NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- My wife, Serafina, and I gave ourselves a break from the grind of this 24/7 Internet newspaper by taking in a game Tuesday night in Orlando at the Amway Arena with the Orlando Magic hanging in there until the latter half of the fourth quarter when the New York Knicks took control and easily won by 10 points.
The Magic, of course, are no longer among the NBA's elite teams with Dwight Howard's trade to the LosAngeles Lakers. Still, the game with the Knicks was fun to watch, especially since so many of the fans in the arena were rooting for the Knicks. I'd say they comprised about 40 percent of the attendees.
It was an expensive night out -- the tickets were a couple hundred bucks, along with another 50 for food and drinks, $15 for parking, and probably $20 in gas. So not quite $300, an expensive night, but one we needed after intense election coverage since qualifying in June, 15 public candidate debates, scores of candidate profiles, the creation of two online shows, "The Sunday Conversation" and "The Roundtable," and the soliciting of political advertising, along with collecting revenue and dealing with invoices and receipts. This on top of the regular news grind.
The basketball game was an escape from the demands of keeping up with the news, sandwiched between an Oak Hill City Commission meeting on Monday and a Daytona Beach City Commission meeting on Wednesday.
When I learned the undefeated Knicks were playing, it was easy to forget about the New Smyrna Beach City Commission meeting occurring the same night as the game. I spoke with Mayor Adam Barringer that morning and he assured me the meeting was routine with the only excitement a vote to approve $30,000 for a study for a possible new CRA district for US 1. The study was approved that night.
I've put less emphasis in the last few months on government meeting coverage, which has little news value and limited public interest, especially since its government agenda reporting.
The only reason I attended the other two meetings was to cover swearing-in ceremonies for new mayors, Douglas Gibson in Oak Hill and Derrick Henry in Daytona Beach. I even put off for a day a news tip I received from County Chair-elect Jason Davis that the governor had agreed to appoint him to the position early next month because of the vacancy with Frank Bruno resigning the day before the election because of his run for a senate seat, which he lost.
It was a lot of fun Tuesday night, seeing the Knicks getting the best of the upstart Magic, with forward Carmelo Anthony scoring 25 points, along with guards J. R. Smith and Raymond Felton each adding 21, for the 99-89 win.
Sera had heard of "Melo," as in Carmelo Anthony and she only knew of one one Magic player, JJ Redick, the shooting guard who was the 6th man off the bench for Stan Van Gundy last season before the coach was canned during a tumultuous season in which Howard couldn't make up his mind if he was going or staying, leading to a mega-trade that brought back a mix of role players and draft picks. I was looking forward to seeing the best of those players in Arron Affalo.
As someone who follows sports very closely on a daily basis, I was thrilled to see Anthony, Tyson Chandler, Jason Kidd, Rasheed Wallace, and others from the Knicks and Redick and Affalo of the Magic. Redick led Magic scoring with 18 followed by Affalo with 10 in a game that was never in doubt for New York, as far as I was concerned.
Half time appeared to be rather routine until a Magic dancer fell face first onto the hardwood floor and had to be carted away on a stretcher. She appeared to be motionless for a couple of minutes, but gave the old thumbs up while being wheeled away on a stretcher.
In all, it was a great night and a real treat for Serafina who watches sports with me on TV, but is not more than a casual fan, though she likes NBA basketball more than the NFL or Major League Baseball. She's not much of a fan of what I most enjoy, professional wrestling and the WWE "Monday Night Raw" that I keep up with.
In any event, the Magic game was the shot in the arm we both needed before she joined me again Friday night for Cudas football where we worked the sideline, shooting video and interviewing the coach and players after their playoff loss.
She'll be producing videos from the big game and I'll be continuing post-election analysis, along with all of the seemingly endless news that we deal with. For one night, at least, we got our reprieve.