BOSTON — Being a sportswriter means having a good perspective. Well, being this sportswriter means having perhaps the greatest perspective of all for Game 1.
To understand how good The Register’s seats at TD Banknorth Garden are for this series, consider that Thursday I heard Sam Cassell age.
We have two front-row seats along the baseline, just to the side of the basket the Lakers shoot at during the second half. I’m not sure what the Celtics could charge for tickets to the seats, but I’m guessing the price starts with the donation of an internal organ.
This simply doesn’t happen anymore. It wasn’t unusual years ago for the media to have seats close to the action, but that generally ended with the rise of high-tickets items, like luxury boxes and premium packages.
Just before tipoff in Game 1, the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Plaschke turned and said he planned to write his column, regardless of the outcome, on how close we were to the action. That’s when you know the grumbling, discontented members of the media are truly impressed.
He was only kidding, of course. Instead, Plaschke wrote about Paul Pierce, who went down in the third quarter with a tweaked knee, crumbling literally at my feet.
Perhaps I should have attempted to tweak Pierce’s other knee while he was down. That might have assured the Lakers a victory.
Unfortunately, it certainly would have assured my not being there to see it.
