Whitaker: Behind The Scenes As A Courtside Photographer At A Blazers Game

Lang Whitaker of NBA.com has an interesting two-part look at what life is like as a courtside photographer. He tailed Nathaniel Butler of NBA Photos when the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Brooklyn Nets, 108-98, at the Barclays Center.

Here's part one (describing the project) and here's part two (the results, which include a bunch of photos of Blazers with entertaining captions).

My most pressing question was, What do I do if some player comes diving toward me? "Get low," Nat said, with a grim smile. "Just get low and get out of the way." I tried to remind myself that NBA players are among the world's most elite athletes. If they were coming at me, they probably had the body control to avoid me, as long as I remained a mostly stationary object and didn't abruptly move into their path.

Causing some sort of accident was by far my biggest fear. I could read the NBA.com headline in my mind: "All Ball blogger takes out Lillard; Blazers pretty much screwed." I imagined the outcry from Portland fans, the angry phone call from the league office, the resulting ESPN "30 For 30" documentary. So, if anything, I was resolved to err on the side of safety. If avoiding a collision meant missing a photo, well, we'd just have to hope Nat got the picture from the other end of the floor.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter