MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — “We can’t hear you!” The cheerleaders make big gestures to the audience by putting one hand to their ears. In the other hand they have something tied in knots that they swing in the air.
Suddenly a huge roar from the crowd arises. Several hands shoot up into the air, waving to the cheerleaders. When the cheering reaches a climax, the cheerleaders fling the knots up to the fans in big arches.
“Hey look! I got one!” said a small girl. She excitedly untied the knot, which turned out to be a big Minnesota Lynx T-shirt.
With all the superstars in the National Basketball Association, including Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal and Allen Iverson, basketball is one of the most popular spectator sports in the U.S. Being able to watch the NBA on television in Japan, fans have increased there, too.
But it isn’t only in the NBA that can you feel the popularity of this sport. That night in Minneapolis, the WNBA Lynx played to a home-town crowd of 7,326 — on a Wednesday. This was close to the number of people who would come to see the championship game of the amateur leagues on a Sunday night in Japan.
The Lynx, suffering from a seven-game losing skid, were playing against the Utah Starzz. What caught my eye, even before I started to enjoy the basketball, was a small blimp that suddenly appeared from a passageway, floating in the air and attracting the fans. This was the mere beginning of a series of entertainments, in addition to the game.
During each and every timeout, the cheerleaders poured into the arena, jumping and hopping and sometimes doing stunts. At the same time, a man wearing a pole and a basket strapped to his back would walk through the audience, handing out mini basketballs and urging people to take a shot at his wiggly goal. Those who succeeded, won — a T-shirt, of course.
How they organized the small games played with the audience during the timeouts was interesting, too. For example, during one timeout fans raced around red cones placed on the court, bouncing on huge rubber balls that you sit on and hold with handles between your legs. During another timeout, huge beach balls were dropped from the ceiling to be caught in the outstretched arms of families gathered on the court below.
As soon as a buzzer signaled the end of a timeout, everyone scattered back to their seats with big prizes in their hands and big smiles on their faces.
Halftime was even more amazing. Young boys and girls dribbled balls from one end of the court toward the other, weaving the balls between their legs with great technique. Next, they spun the balls on their fingertips. One girl made a gorgeous shot at the goal. I started to suspect they all were trained at a circus when one of the boys spun a ball on his fingers, then balanced that spinning ball on the end of a long pole, stuck the pole into the air and then balanced the bottom end of the pole on his forehead! He finished the performance by sinking the spinning ball into the hoop.
All along, the team’s good ol’ mascot, Prowl, dressed in a lynx costume, performed acrobatic dunk shots and ran through the stands, pumping up the fans to cheer even louder.
From time to time, the big scoreboard hanging from the ceiling would show a “Fan-O-Meter.” As if on queue, the fans would roar and stomp their feet, trying to push the meter to the top.
The advantages of playing at home rather than playing away are always big. Maybe one of the keys to victory is this “serious” entertainment for the fans, the special effort to get them cheering. At least that’s how the game of basketball is enjoyed here. And perhaps that’s why it’s so popular.
The Lynx won that night, 70-62.
Notebook
By Ikuko Yuge, WPI ’02