Banter: Live From Barcelona!

Banter's gone International; After a private meeting with David Stern, I managed to secure media credentials for the Olympic tune-ups in Spain and sent my best reporter on the first red-eye out to cover the action...

Jokes aside, my good friend and fellow hoop head Alex Livingston found himself in Barcelona by chance during these "friendlies", and has generously agreed to cover them for Banter, offering a rarely-seen live glimpse of top-notch International play...lest there be a need to mention the Dream Team-esque assembly of talent on the USA roster.

His first recap, from the USA/Argentina tilt a couple nights ago, offers an eclectic look at the international game from the perspective of a seasoned NBA fan seeing his first game abroad, but the real goods are yet to come: Alex has better seats for what's sure to be as intense an exhibition game as could exist; tonight's USA/Spain likely Gold Medal-preview in front of an (albeit sober) hyped Barcelona crowd. 

I'll have that recap up for you guys soon as I can, but for now, enjoy Part 1, and much thanks to Alex for taking the time to share this with us. Without further ado....

I'm in Barcelona for 2 weeks, playing poker, enjoying the beach, and exploring the city. As I was surfing Facebook late Saturday night, after a long day of poker, I stumbled across some pictures on my newsfeed of Team USA players arriving at the Barcelona airport. Having thought the team was in London with the Olympics set to get underway soon, I was confused but decided to explore further. Lucky I did; turns out team USA is in town for 2 warm-up exhibition games vs Argentina an Spain. Thirty minutes later I had a ticket to the game vs Argentina. 

I've been fortunate enough to attend my fair share of NBA games in my life - 17 games in 7 cities if my count is correct. I've seen several high profile games, including a LAC-MEM playoff game this year, and 1 NBA Finals game (ironically the worst game I've been to, LA-BOS game 6, 2010). Nonetheless, until last night I hadn't yet seen the great Kevin Durant play. Nor had I seen that other guy who's better than him. So needless to say, I was pretty pumped about the opportunity to see a team assembled of the best players in the world take on Manu Ginobli, Luis Scola, and a scattered assortment of Argentinians for the low cost of 35 euros.

I attended the game solo and arrived early, planning on having a couple of beers and getting situated in the arena. Upon arrival, I was horrified to discover that there is a nationwide law prohibiting the sale of alcohol at sporting events. For a country that allows drinking on the streets and bullfighting, I found this extremely baffling. Cursing Jermaine O'Neal and Ron Artest, I strolled towards my seats, in search of some entertainment. I immediately noticed that not only were many of the Spanish fans were donning jerseys, but a lot of the jerseys were of random NBA players not on team USA.

I eventually decided to see how many different jerseys I could identify scattered in the crowd. The most common jerseys were (in order) Kobe, Lebron, MJ, Gasol. Other jerseys I saw included: Durant, Melo, Rondo, Blake, Calderon, D-Rose, Kidd, Duncan, Ginobli, Dwight, Fernandez, Garnett, Pierce, Ray Allen, and Westbrook, Nowitzki, Monta, D-Wade, Jennings, Noah, and Anthony Davis. Easily the most obscure jersey I saw was a vintage NJ Nets Shawn Bradley.

When the USA players arrived on the court to warmup, the crowd went absolutely nuts. Each player (not just starters) was introduced by the announcer. Kobe drew by far the loudest ovation, but every team USA player and every Argentinian NBAer received a healthy applause. Argentinian non-NBAers received a faint golf clap. Both national anthems were played and it was time for tip-off.

Tyson Chandler won the tip and Kevin Durant scored the first basket of the game, an easy mid-range jumper. The US got off to a blazing start, and after 4 minutes of play, were up 19-3, with Durant and Kobe accounting for all of USA's points. Argentina was simply too slow and unathletic to stop the US, and too small and soft to generate any offense on the inside. 

It looked like Argentina was going to get pummelled the way the Shambala School did when it faced H.G.S. in the ACIS soccer tournament. However, Argentina called a timeout and regrouped. The most impressive player for either team in the first half: Luis Scola. Scola led an Argentinian charge for the rest of the half, getting to the rim, drawing fouls, fighting for rebounds, and inspiring a more concerted effort from his teammates. Meanwhile, the US seemed content to hang onto their big lead.

