Welcome to the (Somewhat) Affordable NBA Finals

Only one of the puppets making it to the big show is good news for the consumer, bad for business: “As a result of Orlando toppling Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals, [ticket broker Scott Goldberg] estimates each ticket he sells for NBA Finals games at Staples Center is going for about 40 percent less than what it would have for a Lakers-Cavs series. Upper-level tickets at Staples Center that brokers would have priced anywhere from $475-650 against Cleveland are now selling for just more than half that much, while lower-level seats that might have fetched $2,500-5,000 are now going for between $1,600 and $3,500. ‘Kobe and LeBron was Bird and Magic,’ Goldberg said. ‘Most pundits would say Orlando is a better team than Cleveland and they have an absolute superstar in Dwight Howard, but there’s no rivalry, no bad blood. There’s nothing to make it any bigger than the Lakers are hungry for a championship. Nothing about Orlando drives the price, so it’s a good series but there’s certainly no glamour.'”