So you want two tickets to Game 7 of the NBA Finals, eh? Oh, you want courtside seats, too? Thatll be $99,000.
Thats exactly what one fan was willing to pay to see history on Sunday night, according to online ticket resale website StubHub, which says the $49,500 per ticket cost is the highest in the companys 16-year existence.
StubHub spokesman Cameron Papp toldESPN the previous record price was $37,000 for Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals in Los Angeles between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. Papp said he cant reveal who bought the dream seats but the person is well known.
[LeBron James learns to come through when his team needs him most]
According to ESPNs Darren Rovell, StubHub sold five tickets to Game 6 for $25,000 apiece, while on Friday, the Golden State Warriors resale site sold two Game 7 tickets for $21,500 apiece.
To put this in perspective, $49,500 is just around $4,000 shy of the 2014 annual median American income. Whoever this fortunate person is will witness a historic moment. Either the Warriors will cap off the best regular season in NBA history with its second consecutive title or the Cleveland Cavaliers will be the first sports franchise from that city to win a championship since the 1964 Cleveland Browns, as well as become the first NBA team to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the Finals to claim a title.
As of 9 p.m. Friday, standing room only tickets for Game 7 were going for as little as $777.78 on StubHub.
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Warriors vs Cavaliers: Game 3 NBA Finals - 06.08.16 Full Highlights
CLEVELAND The whistle already had blown and the play was over, but Stephen Curry tried to shoot a layup and LeBron James stuffed it.
None of it counted, but that play in Game 3 was symbolic of how the NBA Finals have gone for Curry: Nothing is coming easy.
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The best shooter in the NBA hasnt been hitting his shots through the first three games of the Finals. The two-time MVP has as many fouls as three-pointers (10) and almost as many turnovers (15) as field goals (17).
StoryLove works out, could be ready for Game 4
But before anyone puts out an APB on his whereabouts, Curry has no doubt that h**l show up in this series. Were up 2-1 right now and the story is still unfolding, he said before the Warriors practiced Thursday afternoon.
Its been a strange series for the Warriors. Their All-Star backcourt of Curry and Klay Thompson hasnt played a good game, but even though the Splash Brothers have gone splat, Golden State can take a 3-1 series lead Friday night.
Curry is 17-for-39 with 48 points total and Thompson is 14-for-38 with 36 points. Neither has scored 20 in a game.
The law of averages says Curry and Thompson are due for a big night, and that doesnt bode well for the Cavaliers. They lost the first two games by 48 points even though Curry and Thompson totaled only 55.
The past two seasons, Curry has been the NBAs most unstoppable, most clutch and most popular player. But suddenly he is facing criticism for his disappearing act. He had a series-high 19 points Wednesday night, but the Cavaliers won, 120-90, so he basically was invisible again.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said none of it affects Curry. One of the great things with Steph is hes so grounded, Kerr said. He understands how this process works. If you are in the limelight and youre the one doing the commercials and getting trophies, then youre also in the crosshairs.
Were on the biggest stage and hes had a couple of tough games, so the criticism will come and h**l handle it fine.
Look no further than the Western Conference finals. After the Warriors fell behind 3-1, Curry and Thompson lifted their games to bring the Warriors back. Curry averaged 32.7 points the last three games and Thompson averaged 29.7.
Thats Steph, Kerr said. Thats who he is. He always responds. Hes got a huge heart, competitive as h**l, and extremely talented. I know how he will respond. h**l play well. He always does.
The Cavs are being physical with Curry, running him off the three-point line and making sure defenders are connected to him. But Curry also is missing open looks, which is as uncharacteristic as the foul trouble hes faced.
Curry said he let the foul trouble take him out of the last two games and that he wasnt as aggressive as I needed to be in Game 3.
It wont be that in Game 4, he said. Ive got to stay true to who I am and allow that to carry you through the good times and the Game 3s.
Kerr seemed to get irritated by the many questions about Curry and Thompson and whether he is considering a lineup change. The Warriors won a record 73 regular-season games; Kerr believes they can win two more.
They win a game, now its lineup changes and Oh my G*d, Steph Curry cant play well and whats Klay going to do? Kerr said. All this stuff about, Oh my G*d, what are we going to do? All we have to do is take stock. Were up 2-1. Were in pretty good shape. We havent played that well. Lets play better.
NBA 2K16 - NBA Finals Promo Updated May 31, 2016 1:34 p.m. ET
Seattle
The Golden State Warriors improbable comeback from a 3-1 series deficit in the Western Conference finals Monday night gripped basketball fans everywhere. But it left three distinct groups feeling especially overjoyed.
One was the Warriors themselves, who found a way to keep their record-breaking season alive. The second was the NBA, which is all but guaranteed sky-high ratings for Golden States Finals rematch with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The third was a collection of NBA fans more than 600 miles from the site of Monday nights game, who were openly and enthusiastically rooting for the Oklahoma City Thunder to lose: the people of the scorned basketball city of Seattle.
