My first Lakers game at Staples Center
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I’ve covered the NBA finals, the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Breeders’ Cup, the Little League World Series, the Rose Bowl, the NCAA basketball Final Four, but I had never been to Staples Center to watch an NBA game since it opened in 1999 until Wednesday night’s Lakers-Clippers game.
My experience started at 6 p.m. in the Lakers locker room seeing Andrew Bynum sitting in front of his locker and staring at his feet. I’ve never seen bigger feet. At 6:10 p.m. outside the locker room, the Clipper Girls walked by sweating. At 6:15 p.m., Phil Jackson came out and about a dozen media people surrounded him for a pregame talk.
At 6:25, I walked onto the court and saw a Lakers fan with his face painted yellow and white, wearing a No. 24 jersey and the No. 24 painted on his cheek. Talk about rabid.
At 7 p.m., I paid $7 to dine on lasagna, panini bread and salad in the press dining room. At 7:35 p.m., while sitting at my seat behind the basket near the Clippers’ bench, Clippers confetti fell on top of me. So far, I’m waiting to see my first celebrity. I’ve seen plenty covering Oaks Christian football games (Will Smith, Wayne Gretzky . . .).
It’s sure different than covering my usual beat, the high schools. But it was just four years ago I was interviewing Lakers guard Jordan Farmar at the Sports Arena after he led Taft High to the City Section championship. Six years ago, I was interviewing Lakers forward Trevor Ariza when he was playing for Westchester. And it was 20 years ago I was writing about Bill Spooner, one of the three NBA referees Wednesday who happens to be a Taft graduate.
So that’s my impressions here in the first quarter. Kobe just made a jump shot and the Lakers are up 22-17. I’m not in awe but it sure beats sitting in the gym bleachers for one night. I’ll be back tomorrow doing what I like best -- covering the future stars.
-- Eric Sondheimer