The NBA’s return to London brings glitz, glamour and one glaring problem

As I walked under a temporary seating stand in the O2 Arena, in the spot where the stage would be on concert nights, I encountered a 7ft tall, furry green dragon, a trio of entertainers towering above me on stilts, and a gaggle of children and adults practising a dance routine. The circus was not in town, but the NBA was.

I’ll preface everything that is to come in this article with a disclaimer: for the best part of two decades, I’ve had a difficult relationship with basketball. At school, I was a keen fan and actually a fairly handy player, but over time, I became somewhat jaded by the realisation that being vertically compromised was an insurmountable barrier to a professional career on the court.

I still admired the freak athleticism and minutia of the techniques, but as someone destined not to surpass 5ft 7in, I came to neglect basketball and gained a greater appreciation for the likes of Lionel Messi and Manny Pacquiao, and how they could produce humanity-defying feats despite their diminutive statures.

But as I realised on Sunday evening, my love of basketball had not dissipated for good; it was only dormant and, under the domed tent of the O2, it was jolted awake by the familiar, frantic squeak of sneakers, the subtle “bwoyng” of the ball against wooden planks, and the satisfying swish of a dark-orange orb slipping through a white, lattice net.

For that, I have the Memphis Grizzlies to thank, and a sprinkling of Orlando Magic. As the NBA staples played a rare regular-season match across the pond from the United States, memories stirred: afternoons spent watching Space Jam; the NBA 07 video-game loading screen (and career modes with the Houston Rockets and Tracy McGrady); almost drowning in my school basketball kit; a birthday gift of London Lions tickets; and a 2007 trip to the O2 to see the Boston Celtics beat the Minnesota Timberwolves in an exhibition.

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Yet the buzz from Sunday’s match came not just from a personal reawakening, but from a shared appreciation of the occasion – an appreciation emanating from the avid faithful who filled the O2 Arena to see the Grizzlies win comfortably, 126-109. In terms of support in the stands, it was a case of quality over quantity, but more on that shortly.

Men, women, boys and girls – though mainly males in their twenties and thirties – populated the Greenwich venue in Americanised attire, from leather jackets over hoodies to varsity jackets and caps. There was even a mullet/mohawk combination, although I don’t think that can be traced to any legitimate sporting or geographical source of fashion. Arsenal star Declan Rice was present courtside, as were Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk and football legend Thierry Henry. English actress Rosamund Pike was also among other famous faces. It should be stressed that none of them were responsible for the mohawk mullet.

Anyway, the fixture came three days after the Magic’s comeback win over the Grizzlies in Berlin, the first regular-season game that Germany had ever seen and a convenient outing for rising Magic talent Franz Wagner. Meanwhile, Sunday’s match was the first regular-season game in the UK since 2019.

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In general, the NBA is trying to boost its fandom and presence outside the US, so it must be acknowledged that the O2 looked about 70 per cent full on Sunday, despite being touted as a sellout. Many fans took to social media to make this observation and complain about ticket prices, while it does feel that promotion for the event was lacking – especially when compared to the resounding success of October’s Sumo at the Royal Albert Hall, which captured the general public’s imagination in the days before the wrestling itself.

Yet the NBA’s overseas endeavour does make sense. This season has already been a record breaker in terms of international talent, with the opening-weekend rosters including 135 non-US players from 43 countries and six continents. That is almost 25 per cent of the overall NBA player population.

Still, the very American essence of the league was not diluted by the week’s excursion to Europe. The aforementioned fuzzy dragon – the Magic’s mascot, Stuff – descended from the rafters before tip-off. Timeouts and breaks between quarters were filled with dance routines, lay-up competitions, trampoline flips and slam dunks, and prizes being parachuted from the ceiling. There was a half-time concert from the pop group Flo, and, of course, there were pre-match renditions of the US and UK national anthems.

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“The Star-Spangled Banner” was first pierced by a scream of “F*** ICE!!!” from one fan, lambasting Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies, before another urged the US president to “Leave Greenland alone!”, prompting cheers throughout the stands.

It’s possible that this level of politics and pageantry may feel foreign to European sports fans. In truth, the pageantry itself is another element of which I’ve long been somewhat dismissive, along with the frequent breaks in sports like basketball and American football. It all feels geared to shorter attention spans, ones evidenced (or created) by more frequent ad breaks on US television compared to in other countries. Then again, almost all of our attention spans are shot to bits nowadays.

Still, the flimsy lines between sport and entertainment continue to thin around the world, with Fifa and Uefa introducing half-time shows and inflating their pre-match ceremonies for the biggest football matches.

But the (arguably excessive) price of admission on Sunday was always going to be built on the breathless action on court, and the incessant, immense pace of basketball has always been one of the sport’s most alluring assets.

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Those fans present at the O2 were generous with their enthusiasm, no doubt relieved to be experiencing the action up close and in real time – not bleary-eyed in the middle of the night, or in the form of brief highlights packages the morning after. Each floated jump shot, brutal dunk, behind-the-back pass, and scintillating buzzer beater was greeted with glee.

The Grizzlies’ point guard and star player Ja Morant dropped 24 points and 13 assists, and the franchise, currently struggling in the Western Conference, will hope it can build from here. Meanwhile, the Magic retain a solid spot in the Eastern Conference, despite this defeat.

So, passion and entertainment were high on Sunday, but the concern is that attendance was low. And if you’ll grant me a final observation, the media desks were oddly low, too. It was tricky enough for me, but an NBA player would’ve been stumped. Sure, I couldn’t do their job, but there’s some satisfaction in knowing that – on this night, at least – they couldn’t do mine.