Courtside Seats

I think it happened when I was a freshman in high school. My parents had divorced several years prior and we had a shared custody situation. We usually spent the summer in Southern California with my father. Occasionally, if the airfare was "airfair," we were able to afford tickets to visit him during Spring Break. My freshman year was the first time I remember visiting him around the Christmas Season.

He treated us that Christmas: Lakers tickets! Mind you, the cheapest possible tickets, but that didn't matter to a couple of kids. The Lakers played in the Forum then- there weren't really "bad" seats, but the ones we had were nearly scraping the rafters. We had a good view of the court but we were just SO far away. I was just as stoked about the atmosphere. The Lakers were facing big David Robinson and the San Antonio Spurs. I was on cloud nine. Wait til I tell my friends back home about this I thought with glee.

Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.

Midway through the first quarter, the loudspeaker came on and announced it was time for the "ticket upgrade." Ticket upgrade? And then he called out something like, "Section RR, Row 55, seat 19." There were about 20,000 seats in the Forum. I didn't even pay attention to it at first. Section RR, hey, that's our section! I started scanning the people around me looking for an elated winner. Then they put the winning ticket up on the giant overhead screen. Hey, that's our row! HEY, THAT'S MY DAD'S SEAT!!!! My brother and I realized it first and started celebrating. I didn't know what a ticket upgrade was, but it sounded awesome.

My Dad, his face buried in some overpriced nachos, might as well have had a "do not disturb" sign hanging from his nose. He was oblivious to the fact that he had won anything (other than the high cholesterol sweepstakes). We badgered him to claim his prize. Not knowing what a ticket upgrade was, we thought he would have to go and tell them he had won. He was not amused. I'm sure he thought we were just messing with him.

Lo and behold, a man in a fancy suit, escorted by an usher, was climbing the neverending staircase towards our seats. He beckoned to my dad and told him he had won the seat upgrade. My dad was just as bewildered as the rest of us. We got up and followed the man down the impossibly numerous stairs. He led us all the way down to the 7th row. Ahhhhh, ticket UPGRADE!

We'd won a random drawing to have our seats improved! We watched the rest of the game from practically courtside. It was an experience I'll never forget. They send waitresses to take your order and deliver your food when you sit that close. I could see beads of sweat dropping off the players, and I was close enough to hear them talking- to hear what they were saying! Let me tell you, if you haven't been to an NBA game live, you have no idea how big, fast, and graceful these guys really are. It is like a high-flying ballet circus. And the Laker Girls? Who knew they performed dances during EVERY time out?

It was an incredible experience. The kind of thing that only happens to my Dad (or my brother). How am I ever going to convince anyone that this actually happened, I wondered. We spent the rest of the game slurping Pepsi and acting like Jack Nicholson. It was something I'll never, ever forget.

To be continued...