On Friday, I was in the middle of hosting Sportstalk when I received a phone call with an offer I could not refuse. One of my friends had an extra ticket to Sunday's Game 3 of the NBA Finals and asked me if I would be interested in joining them. The only difficult part was trying to contain my excitement while hosting the last 90 minutes of Sportstalk. I accepted the offer and immediately looked forward to this once-in-a-lifetime event. I met my traveling party at the airport. Jerry Rubin, his son Greg, son-in-law Adam Frank, and Adam's kids Jamie and Drew would be making the trip from El Paso to Dallas.

 After landing at Dallas Love Field, we met up with Jerry's brother Byron and Byron's son Eric. The 8 of us drove to American Airlines Arena and arrived about two hours before game time. I was surprised to see a carnival- like atmosphere outside the arena. There were tons of fans with body paint, ridiculous costumes, and other activities to keep basketball lovers excited. I was glad my cell phone was there to document everything.

Once we arrived in the arena, it was obvious the atmosphere would be electric for Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

NBA Finals Ticket
loading...

 My seat was about 11 rows from the court in the corner nearest the Heat bench.

American Airlines Center
loading...

As far as the game itself, what a classic! The Heat and Mavs went down to the final seconds with Dirk missing a shot at the buzzer that would have sent the game into overtime.

Steve at NBA Finals
loading...

I was sitting next to a guy (Kareem) who told me he was LeBron's godfather. He knew everyone, from LeBron's mom, Gloria to Dwayne Wade's father, and kept me entertained throughout the game. Afterwards, I ran into Kareem and Gloria in the concourse and had to get a picture with both.

Gloria James
loading...

After the game, we immediately flew back to El Paso. Thanks to Jerry, Adam, Greg, Jamie, and Drew, my NBA trip of a lifetime is complete! The only thing better would have been if the Knicks were playing in the NBA Finals. But, I have plenty of time for that. Thanks to the Rubin family, I can now cross NBA Finals off of my sports bucket list.

More From 600 ESPN El Paso