Road to the Finals

BOSTON – The trip to Beantown ironically went through Tinseltown. That’s how the Solar Sports TV team of producer Melpether Carantes, Chino Trinidad and myself traveled to get to where Game 1 of the NBA Finals was played last Thursday night.

Our odyssey began with a smooth Philippine Airlines flight from Manila direct to Los Angeles last Tuesday. Felix (Jumbo) Enriquez, who’s in the history books as the youngest PAL captain ever, did another super job at the controls. Purser Greg Laman and his crew made sure every passenger enjoyed the 11-hour flight.

We landed in LA an hour early at about 6 p.m. In our flight were two-time world boxing title challenger Rodel Mayol and five-year-old son Bryce. Mayol is managed by Manny Pacquiao and trains at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. Mayol earlier brought his wife Lira to the US where the family now lives.

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 Boston. The next morning, we were on a US Airways four-hour flight to Charlotte. There was a half-hour delay in our departure and another additional half-hour wait for the connection to Boston. The flight from Charlotte to Boston took two hours.

Because there is a three-hour time advance from the West to the East Coast, we arrived in Boston at about 10:30 p.m. last Wednesday. We got settled in at the Boston Intercontinental Hotel past midnight.

The morning of Game 1, we picked up our credentials at the NBA TV office on the third floor of our hotel. At noon, we attended a broadcasters meeting where the NBA gave a briefing on telecast procedures. A bonus in the meeting was legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s appearance to promote his sixth book “On The Shoulders of Giants.”

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 (San Antonio-New York), 2000 (Los Angeles-Indiana), 2003 (San Antonio-New Jersey), 2004 (Detroit-Los Angeles), 2006 (Miami-Dallas) and 2007 (San Antonio-Cleveland).

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Ronnie Sta. Cruz, a medical technician at Beverly Hospital, and 13-year-old son Ron John were among the 18,624 spectators who packed the TD Banknorth Garden for Game 1.

It was another sellout at the Celtics homecourt.

Sta. Cruz, a Filipino migrant, moved to Massachusetts five years ago with his wife. He paid $700 for two tickets in the level just below the nosebleed section. The face value for each ticket was $110.

Sta. Cruz admitted he grew up a Lakers fan but now that he lives near Boston, he’s been transformed. He and his son wore green Celtics T-shirts to celebrate the Finals opener.

Another spectator Tommy Hall, who works at Massachusetts General Hospital, recognized us to be Filipinos and said, “Magandang hapon.”

Hall is married to a Filipina nurse, Pearlie Grace Ramos of Manila.

“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 Manila soon. I’ve never been to the Philippines but I know I’ll love it.”

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 Boston University this December, is our local host. She took time out to help in our coverage for Game 1 and brought us around town yesterday.

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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.”