We are slaves to our technology — when it goes bad we feel like we’re back in the middle ages.
Or in the case of the Verizon center in Washington Tuesday night, the 1970s NBA.
The arena’s main scoreboard was malfunctioning, as were the 24-second clocks over the basket at both ends. And the buzzer.
So they brought out some old school on-the-floor 24-second clocks for baseline, and they brought in a scoreboard for the ground in front of the scorer’s table with time and score (see photo). Officials used an air horn to buzz guys in and out of the game. Mike Prada of Bullets Forever was tweeting about it.
On the television broadcast you don’t notice too many differences — the bug on the corner of the screen still has the constant score and time. And in the arena there are scoreboards along the sides that certainly were not around in the 1970s.
Still there is a bit of a throwback feel to the arena for this game. Too bad it wasn’t retro uniform night.