As the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers continue their quest for the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, basketball fans in more than 200 countries will watch, listen and participate in the action through an array of multimedia and digital technologies when Game 1 of the 2008 NBA Finals tips off June 5 on ABC (9 pm ET) in the U.S., as well as on television stations around the world. The Celtics and Lakers are vying for their franchise’s 17th and 15th NBA Championship, respectively.

THE FOLLOWING IS A BY-THE-NUMBERS LOOK AT WHAT WILL TAKE PLACE DURING THE NBA FINALS IN BOTH GAME CITIES:

Global Reach
• Games will air in 205 countries and territories in 46 languages including, among others, Arabic, Czech, Galician, Greek, Icelandic, Mandarin, Tagalog, Thai and Ukrainian.
• A record 280 international media from 35 countries and territories will cover The Finals.
• 46 international television and radio networks and Web sites will converge in the two cities.
• 14 customized international NBA television shows will shoot behind the scenes including, among others, NBA Lin Ju Li (China-GDTV), NBA Time and American Dream (France-Canal+, France), Espanoles NBA (Spain-Canal +) and NBA on Five (UK).
• 18 broadcast partners will air games for the first time including, among others, Cable Sports 7 (Bulgaria), DK4 (Denmark), Telenica (Nicaragua), Five US (U.K.), TVes (Venezuela), NTV Spor (Turkey) and Chengdu TV (China).
• 5 international players– Lakers’ Didier Ilunga-Mbenga (Belgium), Pau Gasol (Spain), Vladimir Radmanovic (Serbia), Ronny Turiaf (France) and Sasha Vujacic (Slovenia).
• A record 27 media from Spain will be on hand to watch Lakers star Pau Gasol (Spain) play in his first Finals.

NBA Entertainment (NBAE)
• 500,000 feet of film, video and High-Definition tape will be used by 5 different NBAE crews, which will document each game.
• More than 12 NBAE-produced shows will film on site, including, among others, NBA Access, NBA Action, NBA 360, ABC halftime features, Pau Gasol Access and Inside the NBA Finals for distribution in Spain, Bud TV vignettes, NBA TV’s Live at the Finals and footage for Warner Home Video’s NBA Championship DVD.

NBA.com
• 55 million visits are expected to NBA.com.
• A benchmark in all of pro sports, approximately 60 percent of all visits to NBA.com is expected to come from fans living outside North America.
• More than 18 million videos totaling more than 500,000 hours will be viewed by fans through NBA TV Broadband offerings.
• Fans can log on and listen to live audio of the games in 12 languages, including Arabic, Bosnian, Dutch, Flemish, French, Mandarin, Russian, Tagalog, Polish, Turkish, Spanish and English.

Digital Media
• More than 8 million NBA video highlights will be watched by fans on YouTube, Yahoo! Sports, Facebook, MySpace, Hulu and Joost.
• 5 million NBA video widgets will be viewed on blogs and social network sites across the Web.

ABC
• 32 video sources including Sky Cam, Player Track, Super Slo, Ultra Mo, handhelds, reverse hard and designated bench handhelds will be used by the network.
• 75 microphones will capture the sounds, including those embedded in the basketball court.
• More than 20 miles of camera and microphone cable will be used during the series.
• High-Definition cameras will be used to deliver crisp action for fans through ABC HD, ESPN HD, ESPN2HD, and ESPNEWS HD.

NBA Photos
• Lenses will capture every moment as 10,000 photographic images will be generated each game for worldwide use.
• 3,000 print and Internet media outlets will receive real-time digital photos from NBA Photos.
• 50 traditional and digital cameras will be used every game day.
• 15 NBAE still photographers will be on site.

Franchise History
• Celtics have won 16 championships, most of any NBA franchise. Their last title came in 1985-86. Lakers have won 14 overall including three-in-a-row from 2000-02.
• Lakers and Celtics have met 10 times in the Finals, most recently in 1986-87, a 4-2 Lakers win.
• Red Auerbach won 9 titles as a coach, tied for most all-time with current Lakers coach Phil Jackson.