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NBA in London: High production values, sellout crowds, and Mikhail Prokhorov of course

March 5, 2011

The Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets played the first of their London twinbill last night, capturing the imaginations of observers from both sides of the Atlantic to various degrees. In advance of game two (or game 62/63, depending on how you look at it), BallinEurope brings you some bullets’ worth of highlights, factoids and reportage on last night’s show.

• The numbers say that the Nets pulled out a 116-103 victory over Toronto who, in their years-long guise as the Euroraptors, were an obvious choice to play the NBA’s first regular-season game in Europe. Representing the Continent nicely were Team Italy’s Andrea Bargnani and Team Spain’s Jose Calderon; the former went for 23 points while the latter dished 12 assists to go with six points. DeMar DeRozan led all scorers with 30.

• The Nets’ Dan Gadzuric took a DNP for the game, which ESPN noted “was a shame given that his mother Dragoslava and sister Gloria had made the journey over the English Channel from their home in Den Haag in the hope of seeing him play.”

• But now to the YouTube highlights! Here’s a clip of some nice individual efforts, including lots of snazzy work by Brook Lopez on some wicked drives … and all of it overdubbed with the interesting choice of “Black Dream” by Prosperous.

• What would an NBA first be without photo opportunities and promo spot shooting? Best of the self-promotional lot was the bizarre above-posted collage-like get-together – brilliant on so many levels, truly – among Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, London mayor Boris Johnson and a quintet of ladies from the Znaniye-Kalinka Dance Group, a traditional Russian dance ensemble from Baltimore. (No, BiE has no clue why the Baltimore import…) BiE pinched the pic from Canada-based The Star, who ran the laugher along with the dubiously titled “Feschuk: NBA Euro expansion not so far-fetched after all.”

• “All Access” sorta lives up to the moniker by providing this clip to “Go behind the scenes as the Nets and Raptors prepare to make NBA history across the pond.” BiE feels compelled to note the “make NBA history” remark as a bit hyperbolic; yes, technically this is history, but ultimately won’t these games embedded deep into a fruitless season for these teams merely be an oddity of a footnote?

In the clip, Deron Williams comments not of British English but of his new team’s game plans that “It’s almost like you’re learning a new language.” And speaking of learning a new language, check out a tired-looking Avery Johnson giving interviews to seemingly half-comprehending British sports journalists. Avery probably should come with subtitles for U.K. distribution…

• Attending in order to perform a “delivering the ball” pre-game ceremony was soccer stud Didier Drogba of Chelsea; surely, Drogba’s thousand-euro tickets were covered by the league as part of the promotional deal that resulted in this spot preceding the late 2009 NBA exhibition games in England.

• In the short term, the NBA can add proceeds from two sellout crowds of 18,559 but while Commissioner Stern will most likely proclaim the games a brilliant success, the jury may still be a bit out on the impact of this game in future quixotic plans to shape an entire NBA division on The Continent. Al-Jazeera English TV held a fairly skeptical view of the proceedings.

• In contrast, British sportswriter Jonathan Symcox loved the “night of insanity at the O2.” Proclaiming that “America does everything bigger: cars, hot dogs, waistlines – and sports events,” Symcox enthusiastically describes the jolly good production values of an NBA game over those of Britain’s Premier League football matches; he was gobsmacked in particular by:

“The MC announces they are going to throw ‘free stuff’ into the crowd, and a whole army of people do just that: cheerleaders to music, the mascots with their customary frenzy and those random blokes again, brimming with attitude. The place goes wild, and all for a few sweatbands and T-shirts.

“I love my football, and I have spent hundreds of Saturday afternoons and Tuesday evenings at freezing lower-league grounds, but what would I rather watch? That, or the old bloke with the scruffy pink holdall chucking a few sweets into the crowd at Huddersfield?

“Well, maybe the football wins out – but there can be no doubt that the NBA does madness better than anyone else, and where everyone can see it, concentrated as everything is upon a relatively small court.”

Finally, Symcox lets us in on the secret highlight from the Raps-Nets “clash,” namely the bit about “the reportedly tipsy Raptors mascot falling over the barrier in the final seconds.” Please, for the love of this game, if anyone has video of this incident, post it to YouTube immediately and contact us. This BiE *has* to see…

Mar 5, 2011ballineurope
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This post was published on March 5, 2011
Euroleague Top 16, games six: Notes, natterings and Fearless Predictions™NBA in London, game two: DeRozan dominates, Sasha rules, Nets optimistic about future
Comments: 2
  1. Dre
    14 years ago

    NBA might want to play a few games in Greece, Serbia, France, Spain…places where the game is more watched. Give back to the fans a bit. All they want is to sell more kits.

    ReplyCancel
    • Andrea
      14 years ago

      They play nearly every pre-season in places like France, Spain, Italy etc. so what are you talking about exactly?

      As far as playing in England, it’s a logical choice since they’re trying to promote the game there before the 2012 London Olympics (seriously, it has been said millions of times why they’re playing there and people still don’t know it?) and the city of London itself asked for regular season games to be played there.

      But the NBA never said they won’t play regular season games outside London. Since the event was so successful, it’s obvious we’ll see more regular season games played in Europe again, also in countries like Spain, France, Italy etc. where basketball is much more popular than the U.K.

      ReplyCancel
Pingbacks: 3
  1. NBA: Raptors 103-116 Nets – Mirror.co.uk | The Basketball Site
    14 years ago
  2. BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site » Blog Archive » NBA in London, game two: DeRozan dominates, Sasha rules, Nets optimistic about future
    14 years ago
  3. The Morning After – March 7, 2011 edition « The Victory Formation
    14 years ago

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ballineurope
14 years ago 5 Comments More, NBA/NCAAAl Jazeera, Andrea Bargnani, Avery Johnson, Boris Johnson, Dan Gadzuric, David Stern, DeMar DeRozan, Deron Williams, Didier Drogba, England, Jonathan Symcox, Jose Calderon, Mikhail Prokhorov, NBA, New Jersey Nets, O2 Arena, Prosperous, Team Italy, Team Spain, Toronto Raptors, YouTube, Znaniye-Kalinka Dance Group
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