Great story. I chose the wrong year to be studying overseas, in the fall of '86. We got to watch the games with on a VCR with cassettes flown in from the US. Damn, do I feel old.
I feel your pain.
I really loved watching the 76ers of the Dr J era play, but they seemed to always choke against Boston or L.A.
One year after college I was overseas, in Taiwan, which the US had recently derecognized, and all the American troops were pulled out (the latter was probably much better for the country in the long run). So what had been the Armed Forces Radio was taken over by some British expats. Every day they would have sports news, including cricket matches ad nauseum. I have no idea what an over is. At the end they might put in some American sports news if they had the time. Of course, they completely neglected to mention the NBA finals. It wasn't until months later I discovered the Sixers had swept the Lakers.