Three overtimes in London

Last weekend, I found the excuse of an NBA game of the regular season (New Jersey Nets against Toronto Raptors, not the two most exciting teams in the world, but...) to visit London again. I also found an extremely nice price for the hotel in Canary Wharf, which is quite close to O2, where the game was played. I had never been in Canary Wharf and I must admit I like the area a lot (not my favourite in London, but definitively in the Top5), although sometimes I find it a bit artificial, almost like a man-made Venice.Our ticket for the O2 sent us to the second highest row in the arena. Nevertheless, the game could be followed without big problems (see picture above). For the same price of the ticket, we enjoyed three overtimes, which is something good, although during the third overtime I just wanted the game to be over, no matter which team was winning (I was supporting Toronto Raptors because of the Spaniard, José Manuel Calderón, there). The poor strategy displayed by Toronto Raptors in the final seconds also frustrated me.

Generally speaking, I did enjoy the game a lot: there was uncertainty in the result until the last second and there was not a single minute of break in the four hours we stayed there. On the other side, that was NBA basketball, what means that defences, team spirit and strategy do not play a big role there. The video below shows one of the few elaborated games there: with six seconds left and three points behind, New Jersey Nets made this wonder to go to the third overtime (or the second, I do not remember it exactly).



Most of the people in O2 really enjoyed the evening without thinking too much about strategy or defensive plays. I think NBA cannot succeed in countries with a strong culture in basketball (such as Spain or Italy), but it can work out perfectly well in countries, like the UK or Germany, where basketball is not so deeply rooted in the public.

Beyond that, I enjoyed London a lot, as usual and despite its stupidly high prices for everything. This time I had time to visit Tower of London, London Bridge, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus,... All was perfect except the underground train to Heathrow Airport, which was moving too much and turned my stomach into a washing machine (with some pain the night after).