NBA Finals tickets can cost upward of thousands of dollars. In fact, the cheapest available ticket for Game 7 on Thursday between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs is $1,500.

Which makes what happened during Game 6 all the more puzzling.

The Heat were down by five points with 30 seconds remaining in the game Thursday. Already trailing the best-of-seven NBA Finals, 3-2, it appeared Miami’s season was coming to a disappointing end.

PHOTOS: Heat vs. Spurs, Game 6

So what did many Heat fans do? They left to beat the traffic. Reporters at the game even Tweeted about it:


Mass exodus. Gotta beat traffic, you know?— Dan Le Batard Show (@LeBatardShow) June 19, 2013

But after the departing Miami fans got outside, they heard reports that the Heat had rallied and sent the game into overtime. So, what did they do? Turned around and went back to the arena to retake their seats. Only they couldn’t.

It turns out that the Heat have big signs posted at every exit: NO RE-ENTRY ALLOWED. The doors into the arena could not be opened from the outside. And the security guards standing just inside those doors were not about to open them.

Police had to be called to get the crowd to disperse. There were no arrests, no one was injured. But it made for some scary moments.


“They were saying, ‘I just left! I just left! Please!’ ” an arena worker told CBSSports.com‘s Royce Young. “They’d run up there, then they’d run back here trying different doors to see if they could get in.”

So here’s what should happen: The Heat should try to find out the names of everyone who left early, and if they didn’t have a valid excuse, such as a sick child, then they should never be allowed to attend another Heat game as long as they live.

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