Not to get all USA Today on you, but the last time the Lakers and Celtics met in the NBA Finals (1987, as if the media hasn’t bludgeoned that home enough), a gallon of gas cost .95 cents, a dozen eggs cost .78 cents and a regular season courtside Lakers ticket cost $15 at face value. Today, $15 doesn’t even let you park your car on the Staples Center lot, much less buy you a ticket. So, to see this rivalry renewed live, you’re going to have to sell a kidney in London—and hope they pay you in pounds. None of that weak sauce dollar business.

StubHub, an online ticket service, is offering the Father’s Day special with up to eight individual seats [for Game 5] available at the $27,028 price. For a group, a 44-person suite is being offered for $51,431.

Sure, those are exorbitant prices, but then again you’re not watching the Spurs play stop-the-clock against LeBron and the Cavaliers like last year. Shit, you’re not going to have to go to San Antonio or Cleveland, which is worth paying the premium alone.

According to StubHub, the average resale price for the Finals is $772 in Los Angeles and $547 in Boston. In last year’s championship series, between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the San Antonio Spurs, the average was $366 in Cleveland, $311 in San Antonio. (Face value for the most expensive seat at Staples Center for the Boston series is just under $4,000.)

Even the Finals sneakers Kevin Garnett will wear are going for four-digits. Forget a wartime economy—what we need is the Lakers and Celtics to meet every year to get us out of this recession.

The economy hasn’t rebounded? Tell that to Lakers fans [LA Times]
Image [holamun2.com]