For a change, athletes were the fans Tuesday.
Muhammad Ali and Magic Johnson had prime seats at the Capitol. LeBron James watched from a hotel room in Los Angeles with his two sons. Across the country, coaches rescheduled practices — all for the inauguration of Barack Obama.
“It’s a great day in American history that nobody thought they’d see,” Nuggets player Kenyon Martin said. “An African-American in the White House is just a huge step in history for African-Americans, for all the things we went through — the civil rights movement — and for people to be able to witness that makes it a great day.”
The Celtics, on their way to Miami, changed their flight to arrive in time for the players to watch the ceremony from their hotel, even though coach Doc Rivers offered to tape it for them.
“They said: ‘No, we want to see it live. We think it’s that important,’ ” Rivers said. “One of them said, ‘Twenty or 30 years from now, I want to say I saw him speak live when he came in.’ I’m glad our guys have the awareness of real life.”
