Any event with the words Hoops & Heels brings immediate cogitations of the light blue colored team on Tobacco Road for any resident of the only state in the South where basketball reigns sporting supreme.
The Bobcats got the Hoops part right but are looking a different direction with their Heels portion, hoping to bring the area ladies and their fancy footwear out to the arena for a special NBA-style Basketball 101 session before Saturday night’s game with the Denver Nuggets.
This Hoops & Heels event was the brainchild of Bobcats sideline reporter Stephanie Ready. She’s heard men complain about how they don’t like watching games with their girlfriends or wives because they “just don’t understand the game” or “ask too many questions” for years and thought she’d “reach out and help them along.”
“I thought there was a need to kind of educate some of the ladies who may have a passing or peripheral interest in the sport but may be a little intimidated,” Ready said.
Who better to educate them than the first woman to coach in professional basketball? Ready, who coached the now defunct Greenville Groove in the NBA D-League and was also an assistant for the men’s basketball team at her alma mater Coppin State for two seasons, will start her presentation with the basics.
But this isn’t just a night for the basketball novice.
“It will focus on the basics, but there will be lots of information that a true basketball person would learn a few things from,” Ready said.
From there, the participants will observe pre-game warm ups from the floor before a meet and greet with the Bobcats players as they head back to the locker room. The luxury suite follows as the Bobcats welcome one of the Western Conference's best.
In a world where high definition viewing tends to make leaving the comforts of home for an arena less appealing than ever, the NBA’s in-arena events are as engaging and entertaining as ever. The NBA, perhaps more than any other professional sport, has made a concerted effort to make the in-arena viewing experience as much about family entertainment as anything.
And if what they say about who controls the keys to the household discretionary income is true, NBA arenas can’t just be a boys-only club for the league to continue to prosper moving forward.
“The competition for the entertainment dollar is really stiff,” Ready said. “I think this is a way that you can expose that [family atmosphere] because there might be some women Sunday night that might have never been to an NBA game. This might be their first time stepping foot in an arena, so now they get to see there is a lot going on at these games."
After Saturday, their boyfriends and husbands just might want them to come back, too.
