Comedian Chris Trew is a New Orleans Pelicans superfan who has a single season ticket directly behind the visitors’ bench inside the Smoothie King Center, where he chats with and listens to the opposing team. He will be documenting some of his interactions with players and coaches here for us in a regular column called, Behind the Bench.
The Pelicans’ opponent in this column: the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It’s hard to not focus 100 percent of your attention on Russell Westbrook when he’s in the building. During the warmups he’s on the ground getting stretched out and when he gets up, excitement is in the air. He walks away from the team for some me-time about 30 seconds before the PA announcer calls his name in the starting lineup and everyone’s eyes follow him.
When he sprints out of the corner and through the line of high-fives, everyone stares. During a timeout Westbrook sits in the coach’s chair and holds court. Russell Westbrook is everywhere because he needs to be; Russell Westbrook is everywhere because he wants to be. I’ve sat behind Tim Duncan, Steph Curry, Paul Pierce, Chris Paul and never felt as uncomfortable as I did sitting behind Russ. I didn’t even want to make eye contact with him.
In the second quarter, Russ registered a brief stint on the bench. Tyreke Evans was fouled and as he went to the line Westbrook stood up and loudly said, “he wants layups! He doesn’t want to shoot!” When Tyreke then missed one of his free throws, Westbrook shouted “told you!” and mean mugged my row. We didn’t deserve it but we got it and that’s fair. We’ll get back to him soon, but for now my non-Westbrook tidbits are as follows:
— Steven Adams is one of those bigger-than-you-think-he-is types and is very good at tuning out the noise. The only time I was able to get his attention was when he was having trouble lifting the cover off the Gatorade cups and I asked him if he needed help. He snarled then winked at me. Then he consumed about six more cups of Gatorade over the course of the first half, the most I’ve ever seen a player drink.
— After a timeout, a player said “defense on 3” then the players chanted “1” then “2” then nobody said anything afterwards. No “defense” and no “3”. No nothing. Either this is tradition or they are not particularly worried about the New Orleans Pelicans.
— Enes Kanter was the Hot Head Player of the Game (we should get a sponsor for this). He was experiencing the magical combination of no foul ever being his fault while also being fouled himself on every single play. He also kept screaming “get your hands off me” to whoever was guarding him. I am not surprised he hurt his hand punching a chair the next night in Oklahoma City as he seemed easily rattled. I am not happy Enes Kanter hurt his hand, but if you would have asked me after this game “which Thunder player is most likely to hurt his hand punching a chair?,” I would have said Enes Kanter first, Billy Donovan second (more on him soon), then Enes Kanter third.
— Most visiting players and coaches cannot handle the Pelicans Senior Citizen Dance Team and the Oklahoma City trainers fell right in line. During timeouts they were easily distracted by the grandmas and grandpas poppin’, lockin’, and droppin’. I am not ashamed of that last sentence.
— Okay, back to Russell Westbook. Before the game I put on my message board armor and snuck in the back door of NBA Reddit to ask the question, “If you were sitting behind Russell Westbook, what would you ask him?” I got some amazing suggestions like
and
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But the most common suggestion was something about Kevin Durant, so I decided to yell out the former Thunder MVP’s name during a Russell Westbrook free throw in the second quarter. Right before he settled into his shooting motion and a second before the section behind the basket starting amping up their volume, I struck with a crystal clear “Kevin Durant” scream. Westbrook missed the free throw, section 114 had a good laugh for a rare fan-effected play, and Billy Donovan lost his cool.
The gentlemen who sit behind me clued me in on the last time OKC was in New Orleans and Coach Donovan had a couple of Pelican fans tossed out because he didn’t like whatever they were saying. I felt the eyes of security beam down on me and before I knew it, there it was. My first warning of the 2016-2017 season. From the easily irritable insides of Billy Donovan to my dumb face. “You are not allowed to say Kevin Durant’s name anymore during this game,” is what I was told by a team representative. So I didn’t. But if saying Kevin Durant’s name is all it takes to unnerve Billy Donovan, then there’s your scouting report.
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