As our man Aron posted Wednesday, two bros just happened to be sitting in between Vince Carter and Delonte West on the Dallas Mavericks bench on Tuesday night. Who were these mystery men? Mark Cuban‘s hipster buddies?
After doing some investigative journalism, Dime found out that these two are Detroit Pistons season ticket holders Chris Rabban and Aaron Cohen of Detroit area streetwear boutique Revive.
Chris and Aaron did not partake in the classic NBA fan sitting game of moving to a seat closer to the court every quarter – Revive bought the bench side seats this season and if you check Cohen’s tweets, they are definitely being used. Cohen has tweeted pictures from recent Pistons games against the Magic, Bulls and Knicks.
But how did they get to sitting between Vince and Delonte?
Cohen told the New York Daily News: “Because of the way it’s arranged, and I guess there’s two vacant seats at the end (of the row), we got (seats number) three and four – which is pretty much after the last player.”
Vince Carter told the Dallas Morning News he just didn’t have enough room:
“They were cool,” Carter said. “I just didn’t have enough room to sit so I went on the other side of them. That happens sometimes. They were good dudes. That was where their seats were, so it wasn’t any big deal. But I have to admit, it looked funny when I saw the video.”
I got in touch with Chris Rabban to hear more:
Dime: Give me some background information on yourself and how you guys ended up sitting at the end of the Dallas bench.
Chris Rabban: I live in Detroit and work at Revive, a clothing boutique located in Birmingham, Michigan. Revive is a higher-end boutique. We cater to actors, athletes, rappers and so forth. Birmingham is an (growing) upper class type of city where these type of people reside. The store has been open since 2006 and we are opening a brand new location later this month. We’ve been in business for a good amount of time so we developed a personal relationship with a lot of our customers.
We have season tickets and go all the time. It was just a coincidence that we were on TV for the Pistons, Dallas game.
Dime: That’s dope, you guys have season tickets to court side seats? You chat it up with Vince Carter?
CR: Absolutely, we do it big. Ha … yeah we were chatting it up with Vince talking about the Pistons, the Mavs, the rookies. You know, just a regular conversation about basketball. Jason Terry came and sat down next to me and we chatted about the Mavs, took some pictures. They are good dudes, you know we treated them like normal people.
Dime: In a lot of the day-after blog posts and reports from the Mavs game people were saying you guys were drunk…
CR:(Laughs) I wouldn’t say that but we definitely were enjoying ourselves. We do what we always do, get a couple of drinks throughout the game but we never do anything inappropriate. We are model fans.
Dime: Are you guys hardcore Pistons fans?
CR: We are hardcore Pistons fans, always have been. Diehards.
Dime: That’s quite honorable since there isn’t that much you can hope for with this team, right? How do you feel about them?
CR: (Laughs) We have a limited team right now and its not looking like anything too serious will happen this season. It’s still a great environment to go to games as the Palace is awesome and the people there treat you well. Detroit is a great city to be in.
Dime: Since you sit so close to the players do you have any stories from any other teams?
CR: Yeah, we get to hear a lot of stuff – its awesome to hear as a fan. Dallas was a cool team because of the fact they actually cooperate and they were real chill when we were talking with them. We have noticed that all teams are different though. They work and are managed differently.
Dime: What has been the response been since you guys were shown on TV?
CR: The response has been phenomenal. We were basically on every sports channel across the world. We just got interviewed by this news station in London, England. We were on the local Fox news here – Fox 2.
Dime: This all must have a positive impact on your store…
CR: Absolutely – a lot of folks have been talking about Revive and are telling us that they are going to check it out. I am sure all of the players watch SportsCenter so when they see us on there it may make them stop by when they are in Detroit.
Dime: Are any of the Pistons regular customers?
CR: Greg Monroe actually came in the day after the game and mentioned that he saw us on TV. Cool dude, he chatted it up with us for a while.
Dime: So what are some of the clothing lines you carry?
CR: We carry a wide range of lines. We actually have our own line, Revive, which is coming out soon. We have Com De Garcon, Dr. Romanelli, New Era and it goes on. We also carry vintage clothing and jewelry, everything we have we feel is unique – stuff you can’t get at most boutiques. We don’t really feel like we are just a clothing boutique, we try to revive Michigan. We are not just clothing, we are a lifestyle. If people are ever in the Detroit area they should come check us out or just see us at the next Pistons game.
Revive is located at 154 W. Maple Rd in Birmingham, MI
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