A 20-year friendship has been built on witnessing some key Sixers moments
The two have been going to 76ers games together since the Allen Iverson-Aaron McKie days.
It’s no secret that Philly has some of the most diehard sports fans.
Short of being season-ticket holders, best friends Kenneth Crenshaw and Ronald Ridgeway are as diehard as it gets.
At the core of their 20-year friendship are shared memories of key Sixers moments of the 21st century. The two met while they were working for a bank and have attended Eagles and Sixers games every season since.
“Yeah, we’re about to book for the Eagles games. The schedule just came out last week,” Ridgeway said enthusiastically.
Every year when the Eagles and Sixers schedules are announced, the two go through each and select a handful of games. They settle on a combination of away and home games based on ticket prices and travel. They’ll even go to a few playoff games if the season looks promising.
The favorite Sixers postseason moment they shared came during the team’s early-2000s playoff runs. However, they believe this team is a better than that team.
Aaron McKie sealed the deal for the Sixers in the first round against Charlotte in 2000, and came back to complete a similar feat in the first round against Indiana in 2001. Crenshaw remembers McKie hitting four consecutive three-pointers to close out the Bobcats, setting them up for a rematch against Reggie Miller’s Pacers.
“We were walking through the halls [at the First Union Center] saying, ‘We want Reggie,' " Crenshaw recalled.
The previous year, 1999, the Sixers had been bounced from the playoffs by Miller’s Pacers via a second-round sweep. But they put up a tougher fight in 2000, falling in six games. They came back in 2001 to beat the Pacers in the first round, three games to one, en route to the Finals. McKie came up with a key rebound and hit two free throws in the final seconds of their Game 4 win, 88-85. Ridgeway was so relieved when the Sixers finally got over the hump and put the Pacers away.
The two say the price of tickets on the secondary market has kept them from being as ambitious with their endeavors as they used to be. During that 2001 season, Ridgeway said, he could find playoff tickets on the upper concourse for $15. For Thursday night’s Game 3 against the Toronto Raptors, those same seats skyrocketed to a whopping $100.
Ridgeway and Crenshaw say the buzz that was lost during the dark years is now back to the level it was during Allen Iverson’s days. So, Ridgeway said, throughout the season they tried to get a deal any way they could. During the season, they took advantage of the family packages, both bringing their families to games. He added that just four years ago the organization was begging people to come to games. Tickets were as cheao as $2 then.
They are hoping to create even more memories this postseason.