It hasn't been exactly one year since the start of the 2021 NBA & NHL Playoffs, but we are at the start of the 2022 NBA Playoffs (with the NHL to start in two weeks) so I wanted to look back at a really interesting time. COVID-19 is not behind us, but very much in the background, with most countries opened up, most mask mandates gone (ahead of some getting restated...), and 11 months basically of tons of fans in seats. It wasn't always like that - very much not. Go back 11 months and the ideas of even half-filled buildings belting out noise watching players for the first time in over a year was just insanely uplifting. It was a moment to savor, when we collectively realized just how integral fans are, in their return even more so in their absence.
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When the Stanley Cup Playoffs started a week back, coincidentally right after the nation received new COVID guidance, we knew we were entering something special. The first game was in Washington, with not the biggest crowd but lives fans rocking the red and cheering on an OT winner. It really took of the next day with games in Florida, with about 12,000 fans. That game, a fired up, high-octane, back-and-forth game with countless hits and skirmishes was the moment it became real: this is the true return of sports.
There is still a little bit of me worreid that we've moved too fast, that going from barely anyone in attendance to 10,000+ in many arenas (we'll get to the 15,000 in MSG in a bit) is a bit rushed. It could have adverse effects. But for now, it also gives us heaven. For so long I couldn't wait to watch a sports game with fans again. We got bits and pieces of it during the MLB World Series and throughout the NFL season. But even the most crowded game looked sparse. There were a few moments, like the few Bills fans in attendance cheering on a pick-six, but nothing like this.
The NBA was able to do a decent job of their bubble setting, putting their floor on almost a stage with flashy visuals on each side. It was easy to not notice empty seats, but its also so easy to notice the filled one now. The story of the first couple days of NBA playoffs was the incredible scene in Madison Square Garden. Sure, some of that was it being the first Knicks playoff game in eight years, with a legitimately good, tough team. But it was also the return of New Fucking York. The city that was hit harder than any other large metro earlier than any as well. New York was a ghost town, written off. It's back, and so are the damn Knicks.
But to me the scenes in hockey arenas have really brought me back. The roar of a goal, any goal. We've had more OT moments this postseason as well. That incredible passion, evern in places like Florida, Carolina, Nashville - these non-traditional markets are also not coincidently the ones that lifted more restrictions and allowed more fans. The first chants, the first pounding of the glass, the first goal horn and goal song. All of it so pure, so incredible.
I remember months back when we were going throuigh the darkest period as a country over the winter, there were these shots from New Zealand cricket or rubgy matches with full stands. They earned that, earned it by having imposed far stricter, for more intrusive restrictions than America ever did. Well, it is our turn now. We didn't earn this in the same way - but we did in a sense that we took to vaccinations (well, at least we did). We waited our chance to return back to indoor arenas, but man are we taking full advantage of being allowed back in.
I enjoyed sports prior to these playoffs in the past year because it was such a welcome escape, a slight return to something normal, to remind of what we lost from March through June. At the time it was such an incredible feeling, but given we have the counter example now of the NHL playoff games in Canada still being played in empty arenas, it is so stark a difference to have fans back.
The games are better, the experience so much fuller, the feelings so much more joyous. It's a different world we live in now. We aren't done with the pandemic, not by a long shot. There's a lot more to get done, be it reinvigorating the vaccination program, opening up borders, feeling OK to go to a crowded bar. But getting sports in this way, with thousands of jacked up fans ready to shout their lungs out, is a crucial, far more meaningful than expected, step back to normal.
