By Matt "Money" Smith
FOX Sports West and PRIME TICKET
MONEY ARCHIVE
Are you aware of the massive event invading the southland Wednesday night?
Be sure to plan accordingly, because while I wasn't alive when it was here the first time around, I have seen some black and white footage that would suggest if in fact Heatlemania is comparable to Beatlemania, the town is going to be a mess. Apparently the first time around, the Heatles didn't have their big hit in power rotation yet. I can say with great certainty the meeting against the Lakers on Christmas day was just another basketball game as opposed to a moment I would remember exactly where I was and how I felt when it went down. But, three weeks later we might be in for an event of great magnitude when the Miami Heat and Clippers play Wednesday night.
Heatlemania is something we should file under "He knows just enough to sound stupid."
I would venture to guess LeBron James wouldn't be able to name the four Beatles, couldn't give you more than two of their songs, and surely not the name of a single album that was released from the most popular group pop culture has ever known. No, when the Heat stride into STAPLES Center Wednesday it will be more like the Bay City Rollers in support of their "Rollin'" release, where they expected thousands to be waiting for their arrival, screaming the lyrics to "Saturday Night" as they pulled in, only to find a bell hop asking who the heck they were and why they were acting so big time.
Yes, the Heat are selling out all of their road contests, but that's no different than the Lakers and Celtics do when they head into various cities across the country. When you're a good basketball player, it turns out people want to watch the single trip you'll be making to their city that year. If you look at attendance figures from last year there were two teams that managed to pack the house no matter what city they were in, the Lakers and the Cavaliers. So James should be well aware of what it's like to pop from one city to another with packed houses awaiting his arrival. And while George Harrison was no Paul McCartney or John Lennon when it came to popularity, he could at least sell out a decent sized room in town. Chris Bosh'sToronto Raptors were one of the worst draws on the road in the NBA last season.
The Heat are not the Heatles, they are the team for which James plays. He and Kobe Bryant have been the league's biggest individual attractions for a few years now and that's not likely to change anytime soon. The top two "pay to see them" players on the court tonight won't be wearing Miami uniforms. Blake Griffin has certainly slipped into the top-10 in that category when it comes to members of the media, and I suspect by this time next season we'll see the Clippers creep from the bottom of the road attendance rankings to at the very least middle of the field thanks to a truly unique gate attraction.
The funny thing about the Heatles comment James made is I wish that were the case. It would be nice if the NBA went back to being a league where people cared about teams and not individuals, but sadly since Michael Jordan arrived in 1984, that changed.
Now that the Clippers, just like the Lakers the past 15 years, have one of those players that everyone wants to see, I'm sure they're not complaining.
