Through the years, I spent many a glorious night taking in Kings games with by brother and friends. Although we went to our share of Lakers games throughout the years — even seeing them win the NBA Finals in Game 6 of the 1982 playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers — most of the time, when we made our way to the Forum it was to see the Kings.
As students, we could get into the games for $5. You could roll up to the box office just minutes before a contest and still get good seats. The five-spot bought a nose-bleed seat at the extreme top of the Forum in the highest section. Sometimes we were so high in the rafters our heads would nearly hit the roof and in some seats you had to duck down to look past the overhang that circled the stadium.
Our only saving grace was that we rarely stayed in those seats for long. In the late-1970s and early-to-mid-1980s, it was rare for the Kings to sell out a game at the Forum. On most occasions, we would retire to our elevated seats and stay there for a period or less, all the while scouting groups of empty seats in the lower bowl. At intermission, we would buy a handful of food and just casually walk past the ushers (they wouldn't ask for your ticket when you were loaded up) and we would take our seats near the glass or in spots we could never afford to sit.
