The traffic was such a mess that the state troopers would not allow the Laker bus to get near Terminal C. And that's when I saw Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson folding themselves into the same taxi, and never mind the idea of the presi dent and vice president flying on the same plane.
"This," I remember thinking, "is not exactly what those two had in mind."
It was the eve of Game 5 in that unforgettable 1984 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers, and it was a pretty good prelude for the game that took place the following night.
It was to be a very important affair, Game 5, with the teams tied at two games apiece and feelings coming to a boil. The series could easily have been an LA sweep, but a lot had happened to change the tone of the series, most notably a vicious Kevin McHale takedown of Kurt Rambis in Game 4 that would have gotten him suspended for the duration today.
The weather snippet on the far right corner of the game-day Globe said, "Hazy, humid, low 90s," but that turned out to be an understatement. By mid-afternoon it was a record-setting 96, so everyone knew it was going to be a very interesting evening of basketball because the original Boston Garden did not have that newfangled thing known as air conditioning.
There were some hot nights in that old building over the years, but there was never one like the evening of June 8, 1984. The male fans wore shorts and short-sleeved shirts. The women wore, well, as little as possible. Halter tops proliferated. There was never a day or evening in the long history of that building when there was so much exposed skin.
CBS announced a game-time temperature of 97 degrees.
The Lakers did not like it, and Kareem disliked it most of all. He was 37, and fairly cranky to begin with, and playing a Finals game in 97-degree heat was not his idea of fun. He would shoot 7 for 25 and wind up sucking on oxygen (honest).
"I suggest you go to the local steam bath with all your clothes on," he said afterward. "First, try to do 100 push-ups. Then run back and forth for 48 minutes."
