NBA returns with glamour, glitz and a glaring problem

The breathless action on court was accompanied by constant pageantry, politics in the form of anti-Trump shouts... and plenty of empty seats

- Alex Pattle

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