(FORTUNE Small Business) – I'm worried about Michael. In fact, all I can think about is Michael Jordan and his deeply bruised right thigh. I wonder if the trainer is taking good care of him. I wonder if he's been stretching enough. I wonder if he knows how much I paid for my tickets.

In a few hours the Washington Wizards are scheduled to play the Houston Rockets, and the game has all the makings of a classic. Mike vs. Ming. Yao Ming's first season, Jordan's last. But this morning Wizards coach Doug Collins announced that because of a collision with Pacers forward Reggie Miller--specifically with one of Miller's bony knees--Jordan might sit this one out. The news wouldn't be so deflating if I weren't already in my Washington, D.C., hotel, seven blocks from the MCI Center, holding two very respectable lower-level tickets for tonight's game.

Though not cheap, the tickets were surprisingly easy to get--I bought them through a sports tour operator. Equal parts ticket broker and travel agent, such companies can get you into almost any game, no matter how long it's been sold out. The bigger operators handle all sports--NBA, PGA, Triple Crown, the Olympics--while smaller ones focus on specific leagues or events. Until recently most of their business has come from big corporations entertaining clients. But since the economy headed south, company spending on such extravagances has slowed, and tour operators are increasingly selling individuals that same range of options, everything from tickets to golf outings with athletes to VIP passes. (Contrary to what you might think, the process is completely legal. It's not considered scalping because the tickets are sold as part of a package.)

What can you get? The better question might be--what do you want? Often you make one phone call and get an all-inclusive deal with tickets, hotel, transportation, a concierge at your service, and even face time with celebrities. Before a 2001 Packers--Cowboys game, a tour operator called TSE Sports got its customers a private meeting with John Madden, who gave an X's-and-O's chalk talk, escorted them to the game on his famed Madden bus, and signed footballs for everyone (price: $3,500 per person, hotel included).

Wanting to try out one of the services for myself, I set my sights on the biggest February NBA game I could find: Washington Wizards vs. Houston Rockets. The game was in less than a week, so tickets would be hard to come by, but I figured that would only make it more of a challenge. My search began at the website for the National Tour Association (ntaonline.com), which includes a sports category listing 149 companies or agents specializing in trips like these. NTA members have to go through a basic certification process, so they're likely to be more legitimate than someone you could find on your own.

I called a few companies and settled on Sports Travel & Tours, which sells packages for a wide spectrum of events. Sports Travel's package was simple: great tickets and a hotel room for two nights, all for $1,310. The company doesn't handle transportation, but I'd planned to book my own travel anyway.

A competitor called RoadTrips.com offered me more or less the same deal, two nights at a hotel and two "lower level" tickets, for a bit more money: $1,344. (I found that you have to push a little to get specifics--often the companies won't give you exact seat locations until you're ready to buy.) But a few days later those seats were gone, and the best it could get me were two in the 14th row for $1,999. That's fairly common--the market for tickets is extremely fluid and entirely first come, first served. RoadTrips has an attractive telephone concierge service that can do things like make dinner reservations, procure theater tickets, or arrange tee times for you. But for a single weekend, I figured I could handle details like that and save some cash in the process.

A caveat here: Refunds for such trips are rare, though some tour operators will try to recoup your money if they can sell the package to someone else. If you get stuck in transit or the event is canceled because of weather, you're still not likely to get your money back. Instead you'll be offered another package as a make-good. For example, Marcus Evans Group, one of the bigger corporate hospitality companies, put together an amazing trip for the 2001 Ryder Cup. For $30,000 you could fly to England on the same plane as Tiger Woods and the U.S. team, stay in the same hotel, and attend every match. There was even the possibility of visiting the White House with players if they won. But the Ryder Cup was canceled that year after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, and Marcus Evans offered to refund only about a fourth of the price. (Customers were also offered a trip to the 2003 Ryder Cup, with fewer amenities, or a combination of this year's NCAA Final Four and Masters tournaments.)