With about 3 minutes to go in the first half, Scola and Lebron (who had been quiet thus far) got into a confrontation that turned physical for a second. The two started shoving each other, and for a second it looked like it might escalate, but teammates quickly intervened. I was surprised to see something like that in an international exhibition game, but at least it showed the players were competing. Argentina somehow got 4 consecutive free throws and the ball after the scrap. I have no idea why this happened. I even checked the box score after the game and neither team was assigned any technical fouls.

By halftime, Argentina had cut the defect to 47-41. Still, it seemed inevitable that the game was out of reach. Lebron could take over the game at any point he so chose, but had instead been content to distribute and let Durant and Kobe do the scoring. By halftime, everyone except Unibrow, Beard, and White Guy had seen some action.

One thing I always hate about going to a sports game is taking a piss at halftime. I don't like crowds, and I don't like lines, and trying to take a piss normally involves a healthy dose of both. It took me three or four minutes to find signs for a bathroom, so I expected to see a massive line. Not only was there no line, but there wasn't a single person in the bathroom. I kid you not - it was completely empty. I'm not sure if this was a function of the no-beer law or if Spaniads just don't urinate, but in any event I was quite relieved (x2).

At the beginning of the second half, there was a slightly scary moment where Ginobli jumped up and grabbed Lebron around the neck in an effort to prevent a fastbreak. Lebron fell awkwardly but seemed to be ok. It looked like a minimum Flagrant 1, but the refs just called a regular foul. That incident seemed to motivate Lebron, and he was sensational from that point forward.

About a minute later, Lebron brought the crowd to the feet with a powerful one-hander off of a (thematic) Melo missed jumper. No more than fifteen seconds later, Kobe fed Lebron for an even more impressive oop, which was probably the highlight of the game. Somehow, the dunk wasn't shown on the replay screen, which was disappointing. Lebron's passing was perhaps the most impressive part of his game, as he completed several beautiful cross-court no-look passes, and one lob to Durant that rivalled his own dunk for the best play of the game. His court vision and awareness of his teammates was incredible all game. Scola had a poor third quarter, but Ginobli kept the Argentinians in the game, with some help from some people who's names I don't remember. 

As the US built a 15 point lead in the early fourth quarter, the US finally brought Kevin Love on the floor, after going small most of the game (at one point their lineup was Williams-Westbrook-Lebron-Anthony-Durant). Around this time Ginobli started going crazy, scoring 8 points in about 2 minutes with a layup, 3-pointer, followed by a typical acrobatic Ginobli 3-point play. Meanwhile, the US was continuing to impress with crisp passing, fastbreak opportunities, and all-around athleticism, but were failing to drain shots they'd normally make. 

For some reason they were settling for jumpers (Durant, to his credit, was draining them, Melo was not), when they could've scored on the inside on almost every possession. Tyson Chandler's not known as a highly skilled offensive player, but he had an undeniable size advantage on the Argentinian defensive bigs, and Lebron could've got to the hole on almost any possession. Ginobli's efforts coupled with the USA's bricks meant that with 2 minutes left, the lead was down to 4.

However, Durant and CP3 drained a couple quick 3s, and the game was out of reach. Durant was presented a well-deserved Player of the Game, having scored a very efficient 27 points. It definitely wasn't the most competitive basketball game I've been to, nor was the crowd the loudest or more intense. Nontheless, it was an awesome experience. Lebron was simply incredible when he wanted to be, and seeing him live makes you realize what an insane freak of nature he is physically.

Having the game played at a neutral site was also cool, because it meant that the fans were rooting for good basketball and individual plays, rather than just fostering a stubborn bias towards the home team. Bad calls were booed against either team, and good plays rewarded with applause sizes according to their merit. Always having been a fan of the game and specific players moreso than a fan of a particular team (I have about 5 teams I root for in the NBA), I couldn't ask for a better experience.


And the best news is, I scored a ticket to USA vs SPAIN tmrw!


Sounds like quite the time. Tune in for Part 2 tomorrow...