At the last minute Terry got two tickets to the game 6 of the playoff games between the Orlando Magic and the Boston Celtics. A client of hers works for ESPN and we met him in the huge trailer that is used to quickly edit together all the footage being shot of the game. I would have liked to have watched the crew at work as they edited the show live on dozens and dozens of small TV screens, perhaps next time. We had some difficulty getting to our seats and a nice usher told us to follow him. He lead us to a hallway that lead to court side. As we walked in the Magic players started to run past with a huge fanfare. A man next to me reached out and gave a player a high five. He shouted “I am never going to wash this hand!” My dreams of sitting court side were shattered as we started walking up an endless staircase until we reached the very top row of seats in out section. The beginning of the game was punctuated by huge flame throwers and a large T.G. Lee blimp made its rounds flying above the crowd. The National Anthem was sung by a seven year old and the crowd went wild when she finished.
At halftime the Magic dancers performed and trampolines were set up in front of the baskets. Girls would run with basketballs jump on the trampolines and make spectacular slam dunks. One girl did a full forward flip and still slam dunked the ball. A fight broke out in our section between a fan wearing a green Celtics jersey and a Magic fan seated directly behind him. The magic fan was shouting and took off his shirt I guess to show off his chest muscles or so the shirt would not get ripped in the fight. The two girlfriends were trying to calm the guys down and security showed up just in time and dragged the fans away.
I finished the sketch with only a few minutes to go in the game. The crowd was standing and going wild. I figured it was time to start paying attention to the score. With 3:40 minutes to go the score was 75 to 75. The magic made a huge final push and ended up winning 83 to 75. The crowd was so loud Terry had to cover her ears. There were fireworks and streamers. The guy seated in front of me gave me a high five. That was the most exciting 3 minutes ever!