Because of the lack of refunds, some companies will sell you travel insurance. When I booked my trip with Sports Travel & Tours, it sent me a form for third-party insurance from a company called Travel Insured. It would have cost me $46 per person (based on the cost of my trip and my age) and covered serious illness and weather issues on my end--but not a canceled or postponed game.

Even if most tour operators can't offer you an ironclad guarantee, they can provide the commodity they truly specialize in--access. Robert Tuchman, president of TSE Sports, says that setting up dinner or golf rounds with former and current athletes is a standard part of the business. He has organized appearances with baseball's Johnny Bench, former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworksi, and retired Denver Nuggets star Alex English. "We've got [ex-Knick] Bernard King coming to visit a luxury suite at a Wizards game later this month," he says.

Trying to remain casual, I ask, How much? "Anywhere from a couple thousand to as much as the high six figures if you want to bring in someone like Anna Kournikova." Wait a minute--what? I can't really have dinner with Anna Kournikova, can I? "Sure you can," he says. "You're probably talking a few hundred thousand dollars." He estimates that golf with Jordan will set you back a "half-million to a million." Although he's never set up a golf game with MJ, or dinner with Anna for that matter, he assures me it's simply a matter of cash.

For the Wizards game, Sports Travel & Tours suggested a hotel in the area, but I asked if it could book me at the Marriott instead, where I'd heard many visiting NBA teams stayed. (If the Rockets were there, I didn't spot them.) It was walking distance from the MCI Center, and at 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, about three blocks from the White House. The hotel change actually lowered my package price to $1,255.

That may sound steep, but it's really not outrageous compared with what I could have put together on my own. The hotel room was about $200 per night. The face value for each ticket was $125, but on the open market they were going for far more. Online, I found a pair of seats one row behind mine for $770. Another close pair was going for $570. I wasn't exactly skimping by going through a tour operator, but I didn't feel as if I were getting held up at gunpoint either.

Once I agreed to the deal and faxed back a signed itinerary, the company FedExed me a package with a lot of extras designed to make the trip go more smoothly, all nicely wrapped in a passport wallet--sized plastic folder. In addition to the ticket information, I also got a sheet with directions from the train station to the hotel, directions from the hotel to the MCI Center (the only slip-up--someone wrote "S Street" instead of "F Street"), a seating chart with my section highlighted, and a personal note from "Jason," the representative I'd dealt with, wishing me a great time. One thing I did not get were the tickets themselves. Jason had said that because it was such short notice, they'd be waiting for me at the hotel. That made me nervous--I was checking in an hour before I'd have to leave for the game. But he assured me that if there were any problems, the company's answering system could page someone 24 hours a day.

Fortunately the tickets were there as promised, and contrary to my worst fears, they were not hand-drawn on the back of index cards. They had the Ticketmaster logo and everything. My girlfriend and I made our way over to the MCI Center, got our tickets scanned (no alarms went off), and found our seats, which were 18 rows behind the Rockets bench, between the baseline and the free-throw line. We could look straight down into the Rockets huddle and watch coach Rudy Tomjanovich drawing up plays, and we were close enough to hear Yao Ming clapping his mitt-sized hands to psych up the team.

There was still one last detail to worry about, though: Jordan. The Wizards had said they would make a game-time decision, but the signs weren't promising. Then, just before tipoff, as I was attempting to extract my concession-stand pizza from its cardboard box, I heard the roar. I didn't even need to look up to know. A minute later he stripped off his sweatpants to reveal a black sleeve on his injured right leg. He was going in.

As the arena reached capacity, the announcer shouted this was "the hottest ticket on the planet," and the game did not disappoint. Jordan, who'd turned 40 a week before, looked like the 1990s model we all know. He played virtually the whole game and scored 25 in regulation. Yet the Rockets, who'd been down early, fought back to a tie. With 19 seconds left, Wizards' ball, Jordan got the last shot, a 19-footer at the buzzer. Could it be? Would our last-ever glimpse of him really be a game winner?

Um, no.

His shot was long. Which meant overtime--just as sweet. In the final five minutes, he scored another ten points, including only his eighth dunk of the season, to seal the win, and the place went nuts. I got my last glimpse of Jordan limping off the court, victorious.