What was the 1st game you remembered watching in full?

[KyRo23]

St Vincent St Mary Vs Oak Hill 2002

[ellobo]

I know I watched other NBA games in years before this (I remember watching a game with my father where he pointed out which player was Wilt Chamberlain), but the first NBA game I specifically remember watching in full is 1976 Finals game 5, triple OT between the Celtics and Suns.

[MavsDirk41]

Atlanta vs Boston in 1987. It was a Sunday afternoon game on CBS. Bird destroyed Atlanta. It was a high scoring game, back and forth, but Bird was amazing. He scored with such ease, especially for a guy who looked slow as hell and couldnt jump over a crack in the sidewalk.

[HotelVitale]

This wasn't the first game I ever watched but first I can remember clearly. My dad got some free tickets way up in the rafters to a Bulls-Spurs game and I'd never been to a stadium before. Everyone was droning on about David Robinson (think it was his rook year), it was hard to see much clearly from the nosebleeds and I remember asking my dad all game WHY Robinson was so good. Why everyone cared so much about him. I thought it was some secret everyone in the stadium knew but me. Also remember thinking the free chicken sandwich if the Bulls scored 100 (or whatever it was) was a very big deal for the entire city, like a major event that would dominate the city the next day.

[Kingsway_fan]

1972 Knicks vs Lakers.... Walt Fraser, earl the pearl Monroe, Dave debusher, Bill Bradley... Jerry West...

[Ruma85]

2002 Usa vs Yugoslavia, World championship final.

[sisibilio]

Watch on YouTube

[FJS]

87 finals celtics-lakers, i don't know what of them. I was 7 at this time.

[Silverballer]

I've been a casual NBA fan since the 1998 finals but I don't think I ever really watched a game in full until I became a more hardcore fan starting around 2004-2005 or so. But I remember 2004 WCF game 5 vividly for some reason. I thought for sure the Lakers were going to close it up but KG and Sprewell kept making shots and keeping the game out of reach down the stretch. The game didn't really feel as close despite what the scoreboard said, I think the Lakers just kinda made some ultimately irrelevant push towards the end. LA put the series away next game though anyway so it's weird as to why that's the first game I remember watching in full.

[MAMBAEMD]

Finals Game 6 1980 Lakers/Sixers

Magic had 42/15 on the road. Kareem didn't play because of a sprained ankle.

Lakers won the game and the championship on the road against Dr. J, Daryl Dawkins, and Caldwel Jones.

Incredible game.

[Stone]

Mine was an ABA game between the Nets and the San Diago Conquistadors . It's been said that game was the greatest in ABA history.

Julius Erving scored 25 points in the first quarter and I was glued to the TV hoping he would break Wilts 100 points in a game record.

The game went into 4 OT's.

At the time it was the highest scoring game with a final score of 176-166 with the Conquistadors winning.

[MoneyTalks41890]

Not the first game but I was watching Malace at the Palace live on my little Zenith tv and that sticks in my brain pretty strongly.

[Jerry Maine]

First game I watched was a run TMC Warriors game in 1990. Can't remember who they played but despite them losing I became a Dubs fan for life.

Next game I remember was the Jordan shrug game vs Portland.

Back then in Western Australia I think we only got one game a week on TV every Saturday morning. The NBA results were posted daily in the newspaper about 5 pages from the back, nothing more than the end scores for the day ie. GSW 103 def SAC 97. Once a week they'd spoil us and post the standings, or maybe even an article for the draft or finals.

Started watching again when living in Japan by either downloading games via BitTorrent, plus they'd televise the finals each year, nothing else from memory.

Signed up for league pass and started watching regularly just as the Dubs started hitting their straps on 2014.

We've come a long way baby.

[chilluminati]

03-04 ECF Nets Vs Pistons Game 7 was the first full one. But I was playing basketball video games and knew of the sport a bit before ever committing to a full game

[HotelVitale]

Not the first game but I was watching Malace at the Palace live on my little Zenith tv and that sticks in my brain pretty strongly.

Hard to explain what it was like watching that as it happened. Pretty mundane (if interesting) game coming to a close and then one insane shocking thing after another happened for like 30 minutes straight. It was like it was scripted to be the wildest, weirdest thing that could happen on a Tuesday night in the Detroit suburbs.

[scrabbarista]

Game 2 of the 1991 Finals. Maybe I watched other games before that, but MJ made sure that's the one I remember. I jumped off the couch and ran around the room yelling when he hit his record-setting hand-switch layup. A record that still stands, if I'm not mistaken.

You didn't know that shot set a record? As my mom always told me when I didn't know a word, Look it up, son.

Correction: It was Jordan's thirteenth made field goal in a row, a playoff record that stood for 31 years until Chris Paul hit fourteen in a row against New Orleans in 2022. In the moment, it was, "Jordan has hit eight or nine jumpers in a row." And the seas opened up on the close-out, and Michael got bored in the air, and Phil Jackson gave that iconic smile. All the jumpers he just hit, and then he does that: you better believe I was jumping off that couch.

[Bird4Three]

1992 All-Star Game

[Doctor MJ]

This is the one that comes to mind for me:

Watch on YouTube

Mind you, that was the final game of the '84-85 college season, and I was watching before the last game of the season.

For the NBA, flashes from the 1985 Finals between the Lakers and Celtics come to mind, but there would have been Laker games before that I watched too.

I should also say I suppose that I know I was parked in front of the TV for seasons before '84-85, but I can't say I'm confident that my knowledge of those seasons is actually from first hand memory.

[Stan]

2023 Finals Game 5

[MaxZaslofskyJr]

October 23, 1967 New Jersey Americans vs the Pittsburgh Pipers with HOFer Connie Hawkins in the Teaneck Armory.

Also that year, saw the New York Knicks play the L.A. Lakers in the "old" (older?) Madison Square Garden. One of West and Baylor was out that game... but I can't recall which.