NBA Madness

I am sure most of us have heard that the NBA Stars are coming to the Philippines this Saturday and Sunday to play in exhibition games against a PBA selection and the Smart Gilas Team . For an NBA fan like me, this is like one of those WTF ... HOLY COW,,, ARE YOU KIDDING ME moments.

And we're not talking about those over the hill players that usually come here in the past for charity and goodwill missions. We're talking about full pledged all stars from the current era. Kobe, Durant, Rose, Chris Paul, Tyreke Evans. Heck, I'm even excited to see Javale Mcgee and old man Fisher.

It's a once in a lifetime chance to see these guys up close and personal. Unless I hope to travel to the USA one of these days and get lucky enough to watch an All Star game, this is basically as close as it gets. The current NBA Lockout has given a unique opportunity for the organizers to get this done. Normally, these guys would be hard in training for the upcoming NBA season and would not even contemplate coming to the Philippines.

Since last Saturday, there has been a mad rush for tickets and now everything is sold out. Scalpers are making a killing as tickets are now being sold at 4 to 5x their face value and people are still buying. That's how crazy Filipinos are for basketball. And I cannot blame them. Looking at it a certain way, the original ticket prices are actually a bargain. Imagine getting to watch an NBA game live right in our own backyard.

As for me, I basically had to use up all of my known connections and begged and cajoled certain people. But it was worth it as I have in my grubby little hands lower box tickets to the game for my brothers and me. Woohoo. Fucking A.

My connection told me that it was next to impossible to get good tickets at face value as every politician and his mother wanted one. There were even foreigner VIPs calling up wanting to come over and watch. That's how great the demand was for tickets.

So for everyone who's gonna enjoy this live or in TV, let's take a brief moment to thank David Stern, the NBA owners and Billy Hunter. Your greed and pigheadedness may cause an NBA lockout this coming year. But who cares, thanks to you guys, the NBA stars are coming !!!!!