Ah Trini Travelogue Trinidad & Tobago's most travelled blogger through 99 countries. Create and Re-Engineer your life for travel.
Growing up in Trinidad in the late 80’s and early 90’s ensured a couple facts about my sports personality
- I would be a West Indies cricket fan till I die because I only knew the West Indies = spectacular World Domination with style
- The first World Cup I ever watched was the one in Mexico ’86. I saw Diego Maradona and instantly became an Argentina fan (no matter how many places in the world my #6 Roberto Carlos Brazilian jersey seems to travel with me)
- The first SuperBowl I saw on TV was with Kurt Warner and the “Greatest Show on Turf” in ’99 … hence I became a Rams Fan
- And I also grew up in a golden age of NBA basketball where you either loved guys names Larry, Magic, Isaiah or Michael … my particular allegiance growing up was always with the Celtics law firm of Parrish, Bird & McHale (for those younger fans … were the “Original Big 3”)
Being a lifelong Celtics fan, it’s always been a bucket list item to see a playoff game in Boston and it just so happened that my better half decided to come to Boston for the weekend. With some spur of the moment thinking, online ticket stalking and ticket seller stalking, we got floor seats for Boston vs Miami : Game 3, Eastern Conference Championship.
It was definitely something else being in the building with that energy and the united disdain of the Miami Heat. Sure they don’t have the historical weight that the Lakers have … but everyone outside of Miami hates LeBron James and sidekicks – that is a fact! So after the overpriced beers, no food, rushing from our hotel and lining up in North Station to get into the game, it was on to our floor seats to see the game.
I’m not a big concert and sporting event person … I do actually prefer to stay at home and watch the games because
- The whole “experience” costs a lot of money … even in the regular season when nothing really means nothing
- It takes tons of time, which I don’t really have
- It’s inconvenient and I’m pretty goddamn lazy
This being said … there is something for the inner kid in you, dreaming in Trinidad about making it to the famed parquet floor seeing this stuff in real life – for those who live in a city like Boston or NYC, it’s easy to do this every year in the playoffs – for those of us from far off lands … it only happens in special circumstances.
As for the game itself … Boston won … that’s all that matters. The crowd was raucous and we got Shamrock balloons.
Being behind the rim, I never knew how many video controllers and switches they have, did you? Well they have this much …
Sitting floorside also helps you stalk the camera man, which ensures that you’re on the JumboTron provided that you’re wearing a yellow football jersey and a large ridiculous hat … in fact, we made the camera at 4 different times during the night – I think the camera man was a Brazil fan!
In the end though … I still wish I could have been there with my 1986 version to see them raise the banner with the Original Celtic Big 3
but I’ll take the final 2 mins of Game 3 below … for now …