If they had gotten swept, sure, we wouldve liked that they lost, said Paul Rogers, an editor and senior writer with Sonics Rising, a blog dedicated to bringing the NBA back to Seattle. But the fact that they were up 3-1, then lost? It will sound petty, but to me, its almost better that way,
For fans of the Seattle SuperSonics, who lost their franchise when it relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008, the feelings of anger and resentment havent dimmed much with the passing of time. For some, they may have only gotten stronger.
Rogers, who is 47 years old, didnt try to hide his satisfaction at the Thunders season-ending loss. In fact, he acknowledged that hed only really begun to pay attention to the Western Conference finals once Oklahoma City lost control of its commanding 3-1 lead in the series.
He wasnt alone in feeling that way. On Saturday, Mariners fans at Safeco Field saved their loudest cheers of the night for when the final score from the Thunders Game 6 loss flashed on the jumbotron.
Monday night at Stout, a bar in Seattles Capitol Hill where 33-year-old salesman Miles DeCaro watched Game 7, about two-thirds of the 300 patrons were wearing Sonics or Warriors gear.
There mightve been one person in the room cheering for the Thunder, DeCaro said. More than anything, we all just feel relieved. Im happy the Warriors succeededand the Thunder did not.
All of which underlines that many Seattle fans are far from over the franchises abrupt relocation to Oklahoma, which followed the sale of the team in 2006 to Oklahoma City businessman Clayton Bennett, who subsequently failed to secure the public funding necessary to build a new stadium for the Sonics.
For eight years, a rabidly passionate fan base here has been without a franchise, leaving a legion of former Sonics followers in the NBA wilderness. Rachel Engrissei, a 33-year-old recruiter for a staffing agency, said the citys basketball fans face a dilemma: They want a team to replace the Sonics, but they dont want it to come at the expense of another city that would have to endure a similar heartache.
The situation came up in Sacramento a couple years ago, and we had a chance to get another team, said Engrissei, whose father stopped watching the NBA after the Sonics vanished. Everyone wants another team, but I didnt want to take that away from them, because I know how that feels. Theyd view us the same way we view Oklahoma City now.
Golden States victory derailed what wouldve been a matchup between a pair of cities that have lived through the consequences of relocation. While Oklahoma City got the Thunder from Seattle in 2008, Cleveland lost its NFL team, the Browns, to Baltimore 20 years ago, in 1996.
Both situations were especially tough for the vacated cities because of how quickly the teams found success after moving. The Ravens won the Super Bowl five seasons after leaving Clevelanda city that hasnt won a major championship since 1964while Oklahoma City has become a perennial NBA power with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook on the roster, reaching the Finals just four seasons after relocating.
Seattles feelings about Durant, who won Rookie of the Year during the Sonics final season in Seattle, are complicated. Fans seem to like and root for him personally, though those sentiments are generally overridden by a stronger desire to see the Thunder lose by any means necessary.
When I see disappointment in his face, Im not happy about it, because we like Kevin. He even came back here a few years ago to play in a charity basketball game, said Rogers, the Sonics Rising editor. Its just really hard to separate him from Oklahoma City. Thats why wed like to see him move to another team, so we can cheer for him again.
This ambivalence isnt reserved for Durant. Engrissei says she essentially refused to talk about the Thunder with a cousin who lived in Oklahoma because the issue remains such a sore spot for her.
DeCaro says he still wont buy Starbucks because he resents the companys chief executive, Howard Schultz, for selling the team to Bennett in 2006. He once turned down a free ticket to watch a playoff game in Oklahoma City in 2012 because of his feelings about the move, though he did buy a ticket to Game 2 of the Warriors-Thunder series and posed for photos wearing Sonics gear in the crowd.
The Thunders collapse from 3-1 up in the series meant Seattle fans were saved the pain of 2012, when they had to watch their former team reach the Finals just four years after leaving. But the fact that Seattleites continue to cringe each time Oklahoma Cityor Choklahoma City, as its known heremakes a deep playoff run shows how much some people still care.
Spencer Hawes is a perfect example. Hes from Seattle and though he now plays in the NBA as a center for the Charlotte Hornets, he remains as anti-Oklahoma City as any other resident of his city. Its gonna be an open wound until we get another team, Hawes said at a Seattle bar days before Game 7. It hurts to see them play.
But it didnt hurt on Monday night. Hawes went to Game 7 in Oakland, and he was spotted after the game, outside the Warriors locker room, wearing a huge smileand a Seattle SuperSonics shirt.
