouts at press row kept their attention. Trips out to the concourse between quarters and halves felt like cool trips to dads personal basketball mall， as my youngest daughter gawked at a vintage shoe display stuck up in the top concourse. All the songs that dad has no idea about — your Ganghams and your Brunos⑤ and your whatevers — were grooved to.

我們沒法讓（其實很規(guī)矩的）孩子在電影院里安安穩(wěn)穩(wěn)地看完一部3D電影，他們總會感到無聊，然后問晚飯吃什么。他們是孩子，總是精力充沛。但在這場比賽里，各種刺激和娛樂活動永遠不會停止。暫停時被平時坐在媒體席的我視為無所謂，寧可趕稿子也不愿看一眼的一切（小游戲、球迷互動），卻能吸引孩子的注意力。每節(jié)和半場休息時去的各種集會活動，感覺都像一次很酷的老爸個人籃球商場，我最小的女兒盯著一支展覽的靜電球鞋發(fā)呆了半天。那些爸爸完全不知道所以然的歌——什么江南啊，火星哥啊什么的，都能讓孩子們興奮。

It was so， so worth it — and especially from that vantage point. We had to squint harder at a gymnastics meet earlier in the week to see the younger daughter perform. These seats were cheaper， seriously， and better.

這一切太值了，尤其是從座位角度。本周早些時候，在一次體操比賽里，我們非常用力才能看到小女兒的表現(xiàn)。而現(xiàn)在這些座位更便宜，說真的，也更好。

The total price， and this is without exaggeration， came in a few cents under$110. Thats a chunk of change — thats something we have to plan around， and something we have to account for as a yearlong expense. Mom and dad wont be seeing Steely Dan⑥ this summer， but thats fine.

全部的花費，我毫不夸張地說，不到110美元。這筆錢可是會讓我們的生活發(fā)生不小的變化——花這筆錢我們要做好計劃，這筆錢也會進入全年預(yù)算。爸爸、媽媽今年夏天都沒法去看斯蒂利·丹的演唱會了，但無所謂了。

Just under $18 for the four tickets. The gas， parking and two foam fingers for the kids went into that final tally. Concessions included two beers apiece for mom and dad， two sodas apiece， and one giant tub of popcorn that came with free refills. My oldest daughter got to put a dollar in a tenor saxophone players busker bucket as we left the stadium.

四張球票不到18美元。汽油錢、停車費，給孩子買的兩個泡沫手指是最后一筆花銷。額外的花銷包括爸媽一人兩杯啤酒和汽水，一個超大桶且可免費續(xù)杯的爆米花。我的大女兒在離開球館時，還給了一個吹薩克斯風的藝人1美元。

And if mom and dad had cut back on those $7.25 beers， maybe just one per game instead of one per half， it would have been even cheaper. In the end， though， we were covered in salt and butter， with sugary pop and malted hops in our various systems， and more than happy at a Pacer win over the Timberwolves that saw two of Kellys favorite players in Roy Hibbert and Ricky Rubio play excellent ball. And I got to yell at Violet Palmer， without press row scorn！

如果爸爸、媽媽能在7.25美元的啤酒上少花點錢，也許每人一場一杯，而不是半場就一人一杯的話，我們花的錢還會更少?？傊?，我們的花銷維持在了預(yù)算之內(nèi)，而更讓人高興的是，步行者贏了森林狼，看著凱利我最喜歡的兩個球員——羅伊·希伯特和里基·魯比奧都打出了漂亮的比賽。我還能自由地大吼大叫，而不會收到媒體同行鄙視的眼光。

The kids wer e already up past their bedtime， so we let them linger and take pictures for a half-hour after the game ended. Even with that， and the hour-long ride

home， everyone was still in bed a little after 11 at night. They did just fine waking up the next morning. For $110， I cant think of a better way to make my crew happier.

孩子們早就過了睡覺的時間，所以我們讓他們多留了一會，在比賽結(jié)束后用半個小時拍照。即便算上這個時間，加上一小時開車回家，每個人也都在11點后不久就躺在了床上。第二天早上他們也都正常醒了。我不知道還有什么其他方法能把110美元用得讓我家人更開心。

Which takes me back to the original point. Its worth it， as a parent or individual or fair-weather fan， to take in the live NBA experience. Im not a shill， I dont work for the league， I dont care for its owners， and Im not even a Pacers fan. Im also mindful of the fact that， after $110， the whole crew wont be going out to dinner for a while.

這又讓我回到了最初的起點。無論作為家長還是一般的球迷，現(xiàn)場看一次NBA比賽都是值得的。我不是托兒，我不為聯(lián)盟工作，我不關(guān)心球隊老板，我甚至不是步行者球迷。我還很清楚地意識到，花掉110美元后，我們一家子很久都不能出去吃飯了。

I got my hoops fix in， watching one of the NBAs better teams take down one of the NBAs more entertaining crews. For the three members of my family that dont know who Orlando Johnson is， though？ It was an absolute blast. You can go to Pacer games， Indiana， and come out of the stadium without having to wear a barrel and suspenders. Give it a shot.

而我實現(xiàn)了自己的籃球夢想，看著NBA一支更好的球隊贏下了另一支更有觀賞性的球隊。對于我家里其他三個都不知道奧蘭多·約翰遜是誰的人來說，又能怎么樣？這事絕對值得。印第安納的同志們，你們完全可以去看步行者的比賽，離開球館時也不必穿著水桶型的吊帶褲。試一試吧。

①NBA官方推出的一種每天都能收看所有比賽的套餐服務(wù)，在美國境內(nèi)可以在電視、移動客戶端等三種方式進行購買。聯(lián)盟通行證目前在NBA收視方面占據(jù)了不小的市場份額。

②都是雅虎體育旗下的體育博客，在美國有比較大的名氣。

③固定搭配，指在休息日還要工作。

④美國一個專門轉(zhuǎn)讓各類門票的網(wǎng)站，轉(zhuǎn)讓范圍包括體育比賽、演唱會等等，網(wǎng)站會收取買票人10%的傭金。

⑤Bruno Mars，美國著名歌手，因為姓Mars，國內(nèi)一般戲稱為火星哥。

⑥美國搖滾組合，自1972年組團至今，一直以Donald

Fagen和Walter Becker二人為主要搭檔，團名取自美國文學大詩人William Burroughs的經(jīng)典作品《裸體午餐》?！秂verything must go》和《Two Against Nature》是他們最著名的兩張專輯。