How I Love The Lakers

Basketball is my favorite sport – fun to play and exciting to watch. What’s not to enjoy about high-scoring games where the tide can turn at any minute through the superhuman talents of Goliaths-in-shorts? While drinking a beer no less! (Yes, that is directed towards many alcohol-free European venues, you hooligans.) And the Lakers – oh my Lakers, how I love you so. I have always been a fan, but living in hostile territory takes your allegiance to a whole new level. In Santa Barbara (technically neutral territory) I battled with Kings fans and in Portland Oregon I had to educate many a Blazers-lovers that although their passion is admirable (and it is), and that they have tremendous potential, their young team is not yet Lakers-grade quality. When I hear Beat L.A.! – I say bring it on. I may have done this drunkenly in the stands to my friend Andrew’s embarrassment, but some times you have to spank a naughty child. At the end of the day there is no skin off my back if they lose (they don’t often anyways), and it is an entertaining and social activity which is probably good for my health (I have no proof, but I feel that it’s true). I have realized that watching the basketball season had become an important part of my recreation, and I miss it. This may be the most painful thing about living in Turkey (apart from missing family and friends and other things that it would be indecent for me not to care about), and it is why I go to great lengths to try to watch the games here in Izmir.

First of all, the games are usually on sometime between 3:30 and 7:30 in the morning, which is prime sleeping time. But none the matter, that alone wouldn’t stop me. What stops me is the lack of coverage on local television. Last year I was lucky, Hedo Turkolgu was on the Orlando Magic, which were in the NBA finals, and thus the games received coverage on major networks in Turkey. This year I am not so lucky, Hedo’s new team Toronto didn’t make the playoffs and Mehmet Okur (another Turk), who is on the Utah Jazz, is injured. Sidenote: it was funny because many people here ran out and bought Orlando Magic merchandise during the finals last May, but since Hedo was traded shortly thereafter all that gear was pretty much made worthless. If I were a NBA team owner I’d get Yao Ming just for merchandising in China… but I’m pretty sure they are capable of supplying their own knock-offs. Another sidenote: I would fail my students if they did say they were Lakers fans.

There are two channels that cover the games, NTV Spor and NBA TV – the first I get in nine second intervals before mysteriously going to static, and the second requires an extensive cable package which I don’t have. I don’t know why NTV Spor loses connection after ten seconds, but it does. I’ve tried everything to fix it (see picture), but I just can’t get it to function right. The result is that I am in front of my tiny TV at 5:30am flipping the channel back and forth every nine seconds in order to get a clear picture again. It is exhausting and I seem to miss all the great moments. I also tried watching the games online, but my internet is slow and I can only find streaming video. If I could find a place to download games I could watch them later without knowing the result (any help?)

Attempt #17 to get the antenna to be reasonable.

There are no basketball bars – despite the sport’s popularity here. And even if there were, they wouldn’t be open in the wee hours of the morn.

I have a friend here who lets me come to his house on the other side of the city in the middle of the night to watch games on NBA TV, an option I’ve not taken up until the playoffs. Regardless of the physical weariness it causes the next day, it is my best option. And I’ll do it with a smile, because I love watching Lakers’ games. Go Lakers.

-Charles P. Pearson