ESPN NBA

Watching Game 3, many remarked that the players from both teams lseemed tired. The stress associated with a six-hour flight on a private jet seemed to have gotten to them.

Somewhere on I-88 Scott Nowicki had no sympathy.

Nowicki is one of a crew that is covering the Finals not by jet, but by large, ESPN-themed recreational vehicle. 

Nowicki and crew left Boston shortly after Game 2, like everybody else following the Finals.

And then they traveled. And traveled. And traveled. And they just got here yesterday, the 12th, in time for Game 4.

Now that they're finally here, it's no time to rest! The series is only a weekend away from either ending or heading back East.

Nowick was nice enough to put pen to paper a little bit for TrueHoop with some thoughts from the road. Scott Nowicki writes:

12:20 am

6/10/08

I-88 W

Breaker! Breaker!

This is the NBA on ESPN RV -- you got your ears on? Boston lives and breathes sports and make no mistake about it, the Celtics are embraced as much if not more then the beloved Red Sox. And with the West Coast rival from the 70's and 80's in town, you can just feel the electricity in the air.

"Beat LA" is the echoed on every street corner and read on every t-shirt in a sea of green and white. And around "The Bean," and that's exactly what the Celtics did to the Lakers with the ESPN RV on hand to witness the first two games.

Set up at nearby City Hall Plaza, the ESPN RV joined the NBA Nation Tour to help blowout the celebration on both Thursday and Sunday with all kinds of games and prizes for the fans. The RV crew was pumped to get all the fans ready for a matchup that will be talking about for decades (at least that's what everyone was hoping for), kind of like how Big Brown was predestined to win the Triple Crown this past weekend.

On Saturday the RV camped out at Marble Head Beach and Nahant Beach. The owner of the parking lot at Nahant Beach was a hardcore Celtics fan and loved the RV so much that he invited the crew to bring it to his friend's restaurant, The Warf, for an "on the house" dinner.

The RV and ESPN team made a grand entrance blaring our ESPN horn and bringing mini basketballs and interstate signs to everyone inside. Before we knew it, everyone in the restaurant was joining in the party, and made us dance and sing with them on the back porch, overlooking the Atlantic, while the sounds of the live band carried through the night.

With games one and two in the books, the ESPN RV is now making the 45-hour trek to Los Angeles. And while New York and Pennsylvania were great, outside of the perilous drive through two "tornado producing" storms in Ohio that forced us to pullover on the side of the road, we can't wait to find out what's next.

FINALS OR BUST!

A couple of days later, just shy of California at 5 am local time on Thursday morning, Scott writes:

After two straight days of travel and roughly 2,400 miles under our belt, the ESPN RV has made a quick pit stop in, where else, viva Las Vegas.

And what a nice diversion Vegas will be. I mean why not spend some time in the city that never sleeps -- we are ahead of schedule and won't be able to check into our LA hotel rooms until later today.

After all, we've seen everything from the skyscrapers of Chicago, to the plains of Nebraska, and not to mention the big horn sheep of Colorado.

Fortunately for the crew the nearly 48 hours of non-stop driving, except for gas stops, has not taken much of a toll. We stay fresh by switching drivers about every six to eight hours. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska were cake walks compared to the steep slopes of Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada. At times we couldn't get up beyond 40 mph due to steep grades, but overall we've made excellent time and were able to catch the Colorado scenery during the daylight hours -- simply beautiful.

We're avid readers of "RV Vacations for Dummies" and always give a friendly wave to oncoming RV's, or sometimes a quick honk of our ESPN train horn that plays the SportsCenter them -- but only when it's safe and the timing is right. Fans just go nuts for that thing.

We just made a stop in Glenwood Springs, CO for dinner at the Glenwood Canyon Brewing Company. The atmosphere was great for watching Game 3 of the NBA Finals and the food was excellent also.

More to follow as we continue to make our way, at last, to Los Angeles.