#13062

KG and his Celtics vs the T-Wolves

Took the opportunity to head out to London's O2 Dome after work tonight to see if I could pick up tickets from scalper for the NBA Europe pre-season match between the Celtics and the T-Wolves. Anti scalping police were out in force and after an hour of searching there were no scalpers to be found (the closet I came was when I asked one of the anti scalping police if they had any re-sale tickets available and he told me he could get me a ticket for £90 from a brother of his friend - probably 3 times face value). When all hope was lost and I was leaving for the train with my tail between my legs this guy comes up to me and my mate offering us tickets for £10 LESS than face value as his mates have pulled out. Score.

Long before we made it to our seats both our noses were bleeding profusely, but for £20 neither of us were complaining. In the first quarter I was treated to a Ricky Davis bonanza, he nailed 16 effortless points and looked on track for 50, but pre season being what it is he didn't see a lot of time for the rest of the match and produced no further magic.

It was interesting to see how Boston's big 3 functioned together. Paul Pierce was a non factor producing 8 points on just 1 made field goal in his 28 minutes. KG was solid but still very quiet by his standard with just 9 points, while Ray Allen lit it up to the tune of 28 points at greater than a point a minute. Maybe it was the high angle of my seats, but the Celtics seemed to lack ahtleticism, and while Ray can still light things up he's certainly not the jack in the box he was circa 2000.

Was great seeing Eddie Instant Offence House in the flesh, he only took 3 field goals but you could see he was ALWAYS looking to score, he dropped a couple of very nice dimes in his few brief minutes too. Would love to see this guy in the NBL score 40 every game.

In terms of an overall spectacle the whole event was incredible. Every time out or quarter time there was something fresh, from kids having shoot outs, to dudes on trampolines getting it done from the foul line, to regulation cheerleaders (was too far away to make an informed comment on their calibre). At one time out they decided to bring a few former NBA players out on the court to parade them round, just a few role players from the olden days, BJ Armstrong, Rick Barry and Bill Russell!!

Had a bit of a Lakers home game feel to it actually, loads of celebs in the crowd, Didier Drogba courtside, as was Lewis Hamilton, a few other British actors and what not as well.

I guess the main thing I took out of the night was the NBA sure knows how to put a good product out there, sure, the quality of the hoops was good, but the overall package and experience you get from the night is like nothing the NBL has to offer.

So, there it is, the longest post I've ever made.

PS - If you think the catering is bad at the dome try waiting 25 minutes to pay AU$25 for a beer, pasty and chips.