The NBA is Decades Away from a Franchise in the UK

By Craig Kwasniewski 

I just got back from a two week vacation in England and let me tell you (without question, no doubt about it, and all the other sportstalk radio cliches... this is what happens when you don't write for like months, you end up sounding like some clunky ex-football lineman... but alas...)  

Two weeks in the UK with the rain, cold, warm beer, clotted cream (awesome on biscuits, but don't confuse it with ice cream... seriously), bangers & mash, bubble & squeak, driving on the wrong side of the road, rugby, footie... 

and no NBA. 

None whatsoever, not a tee shirt, nothing in the sports shoppes, nothing on ESPN (which in the UK stands for Every Single Possible Night covering hockey) and not a mention anywhere.  Well none except the 1-inch listing of the previous days scores in the middle of the newspapers and the occasional scroll along the bottom of Sky Sports News at like 3 AM, but that's it.

Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that the Bulls and Jazz played a preseason game in London?  Wasn't it just a few years ago that David Stern envisioned an All-Star game in Paris?  Didn't he follow up with ideas of franchises in London, Paris and Spain?  I'm just not seeing the type of international exposure the we are led to believe.  Shouldn't there be a little hype or at least a spill-over effect from the preseason games just weeks ago?  

So when I hear David Stern talking about having a possible franchise in London in the near future I just don't see it.  England is a soccer, rugby, cricket and bar sports (darts, snooker, drinking... a lot of drinking!) country first before any American sports.  And while I do see the NFL, MLB and even the NHL occasionally on the telly, I have yet to catch any NBA action.  Trust me, I would love to have a chance to follow the The Association when I'm on vacation in Europe, even catch a game live, but I think we're years even decades away from that happening.

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[Garf]

Admittedly, the Brits are just weird. But the rest of western Europe doesn't give a s#%t about hockey or football, but we adore basketball. Make a franchise in Paris or Spain, and you'll get the best NBA attendance ever!