Thursday, June 14, 2007 Finals Diary: The Dean, The Q and Slaughter
CLEVELAND—After an early rise I finished penning my column, NBA Diary and NBA Grapevine at about 10 am. Quickly, I hopped on my Ford Fusion and got back to the hotel by darting through three freeways.
Along with Ermee and our three-year-old son AJ, we were treated to lunch by lawyer Nick Veloso at King Buffet along Ridge Street. Abdicating my sworn promise to go easy on the greasy stuff, I ate enough cholesterol to give an elephant high blood pressure.
Nick and my three-people entourage parted ways at about 1:30 pm. We went back to the hotel to rest before driving downtown to the Quicken Loans Arena where we took pictures for posterity.
For a reasonable $6.05, I had the photos developed in 20 minutes at a CVS Pharmacy along East 9th street. A few blocks down the road, I went to a Kinko’s, jumped into a desk top, scanned the photos and e-mailed them to the Sun.Star Cebu sports desk.
Traffic leading to The Q was atrocious as cars of all shapes and sizes clogged this city’s narrow downtown streets. But with a media parking ticket issued by the NBA, I sailed through Euclid street and parked at a reserved spot on Level 1- R-79.
I was in The Q at 8:48 pm local time, just before tip-off. At 9:30 pm, with the Cavs jabbing their eay to a slim lead, I went on air with Leo Lastimosa at dyAB’s Arangkada.
Ermee and AJ watched Game 3 from Section 205, while I went to my assigned seat.
Two hours later, the unbearable noise inside the Cavs home floor died quietly, and 20,562 of the loneliest people in the world meekly filed to the exit doors.
I met Star columnist, my idol, Quinito Henson and Chino Trinidad at The Q’s inner sanctum, where the locker rooms were. The Dean told me about his frustrations of a blown-out series and we chatted briefly about this 6-foot-11 kid surnamed Slaughter, who is making waves in Cebu.
At 1:15 am, I was back in the hotel room. And then darknesss. ZZZZZZ (Homer D. Sayson)
