Lakers at Heat - Sunday, April 7, 2002
I went to the game, I saw my idol, and the Lakers won.
It couldn't have been better......
While I was waiting with my family to enter to the Arena we were happy to see all the #8 jerseys that the fans had. The purple, the gold and even the new black version. Everyone was with Kobe's jersey including myself, of course!
When I first saw Kobe he was shooting a little bit and after that he greeted the great Bob McAdoo, who played for the Lakers in the 80s and now is an assistant coach for Riley, and they talked at center court for more that 3 minutes.
There was a short person that followed Kobe everywhere he went, and was taking notes while asking Kobe questions. What Ahmad Rashad is to Jordan, this person is to Kobe. He's the same reporter that interviewed Kobe at least 3 times before, during and after each playoff game and in the regular season as well. He's none other than Jim Gray.
The Heat fans are not really followers of the team. They go to the arena to eat and they, most of the times, enter the game when the 2nd quarter begins. They react to the jumbotron, if the big screen says DEFENSE! that's what they say but when the announcer is in silence they don't know what to do or what to shout.
Shaquille, as always after he comes back from something, made an 'statement game', and his teammates fed him all the time because he was on fire.
Since the game was one sided (Lakers, of course) the fans tried to enjoy not during playing time but during timeouts when that unrecognizable mascot that they have began to give away Heat jerseys with a special weapon that reaches the upper seats of the arena.
This ugly creature was so frustrated with the outcome of the game that half of the shirts that were supposed to reach the upper seats rebounded on the rafters and fell to the floor. This is why I'm glad that the Lakers don't have one mascot, because the mascot represents the team!!
(Also, he was wearing Hawaiian clothes and the kids booed him!)
There was a guy in the stands that they showed on the big screen next to a picture of Jack Nicholson and when he put his glasses on it was unbelievable because he was identical to him.
But the star of the game was Stepania. He almost crashed twenty persons and when he scored his only basket he seemed to have reached his 30-point of the game.
While Kobe was on the bench for a long time I started to shout at Phil and one person in his fifties stood up and began to say expletives in Spanish directed to Jackson! The persons around him tried to contain him because he was out of control and he kept shouting "Vine a ver a Kobe y a Shaq, no a este enano egoista de vincha que se cree que es Kobe. Sacalo Zen!!!!" (I came here to see Kobe and Shaq, not this headbanded selfish dwarf that thinks that he is Kobe. Get him out Zen! )
I thought that Kobe was injured because of the way he moved at the beginning and because Phil benched him a lot.
My favorite player played great despite not feeling well and left a huge fan and her family very happy!!!
What a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!