Tag: andrea walker

Pierce, Deuce among several famous virtual fans at Celtics-Blazers

A number of prominent persons in the wider Boston Celtics family were ‘present’ as virtual fans in the contest vs. Portland Sunday.

In trying to make up for the lack of fans in the audience at the games being played in Disney’s NBA restart being held at the Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, the league has introduced 17-foot video screens with virtual fans made possible by a partnership with Microsoft and Michelob Ultra.

And in Sunday afternoon’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers, a number of some of the Celtics’ biggest fans were part of the virtual audience.

We saw recently-retired Boston legend Paul Pierce cheering from the sidelines, and Deuce Tatum “close” by, watching his dad wreck shop in a fresh new haircut.

Kemba Walker’s mom Andrea — normally a staple at in-person home games — was present, as was reserve guard Brad Wanamaker’s daughter.

While some of the ‘enhancements’ the NBA has added to address the unusual circumstances created by having a season in the midst of a pandemic have proven dubious (the crowd noise is just creepy, overwhelming and fake sounding, for example), this wrinkle is actually pretty cool (and also a little creepy).

It doesn’t really do much to reinforce a ‘home’ game — as this tilt was — but it’s definitely worth hanging onto.

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