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From: mm@vaxine.UUCP (Mark Mudgett)
Newsgroups: net.sport.hoops
Subject: Celtics fans/Lakers fans
Message-ID: <567@vaxine.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Jun-85 17:36:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: vaxine.567
Posted: Thu Jun  6 17:36:08 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Jun-85 03:44:33 EDT
Organization: Automatix, Inc., Billerica, MA
Lines: 59


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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