I can't remember if I have ever seen any "Off Topic" forum threads in this section of the forums, so I am going to start this one.

Does anyone in the UK, or EU, (or anywhere else in the world you are from) watch the NBA (National Basketball Association) basketball playoff's during this time of year?

Are many of the games televised in your country?

I am a bigger fan of basketball than I am of ....... well at least as big a fan of basketball as I am of computers. The first round of playoff games are going on right now and I am lucky enough to have DirectTV sattelite television service, which shows all of the playoff games without having to pay for a premium service. 3 games today and another 4 tomorrow. At 2.5 hours each, that will eat a large part of my weekend, but I love watching (specially now that I can no longer play the game myself).

I was just wondering how popular basketball is in some of the other countries around the world and if any of you computer geeks (I use this term fondly) are also interested in basketball, or other sports (besides Soccer/Futbol, that all countries except the USA seem to be fanatic about).

Saw some BBall on an obscure sports-channel while zapping last night.

Might have been live from USA, might have been some years old replay of a german match. Just impossible to tell after watching 5 secs or so.


Do I still need the question wether I care ?

>soccer/futbol....
also known as football
good stuff, can't wait for the second round.

@Kronos,

I was not expecting replies from members who don't care about sports, or basketball in particular. Most members here are probably younger than I am, so I would think that many of them are still active physically in one way or another and some of them might be interested in some kind of sport. I am almost 55 now and if it were not for my bad back, I would still be playing basketball with my 2 Sons and a few friends, as well as baseball, softball, tennis, bowling, running, hiking, water & snow skiing. In fact, I still have hopes of getting my back fixed, so I can get back to doing some of those things that I have enjoyed doing for all of my life, although at a slower & gentler pace.

I was just wondering (since there are now so many international NBA players from all over the world) how much interest in NBA basketball there is in other countries, and specifically from any members here, if any. Apparently there is NO interest in NBA basketball from any members here that don't live in the USA, which I am a little surprised by. I thought there would be at least a few of you younger guys (and gals) that might be interested in professional basketball, as it is a fast and exciting sport to watch and the athletes are some of the best in the world. Back when they used to run the television contest (can't remember it's name) of several different athletic competitions to determine the best athlete in the world and would invite the top athletes from all the different sports, it was usually the Soccer and Basketball players that did the best, as they were in the best condition and had the best all around skills of speed, strength, coordination and determination. I wish they would do that show again, it was fun to watch top athletes from all different sports doing events that they were not used to, like the obstacle course, weight lifting, kayaking, etc. It was not too serious, but some of the athletes took it seriously and really worked hard to try to win.

Early 80s. I used to stay in front of tv till late night to see the NBA basketball news. Letting you imagine my father's joy...
I was a really big NBA fan and I used to have a really big fun playing basket. Two of my favourite players were Larry Bird and
Magic Johnson and I still have my nr 32 L.A. Lakers jersey (I bought shorts and socks too) and nr 33 Boston Celtics.
I remember I payed them a lot and this not allowed me to buy the uniform of the best all time NBA player: Julius Erving,
best known as Doctor J, nr 5 of Philadelphia 76ers.That wasn't basket: that was art.
I let you imagine wich game on Commodore 64 I wa splaying that time.......
90% of our truancies became basket games and my last epic play was a two-on-two we lost for 1 point (30-29).
The school was at the end and my school career too. Something was changing and I was growing: time was becoming
terribly fast..... =)
Since I was really fascinated by basket I satisfied my pleasure and played alot. I've even played at american football for 1 year
(1981 if I remember correctly) in the under 20 selection (but I've never played an official game) in the Gladiatori team as offensive guard/offensive tackle.
I followed those sports till I was 20/21. Then I started with other interests and I lost the rest of story, though I followed for a while a fresh player in
his carrer start. His name was/is Michael Jordan...
I would like to organize a old-glories basket game with my ancient school mates of that time.... And I guess it should be really
interesting to see what could happen.... ah ah ah!!
We are all 45 now and not that smart we were!

I remember trying to rename all the teams in tv sports basketball to the then current NBA rosters (except cinamaware)... those were the days. We had a league, and everyone had a Jordan in their line up. This is why I want to program...create a realistic game with similar game play for the fans of this system. Someone beat me to it please

Thanks for the story Jambalah. I enjoyed reading it and imagining you skipping school to go play basketball with your friends. I "cut" school to go snow skiing, as I lived on the top of a mountain where it snowed and had 3 local ski resorts. The schools were not watched that well when I was attending and it was easy to leave campus without getting caught. Often, I would go to 2 or 3 classes and meet up with friends and we would all decide to skip the rest of our classes and go skiing for the rest of the day.

Of course the ticket prices for local kids were much cheaper back then than they are now, so it was much easier and practical to do it then, than it is today. My friend gave me some old wooden snow skis with a pair of leather lace up ski boots that I used for two years before buying some modern equipment. The first time my friends took me to the ski resort to teach me how to snow ski they took me to the very top of the slopes on the chair lift. I lost count of how many times I fell on the way down the first time, but I stuck with it and had to learn fast, as my friends would not wait for me. After 3 days they had me going down some of the steepest slopes at the resort. I thought they were trying to kill me!

It took me a few years to "un-learn" all the bad habits and incorrect form I learned during those first few weeks of snow skiing, but I eventually became fairly good at it. The prices of lift tickets to go snow skiing now made me lose interest in snow skiing, although I still do it occasionally (well, I did do it while my back was not too bad to prevent me from doing it).

I played Basketball much longer, until I could not do it at all due to my back pain. I even had my own team at the Church I attended for a while. They had a church league of 6 or 8 teams and an indoor basketball court that was also used for many other kinds of church functions and children's daycare. Those years were the most fun, when I got the chance to play on that league with my oldest Son, who was 17 at the time. He had grown taller than me by then and was about 6 feet 3 inches tall. He is a little taller than that now and I have shrunk to just a little less than 6 feet, 1 inch tall.

Those were the "good-old-days", plus the couple of years when my Amiga hobby was brand new and there were still a few local Amiga User Groups still active close enough to where I lived to attend some of the meetings.