Pandemonium

Well, another Kings season has come to the usual bitter end. Ah, hell, it wasn't that bitter. They were 8 games under .500 at one point, made the playoffs and played some good games against the Spurs, the defending champs. Plus, as long as Ron Artest doesn't start any fires (literally), they look very nice for next year, even if they don't sign Bonzi Wells. It would be nice if Brad Miller could jump and Rick Adelman may be out (which wouldn't break my heart). Wait 'til next year. That being said, I got to go to Game 3 of the series and that was fan-tastic. In a very literal sense, there really is nothing like being at a great basketball game.

As you probably know, the Kings won Game 3 in an almost impossible way. Michael Finley on the Spurs made a 3 with 40 seconds or so left to put the Spurs up one. Artest then dribbles the ball off his leg or his foot out of bounds with something like 29 seconds left. So the Kings are down by one with 29 seconds left and the Spurs have the ball. No freakin' way the Kings win that game. It's total depression in ARCO. But Mike Bibby gets a steal with 8 seconds left, passes to Kevin Martin, who flips the ball over his head and Tim Duncan, the ball bounces three times on the rim, the backboard lights up and the horn goes off and then the ball drops through. The Kings win!

And the ARCO crowd went absolutely freakin' insane. Along with 17,000 or so of my closest friends, I am going absolutely crazy, screaming and jumping up and down. No one leaves for 10 or 15 minutes, just screaming, chanting, roaring. Maloofs running around on the court. Total pandemonium!

There is simply nothing like it. Here's this huge space, you know, 300 feet or so long, 250 feet or so high, 300 feet or so wide, just filled with noise, noise, noise, people jumping up and down. 17,000 people going nuts together at exactly the same time. That is not an experience that you have very often and you can't have that experience in very many places.

Basketball has been my favorite sport to watch in person. Baseball is my favorite sport and I still don't think that great basketball matches great baseball. There is nothing like sitting there watching your team trying to wriggle out of a bases-loaded-one-out jam in the eighth inning at the end of the season or in the playoffs. You just sit there and wait and watch. You're praying, praying. After all of that, if your pitcher gets the guy, there's this huge release. Basketball is too frenetic to quite match that level of focused intensity.

Nonetheless, I haven't ever watched a great baseball game in person, but I have watched a lot of great basketball games in person and I can't imagine that the scene of a great live baseball game really exceeds that of a great basketball game. I always loved going to basketball games in high school because our gym was so loud and so hot that you just knew that it affected the game. There was a playoff game my junior year when we were playing the second-ranked team in the region at home. The gym was full an hour and a half before the game and was loud the whole game. With about 10 seconds left, the other team's star was fouled shooting and got two free throws with his team down one. So he makes two free throws and his team goes up one. Our team calls timeout. Our crowd was chanting "Air ball" the whole timeout and the guy misses the first free throw. Our team gets the ball and puts in a shot as the clock runs out. I still remember a kid across the court in about the third row throwing his hat up in the air. It was great. And there were other games like that. People standing in the exits shoulder to shoulder with the fire marshal.

When I first started going to Kings games, I was really surprised that you could get the same vibe that we had going in our high school gym in a place with at least five times as many seats. And I've been there a number of times when the crowd was going absolutely bananas. But I don't think that I have ever seen it like at the end of Game 3 this year.

Being immersed in an environment like that is just rare. Where can you find 17,000 people all together in the first place? I guess you can find that many people at concerts, but they don't really involve the drama of a sports game. I mean, the band is going to come out and play one of their best songs for an encore. At a concert, you don't go from total misery to total happiness in 10 seconds like at the end of Game 3. You don't get that kind of feeling in regular life. This is why some people -- like me -- are sports junkies.

So I have got to call this Kings season a success because they gave us a truly great moment of pandemonium. I mean, if your team doesn't win a ring, how do measure how good a season was? Without a ring, your team lost at the end. One good way to measure a season then, I think, is whether your team gave you an absolutely classic moment that you'll remember during that season. And the Kings gave us one in 2005-2006, so I'll call that a success.