Hello everyone,
I hope you had a splendid Thanksgiving holiday this year. Although my family missed the traditional get-together this year, I did get to eat a full Thanksgiving meal at church.
To wrap up this year’s Thanksgiving weekend, I bought four season tickets to the Sunday’s Lakers versus the Nets game in the Los Angeles Staples Center. The ticket purchased on eBay was very worth it as you’ll find out soon.
I didn’t realize how fast the tickets get sold as I never been to a Lakers game before. Fortunately there were three listings for the four-seat tickets. The Buy-It-Now for the two listings were for the desperate Lakers fans who were willing to pay the last minute high price. Luckily I bought mine at the face value ($27 seats) and not a penny more. For those that haven’t bought a ticket from Ticketmaster.com, they charge a “convenience charge” in addition to the ticket’s face value which is not convenient for your wallet (more than 20% of the face value!).
Our assigned seats were at Section 308 upper level which is near the center facing the whole court horizontally. But thanks to special treatment, we ended up in the Suite Level A’s dining area letting us watch the entire game in style!
So the eBay seller was this cool sports fan that bought some sort of an exclusive package deal with the Staples Center. If I heard correctly, the package includes all the season tickets for the Lakers pre/post-season tickets, Sparks, Clippers, Kings, parking passes, and VIP entrance to the stadium and to the restaurant for the one year season. Mind you the package is in the five digit but those are mere numbers for the wealthy sports fan. He asked us if we want to dine in the restaurant which has a great. Good thing we did because the seats were much closer to the court because it is located at Suite Level A. But there is a catch…the dish are expensive. If only we knew we would get access to the arena club seats, we would probably skipped dinner and enjoyed the buffet stations.
Now let’s talk basketball. Just being part of the Lakers game along with the crowd can get you very excited. You clap until the sound is in unison with the crowd, you shout and boo the opponent until your voice starts to screech, and your sole concentration is in the game. You don’t get to experience that in your living room so getting down the center is well worth your time and money.
Here is the summary on the game: 1st quarter was all about the Lakers. They were outscoring the Nets by 16 points at one time. 2nd and 3rd quarter both teams were doing really cool assists for slam dunks and key players were doing aggressive dunks by driving down the court. The 4th quarter was mad exciting! The Nets were ahead by more than 10 points and Lakers were struggling to get their balls down the hoop. As time was running down to TWO minutes, the Lakers had finally caught up thanks to the Nets’ bricks. The two teams were really going at it now and the crowd going nuts every time Lakers scored or when Nets missed. Here is the cap of the final two minutes:
http://my.lakers.com/blogs/2007/11/25/lakers-vs-nets-in-game/
2:43 Bynum checks in for Radman with the Lakers down 92-87.
2:14 Kobe’s called for his fourth personal and isn’t happy about it. His huge three on the Lakers end brought the team back within two though on the play before.
1:28 SASHHHHA! Kobe decides he can’t do it all alone and dishes to Vujacic for a wide open three to give the Lakers the lead again 96-94 and sending the crowd into temporary insanity.
1:14 The Nets recapture the lead following two makes on a clear path foul.
41.8 New Jersey calls a 20 second timeout after Fisher makes two free throws for the Lakers.
07.2 Kobe’s misses a potential game-winner from about 20 feet and the Lakers waste at least five seconds waiting to foul Vince Carter. The Lakers will have last shot though.
6.1 Ill-advised foul by the Nets sends Kobe to the line for THREE free throws that could tie the game
03.8 Kobe makes the first two, but the final free throw spins out. Kobe was previously perfect from the line. Nachbar is going to the line for two for the Nets.
03.3 Timeout for the Lakers after Nachbar misses the second free throw. Amazingly, the Lakers still have a chance.
00.0 The Lakers never got a good look as Radmanovic air-balled a shot from around the three point line as time expired, adding to his horrific 0 for 10 shooting night.
FINAL SCORE: Nets 102, Lakers 100.
I hope all the players gave Radmanovic the angry look in the locker room after the game! j/k
Overall the game was entertaining and the whole Staples Center experience was outstanding and memorable. Staples Center’s neighbor the Nokia Center is alive and rocking with an okay lineup of events.
On a side note: Francis Dayle “Chick” Hearn (1916-2002) was the Los Angeles Lakers announcer and has done a great job to win the fan’s heart. 20,000 lucky Lakers fan received a “TALKING MINI” keychain of Chick Hearn limited to the game’s ticket holders. I didn’t know it would sell for $20 a piece on eBay…my little cousin tossed his away.
One Hot Chick! The Los Angeles Lakers honored their late great announcer and the man who coined the phrase “Slam Dunk” with a special evening and a free Chick Hearn Talking Mini to all 20,000 who attended the SELLOUT. On November 25th, 2007…everyone went home with a Chick!!
http://www.talkingmini.com/news/lakers.htm