Golden State Warriors vs Oklahoma City Thunder - Game 3 - Full Highlights | 2016 NBA Playoffs
OAKLAND, Calif. After 27 quarters of some of the most dramatic and compelling basketball the NBA has seen, the Golden State Warriors found themselves 12 minutes away from a return trip to the NBA Finals, an escape from a three-games-to-one deficit in these Western Conference finals and a chance to stake a claim as the greatest team in the history of the sport.
Then they handed the ball to Stephen Curry, and the NBAs two-time defending MVP carried his team home.
Behind 36 points and eight assists from Curry including 15 points in the fourth quarter and 24 in the second half Golden State emerged with a thrilling 96-88 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in front of an enthralled sellout crowd of 19,596 inside Oracle Arena. With the victory, the Warriors will get two days to rest and prepare for a rematch with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the championship round, which will begin here Thursday night.
Steph is gonna Steph, Warriors center Festus Ezeli said. He came out and showed why he is the MVP.
[Posting Up: NBA podcast: Sam Amick on Game 6 of Warriors-Thunder]
The final outcome, however, was far from a formality, as the Thunder continued to push the Warriors far harder than anyone would have expected. It didnt become official until Curry scored six straight points in the final 90 seconds after the Thunder had closed within four on a Kevin Durant jumper with 1 minute 40 seconds remaining.
But after Curry was fouled on a three-point attempt by Serge Ibaka with 1.8 seconds remaining on the shot clock and 1:18 remaining in the game, and made all three free throws to push Golden States lead to 93-86, Curry sealed the game with signature aplomb a few seconds later.
When Durant missed a three-pointer with 43.8 seconds left, Curry brought the ball up on a fast break, brought the ball out to the three-point line and put on a dribbling exhibition.
After getting away from Thunder guard Andre Roberson, Curry pulled up and let fly with a three-pointer his seventh of the game with 26.8 seconds that dropped through the bottom of the net, giving the Warriors a 96-86 lead and ensuring that their chase for history would live on. As Thunder Coach Billy Donovan called a timeout, Curry let out a primal scream and exhorted the Warriors fans to get on their feet and celebrate a command they were all too glad to comply with.
It was a cool moment, Curry said later. Obviously there was still time on the clock, but that was a moment to kind of just take in the atmosphere.
It was just a very cool moment to enjoy that fan noise, and understand we were on the brink of doing something very special and coming back from down 3-1, and that was it.
That this series came down to the final seconds of the seventh and final game was a testament to the resiliency the Thunder showed after giving up a fourth-quarter lead and losing at home in Game 6 Saturday night a loss that happened only because of a pair of historic performances from Curry and Klay Thompson.
Durant finished with 27 points on 10-for-19 shooting in Game 7, scoring 12 points of his own in the fourth to try to drag the Thunder over the finish line. But every time the Thunder made a shot or a play, the Warriors and usually Curry were there with an answer.
It was an equation that proved destined to end with a Warriors victory.
It is a lot of what-ifs, said Durant, who said he hadnt begun to think about his impending free agency this summer, though the widespread belief is that he will re-sign with Oklahoma City on a one-year deal. We could have said a lot of what-ifs throughout the whole playoffs.
[But] youve got to credit them. They came out and played well the last three games of the series, and won three in a row. Youve got to give them credit.
After two weeks of playing one another, there was little left to figure out about either team heading into this final game. The one lingering question, however, was whether the Warriors would keep Andre Iguodala in the starting lineup in place of Harrison Barnes, a change they made at the start of the second half of Game 6.
It turned out, however, that one of those alterations was, in fact, to leave Iguodala in the starting five, allowing him to match up even more regularly with Durant. He also is a better ballhandler and distributor than Barnes, which he proved by hitting a cutting Draymond Green for a basket to open the scoring.
[Responsible for Klay Thompsons Game 6 performance, Yoda socks were]
That wound up being a rare positive moment for the Warriors offensively early on. Oklahoma City raced out to its latest hot start in this series, taking a five-point lead after the first quarter that it pushed to as much as 13 at one point and 12 at another in the second. But in an eerily similar way to how Game 6 played out, the Warriors managed to hang around despite being significantly outplayed for large portions of the opening 24 minutes.
Once Steven Adams hit 1 of 2 free throws to make it 45-33 with 2:21 remaining in the second quarter, though, the Warriors closed the half with a 9-3 run capped by a Curry circus layup over three defenders that kissed high off the glass and fell through the hoop at the buzzer to send Golden State into the break trailing 48-42.
After that strong first half, though, Oklahoma City fell apart in the third quarter. The Warriors outscored the Thunder 29-12, including closing the quarter with a 13-2 run as the Thunder missed its final five shots of the quarter to go from leading by one to down 11 heading into the fourth.
With everything on the line, Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said, our guys all came through.
Led by one guy in particular, of course. In those final 12 minutes, with everything on the line, Curry did what hes done time and again these past two seasons and carried the Warriors home and on to the NBA Finals.
