mm@vaxine.UUCP (Mark Mudgett) (06/07/85)
On Monday night, after game one, Jim Hill of KCBS-TV (Ch. 2, LA)
was a guest on The Ten O'clock News on Ch. 2 Boston, WGBH-TV
(PBS). Host Christopher Lydon and the Los Angeles sportscaster
discussed the differences between Los Angeles fans and Boston
fans. Hill said that people come late and leave early at the
Forum because being seen in their expensive clothes is far more
important than watching basketball. Boston Garden spectators, he
said, may wear jeans and undershirts but they come to watch the
game.
Mike Barnicle's column in the Boston Globe (Wednesday, May 29, I
think) made some similar points. He compared "Beantown" with
"Tinseltown", pointing out that Boston's captain is called just
plain Larry, while "El Lay's" captain is known as "Magic". He
said that Boston is Bruce Springsteen, while El Lay is Prince
(There was some truth and even a little humor to his remarks, but
he showed a remarkable ignorance of the game of basketball. Peo-
ple who think that only the last two minutes count really don't
understand the game.)
At the Forum, they have dancing girls, Dancing Barry, and Stars
of the Silver and Phosphor Screens. There's plenty of entertain-
ment when the game stops. At the Garden, at halftime, we have
... halftime! Time to take a break, or go downstairs for a Mol-
son. The Garden crowd gets all the entertainment they need from
the game itself. (Although on a good night, K. M. the Johnny
Most impersonator from Section 97 [?] is worth the price of ad-
mission. If Most had laryngitis, K. M. could sit in for him and
the radio audience wouldn't even notice.)
The Forum is where M. L. Carr got hit by a beer thrown by a spec-
tator. Where the crowd yells "Bos-ton sucks! Bos-ton sucks!" I
would expect that in Yankee Stadium, but not in the NBA. Los
Angeles earned a great sporting reputation during the summer of
1984, when they played host to the athletes of the world. I felt
right at home in the Forum when I attended a pair of Olympic
basketball games, and I am very disapointed that the Lakers fans
don't show the kind of class that the Olympic fans showed.
It seems that the Forum crowd is there for many reasons. I'm
sure many are there just to see the Lakers play superb basket-
ball; but at the Garden they all come to watch the game, and lend
their support to the Celtics. I think the Celtics' home court
advantage in the Garden is much greater than the Lakers' in the
Forum.
My latest prediction (after four games): Celtics 4, Lakers 3.
P.S. Isn't it a little foolish to take 59 seconds to reset the
game clock to 1 second? And I thought they had technology in
California! :-)
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_TT /| |~ Mark C. Mudgett
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