My dad and I share something in common with Stephen Curry and his father. No, we don’t have silky smooth jumpers (although mine’s pretty good, if I can say so myself) but like Stephen and his dad, Dell, we do love popcorn. Always have. It’s a healthy, great snack, and I can hear my dad saying it now, "Popcorn for dinner, kids."
Personally, we live walking distance to Goody Gourmet’s, a local popcorn and candy store that pops some of the finest corn around. It’s great, and much better than the stuff you find at many grocery stores, movie theaters and venues.
Anyways, as the NBA playoffs begin, we’re learning via a story by Mark Stein on the New York Times that the star Golden State Warriors guard has individual rankings for the popcorn for each NBA venue. Writes Stein, "Curry’s popcorn devotion has grown so deep that over the past year he has proclaimed in multiple interviews that he maintained his own 'power rankings' of the offerings at all 29 NBA arenas."
Curry even agreed to "compile a 1-to-29 ladder for publication" by The Times. See it here.
So, where does the popcorn at the shiny, new Fiserv Forum rank? Well, not too well: tied for 21st out of 29 when scored and ranked from 1 to 5 on Curry's scales for freshness, saltiness, crunchiness, butter and presentation. (Milwaukee’s arena corn got a total of 13 points).
Whose popcorn was tops? The Mavs, with Curry giving the popcorn at the American Airlines Center a 24. Nice work, Mark Cuban.
A positive takeaway to our not-so-well-ranked popcorn? Should the Bucks end up meeting the Warriors in the NBA Finals this year, our 21st ranked popcorn just might help slow down Curry. As he told Stein, "I consider it a factor in my overall enjoyment of playing in a road environment. If your popcorn is bad, it affects my mood."
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
