Road to the Finals
Our odyssey began with a smooth Philippine Airlines flight from
We landed in LA an hour early at about
Good Samaritan Hospital director for patient care services Roy Gonzales welcomed us and treated to a sumptuous Chinese dinner after we checked in for an overnight stay at the Westin Airport Hotel.
The layover gave us a chance to break the long trip to
Because there is a three-hour time advance from the West to the East Coast, we arrived in
The morning of Game 1, we picked up our credentials at the NBA TV office on the third floor of our hotel. At
That afternoon, we did last-minute research for our coverage and rehearsed repeatedly to assure an efficient delivery. Before long, we were at the TD Banknorth Garden for Game 1. On a personal note, this is my ninth NBA Finals on-site coverage since Chicago-Utah in 1997. I was also assigned in 1998 (Chicago-Utah), 1999 (
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Ronnie Sta. Cruz, a medical technician at
It was another sellout at the Celtics homecourt.
Sta. Cruz, a Filipino migrant, moved to
Sta. Cruz admitted he grew up a Lakers fan but now that he lives near
Another spectator Tommy Hall, who works at
Hall is married to a Filipina nurse, Pearlie Grace Ramos of
“I met her five years ago,” he said. “I asked some Filipino friends how to say I love you in Tagalog and when I told her, she felt I was being disrespectful. Three years later, we got married. We plan to visit
Hall watched Game 1 alone, wearing a green Boston T-shirt.
Folk-rock singer James Taylor accompanied himself on guitar as he sang the Star Spangled Banner before Game 1. In the building were celebrities Bruce Willis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Chris Tucker, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Celtics legends Bill Russell, John Havlicek, K. C. Jones, Jojo White, Tommy Heinsohn and Cedric Maxwell.
A courtside seat went for $30,000. Every ticket-holder was given a free T-shirt with “Beat LA” inscribed in bold letters at the front.
Former Solar employee Donna Reyes, who’s finishing her Masters in TV Production studies at
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From Solar vice president for sales and marketing Jude Turcuato – “This is a clarification of what I was quoted as saying about Mindshare’s presentation to the PBA. I take it back since I should have classified it as a personal opinion. Mindshare wanted some sort of retraction from the statement “overwhelmingly recommended” since according to them, they did not recommend a channel one way or another.
“I based that statement from the article last May 27 published in the Manila Standard stating projections by Mindshare—’it was reported that if the PBA games were aired on RPN-9, they would rate around 7.5 percent while if aired on Studio 23, they would rate around 1.8 percent.’ In my opinion, if your projection is for a channel to rate over four times more than another network, it is practically a recommendation.
“So my apologies to Mindshare if the statement caused undue strife. I did not mean to put words in their mouth.”
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