01/04/2008 - 19:31
Back in LA
by Tyson Chandler

I love coming back to L.A. because you get a feeling of coming home, obviously. You always want to show up the hometown team, and you want to look good in front of your family and the hometown fans. But I broke the record for tickets for myself big time last night. My wife gave out tickets for Christmas. That was the Christmas gift, so I had 40-something people at the game last night.

It was mostly people from the L.A. area and a couple of my buddies, like Ryan from West Coast Customs. We definitely have our own little cheering section, because Bobby Jackson's wife is from L.A., Jannero Pargo's wife is from L.A. and I'm from L.A. So we got a nice little crowd.

Normally, except for my family and close friends, people get the tickets on their own and just come to the game, but this was a Christmas gift, so I ended up taking the bullet for all of those.

Most of the time, you don't have to buy any tickets unless you're at home. Most of the time when you're on the road, you can borrow tickets from other guys and build up enough for what you need or whatever. But I don't really know too many people in too many cities. It might be like five cities, mostly West Coast cities, that I leave tickets in. But some of these guys know people all over the place.

GOLDEN STATE AND PHOENIX THIS WEEKEND
These are probably the two worst back-to-back teams that you can get as far as running. These guys definitely like to get up and down the court and they both like to spread the floor. They kinda got a streetball game to 'em.

But I think we come out and we make teams play our pace. We pride ourselves in also being able to get up and down the floor and fast breaking, but the beauty of our team is that we've got two post players where we can throw the ball down if we need to slow the game down. So, we've kinda got the best of both worlds.

CHRISTMAS
I got a lot of stuff that will come in handy, especially for traveling. I got some luggage. I got some cuff links, a couple of hats, ties, stuff like that.

My daughter is definitely spoiled. My parents and my in-laws were in for Christmas and they got her probably every toy that you could possibly get at Toys R Us ... Gidget Gadget, toy kitchens, bedroom sets, and Dora this and Dora that. I didn't even buy my daughter a toy, because her grandparents did enough shopping for her.

She looooves Dora. She sings along with the songs. Her whole bedroom is Dora-themed ... and princesses. She's making the move into the princesses. It's more her mom if anything.

NEW YEARS
I went out on New Years and we kinda had this small gathering. They've got this Courtside Club at the New Orleans Arena and me and Chris kinda got the guys together, guys that had family in town and weren't able to go out to clubs, and brought in the new year together there. It was pretty neat. We had food and music.

My agent was in town too, so I wanted to show him a good time, so I thought I would take him to a club. And everybody was like, "Well, we'll all go out." So me, Bobby Jackson, Chris Paul, Jannero Pargo, Mo Pete and Rasual Butler went to this club. And I hardly ever go out to clubs, so as soon as we got there, it really wasn't my cup of tea and I was ready to leave.

But I was there about 45 minutes and then a little girl-brawl broke out. A girl broke this bottle and was trying to cut this girl up. So as soon as that thing got cleared out, I'm like, "It's time to go."

Then I find out the next morning that right after that, somebody got stabbed in the neck at the club. So, I'm like, "Yeah, this is probably why I don't go out to clubs like this."

GOTTA BE CAREFUL
I try to pick and choose where I go out. You try to go to functions where there's a crowd in there where everybody has something to lose. It's a crowd that's more responsible with other businessmen and things like that, so you're not likely to have something tragic happen. Where if you're in a rowdy club and people in there don't have nothing to lose, they don't care to start something. And unfortunately, I was in a place like that the other night.

But you definitely gotta be careful, because we're obviously so noticeable, especially myself. I walk in anywhere, I'm 7-1, I'm standing above the crowd. I'm definitely noticed, so I really pick and choose where I go out. You gotta always understand your surroundings and put yourself in positive situations.

I hang out with my brother-in-law and a couple of buddies when I'm in L.A., but it's always more of a casual, comfortable setting. We might meet up at a house or even go to a lounge, but it's always gonna be a place that's high class. Anytime the club is too rowdy, something is bound to happen.

And I never go out the night before a game. I'm always concentrating on the game. That's what's important to me, getting rest. This is my job and my livelihood. I just sit in the room, relax and play my PSP.

I started up the '08 Madden season. I'm the owner, the GM, the coach and all of that. It's so funny, I'm getting into it and learning what GMs have to do. You gotta monitor salary caps and all that. Right now, I'm the Chargers. My team is the 49ers, but I went through five seasons with them and now I'm the Chargers.

I never play NBA games. I don't know why. Maybe because I play in the NBA. Maybe because they don't make me good enough. Ha ha. I used to play NBA games all the time when I was in high school.

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