Apparently things have gotten so bad at The Palace, where they drew a messily 10,000 fans to see the defending NBA champion Mavs, marketing and promotions has made bench seating available. These two bearded fans found their way next to one-time superstar Vince Carter and an array of other Mavericks late in Tuesday night's snoozefest, won of course by the Mavs.
Just listen to George Blaha's bewilderment (above). That's coming from an announcer who didn't blink an eye at a 30-point leads in the third quarter.
The guys were apparently seated with the Mavs for quite a while and a hunch leads me to believe it's a stunt by owner Mark Cuban. There's no way those guys get down there for that long without someone saying something to security, right?
We've seen what can happen when fans enter the playing field as a danger to the players and coaches, but the Mavs seem right at home with these two, further cementing the idea they're friends of the team.
And it has to be against some regulation to have alcohol on an NBA bench, right? And out of curiosity, how much would you pay to sit on the bench with the reigning NBA champs and Vince Carter?
UPDATE: SB Nation Detroit points out that those seats were actually VIP seats and the gentlemen were not likely guests of Cuban, but rather the Pistons.