Sportsvibe's Guide to... NBA in the UK

Next month sees London’s O2 Arena play host to the New Jersey Nets and the Toronto Raptors in what will be the first non-exhibition NBA games to take place in Europe.

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Understandably, the Sportsvibe office is buzzing with excitement about seeing what the NBA has to offer. It is the place that can transfix 25 million viewers for 2 hours, the place that gave us Michael Jordan’s buzzer-beating championship-winning 20-footer in 1998; the place where amazing happens. Now it is on our doorstep.

Basketball might not traditionally be one of us Brits’ favourite pastimes, but the breath-taking skills and lightening pace of the players on show, combined with an electric atmosphere, have resulted in sell-out crowds flocking to the court whenever the NBA has put on exhibition games over here in recent years. If you’ve been lucky enough to bag yourself a ticket to one of March’s historic games, here’s what you need to know…

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Sell-Out Crowds�

Whenever the NBA travels abroad, a sell-out crowd is virtually guaranteed. Just last October, the Los Angeles Lakers took on the Minnesota Timberwolves at a full-to-capacity O2 last October, while the Association has also travelled to Milan, Paris and Barcelona in recent years. O2 tickets for the March 2011 games are set to sell out so be sure to snap yours up now if you want to witness the action.

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Competition

The Nets and the Raptors play in the Eastern Conference. And, in the lead up to their trip to the UK they’ll both be taking on some of the biggest teams; the three games prior to travelling see the Nets face NBA favourites Boston Celtics, the San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Rockets, while the Raptors will take on the Miami Heat, the Chicago Bulls and the Phoenix Suns. Unfortunately for them, neither team is currently doing too well - both are sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic Division of their Conference!

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Current form

Going by recent form, the Nets look the more likely to return home victorious; 55 games into the season they’ve won 17 and lost 38, while the Raptors are a little worse off, with 15 wins and 40 losses. However, the Nets are still reeling from their disastrous 2009/10 campaign in which they set the record for the worst NBA start ever; losing their first 18 games in a row, so it looks like we’re set for two nights of really open competition.

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NYC Names

The Nets actually started life as the New Jersey Americans. It wasn’t until they moved their home ground to New York that they decided to re-name themselves to rhyme with some of NYC’s other big-name sports teams; the New York Mets (baseball) and the New York Jets (American football).

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Star Players

NBA All-Star Devin Harris cannot be ignored; the influential point-guard switched to the Nets from the Dallas Mavericks in 2008. The “fastest man with a basketball” – clocked at 3.9 seconds to cover the length of the court – may not be at the Nets for too long, so catch him whilst you can!
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We managed to catch up with Devin; check out Sportsvibe’s exclusive interview with the man himself here.

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Be sure to keep an eye out for the two star centres; Brook Lopez (in the #11 Nets Jersey) and Andrea Bargnani (in the #7 Raptors jersey). Both are the top average point scorers for their teams and are likely to boost their total points tally whilst in the UK.

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Famous Faces

You can expect a fair few famous faces at the games. Lewis Hamilton, David Hayes and Didier Drogba are a few of the UK-based stars who’ve got their hands on sports tickets for previous games, though the Nets could bring a few well known supporters from across the pond; their forward Kris Humphries is dating US socialite Kim Kardashian, their Slovenian guard Sasha Vujacic is engaged to tennis star Maria Sharapova and the club is part owned by rap legend Jay Z.

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Olympic Dreams

The two games are actually taking place over here because of a promise made by the NBA, to hold at least one regular-season game in the UK before the 2012 Olympics. The London Olympics basketball games will played at the O2 too and it’s pretty likely that the USA team will strike gold- they overwhelmingly top the all-time Olympic basketball table, with 12 gold medals up to 2008. The Soviet Union comes in second, having won two golds.

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Information compiled by GetMeIn.com, the leading marketplace for fans to buy and sell tickets.

Image credits: Flickr (Keith Allison and RPTip21)

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