Instant Replay

With the NBA season delayed, Comcast Sportsnet had time to fill in their broadcasts, so they have brought back the original CBS broadcast of 5 classic Warriors playoff games from their championship run in 1975. The past two weeks they reran games 6 and 7 from the Western Conference finals against the Chicago Bulls and the next 3 weeks will feature games 1, 3 and 4 from the NBA finals against the Washington Bullets.

Last night I got to see game 7 against the Bulls for the first time since I was there. I have long said this game was my number 1 favorite sports event I ever attended, even ahead of Secretariat winning the Belmont. It was a lifetime ago – I was 23, before I had even taken accounting courses no less become one. When I first came to San Francisco I bought Warriors season tickets which I held for over 30 years. They were in the 9th row at the foul line and they cost the heady sum of $7 per game, $9 per game for the NBA finals. For a struggling student, they were a bargain. Those same seats are $150 per game today.

When the season began, the Warriors were not supposed to come close to making the playoffs, but they had that wonderful team, with just one star, Rick Barry, a couple of phenomenal rookies (Keith Wilkes and Phil Smith) and a bunch of journeymen players who generally had fairly short careers. Yet down 3-2 in the series against a very fine Bulls team, they won convincingly on the road in Game 6 with Barry scoring 36 to force a game 7 in Oakland. I was there with my cousins and seat mates for a phenomenal game and a transcendent experience.

Watching the game again after 36 years last night was fun. And my memory was confirmed – it was a great game, won by the Warriors with a classic come from behind finish which featured contributions by virtually everyone. Rick Barry shot 2-14 in the first 3 quarters, and was sent to the bench, but got hot down the stretch in the 4th quarter to fuel the win. Wilkes and Smith and Charles and George Johnson finished off the Bulls. Norm Van Lier was shown kneeling on the court, pounding the floor with his fist in frustration when he knew it was over.

But my purpose for writing here is to note that watching the broadcast on TV gave the viewer no sense of the intensity, the insanity, and the simple loudness of being there in the crowd. That game was a gut wrencher, with the Warriors crawling back at the speed of a glacier from a 14 point deficit late in the first half. By the middle of the third quarter the crowd was basically roaring continually, and generally on their feet. By 4 minutes into the 4th quarter the crowd was constantly stamping their feet in an effort to simply make more noise. And by the time George Johnson blocked 3 shots starting with 3 minutes to go, the entire place was delirious. It was LOUD.

And it was glorious.

Watching the Warriors' bench reaction after Barry banked a running layup off the glass in the last minute was the best example of the thrill we had to be there. I have to say, I loved watching the game last night. It was only a memory of the live thing that I’ve held onto for decades, and it really was a fantastic game. But at the same time it was disappointing, because it proved how much you miss watching on TV as opposed to being present.

And I realize that as glorious as the Giants’ championship run was last year, we did not get a final game in any playoff series to attend and celebrate at home. Can you imagine the insanity had Edgar hit his homerun into our left field bleachers in game 5? I’m sure that is part of why every single person who saw “The Catch” in 1981 live at Candlestick thinks of that game as their #1 sports spectator moment.  Except, I guess, for Everson Walls*. After all, at the moment of the catch, he was a spectator too.

*It's not really fair to pick on Walls. The guy is one of the great humanitarians any sport has ever produced. He actually gave a kidney to his friend and teammate from that game, Ron Springs. If you were there for The Catch, or if you are a Niners fan who remembers it, you should read "The Catch" by Gary Myers.