Last Saturday Duke visited the Verizon Center to take on the Georgetown Hoyas. I've been to more than a few Hoya games this year and nothing about this one was remotely normal. Beside the fact that a very well known and storied ACC basketball program came to Verizon in the middle of the Big East season, the President was in the building.
I started the event by arriving at 10:30am for a 1pm tip-off. The press entrance had been transformed into mini airport security and these guys with suits and policemen with dogs wanted to examine my camera equipment piece by piece. I obliged without making any exploding camera jokes, obviously. And I passed some of the 2.5 hours by trying to spot the Secret Service agents in and around the arena.
Minutes before the game was to start the atmosphere was truly electric. Fans were packed to the ceiling and everyone's eyes were focused in one corner of the building waiting for Barack Obama to emerge from corridor between the stands. The same hallway I usually walk through to get to the court, but with slightly less anticipation. He appeared, shook a few hands, stood for the National Anthem and two teams played a basketball game. The combination of Obama, Georgetown, Duke and CBS was almost too much to handle and way too much to capture. I got a few though.
