(BROOKLYN, N.Y. / The Journal) — Unlike this year's first physical education field trip, the Long Island Nets special "Education Day" home game at Barclays Center presented by National Grid was MORE successful. The underdogs at home, the Nets were always trailing since the first basket – that was a two-pointer for the Capital City Go-Go – but they surged with a small lead late in the third quarter, keeping it up until the very end. There were times, however, during those final minutes where the away team just needed a few more points to get ahead, but the special cries of the New York City metro area students (like us from Westchester County) and some of the perseverance of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his death still stinging with the STEAM Academy school community, helped the Nets win on their NBA affiliate's home turf. Speaking of the Brooklyn Nets, Kevin Durant was seen at today's game by many of our students, as he cheered on from the sidelines for his NBA G League affiliate comrades.
National Grid provided many presentations during the game as well as during the P.C. Richard & Son halftime and gave away copies of their "Natural Gas: Your Invisible Friend" education booklet while the Nets prepared their own packet as a free souvenir to the school delegations in attendance (though the questions were a bit basic for our 9th, 10th, and 11th graders). During the halftime, there was also a quick quiz by local attorney Royce Russell, Esq. based on the experiences and advice detailed in his book "Cardiac Arrest: A Tactical Guide on How to Handle Unlawful Police Stops".
Some of the things that were quite different from Webster Bank Arena were less locations for food-service, as well as the fact that parts of Barclays Center (including the retail "Swag Shop" and the concessions stands that were open) are now card-only or both cash and card (if you know where to look). As a founding partner of Barclays Center, and their official credit card, it came as a surprise that their prepaid debit cards were non-reloadable and were by Mastercard® . Well, despite the fact that near Gate 9 American Express set up an MTA subway train and bus set to take photos in and try the new OMNY system (it's officially called AmEx Fan Central and home to the exclusive but totally less expensive AmEx Cardmembers' Entrance), we looked up ReadyCredit's information and did find they only do Visa and Mastercard.
The good things, though? You can optionally make an account and have as many cards as you want as well as the fact they're accepted everywhere Mastercard is accepted. Also, despite this, ReadyCredit did do the SEPTA Key program for Philadelphia where the card pays your transit fare but it can also be a reloadable prepaid Mastercard if you wish to use it.
Anyway, back to the Nets. As part of Education Day, the Mount Vernon STEAM Academy student delegation was treated to a special "pep talk" from one of their very own. Account manager Erica Szczygiel talked on how she got into sports management and the college experience for this type of job. However, like most STEAM Academy students now, even she didn't know what to do or major in. But she found what was interesting to her, which led her to sports. She says in her line of work, there is no typical day. Erica juggles working with event planners, different clients, ticket sales, and so much more. Some of her main points, though, are to take up internships and always make connections because they'll be beneficial in the long run.
There were 5,278 spectators in attendance on Education Day, with the official G League telecast on ESPN+. The Nets' next game is with their New York state and New York City metro area rivals, the Westchester Knicks, at the Westchester County Center in White Plains on February 1st.
Interested in the highlights of Wednesday's game? Check out our score recap from The Journal Sports and some of the best moments with National Grid:
Opmerkingen