NBA Live Europe Road Trip - Day 2

While in Paris I thought I’d take advantage of the good weather and had breakfast outside a café. For October it felt like a spring morning, pretty cool. After taking in the early morning sights and some much needed fresh air, I met the others to head down to Paris Bercy for the game.

It was quite incredible, the interest in basketball. If this event were held in England you would not even come close to selling out your tickets. However a four hour drive from London it is a different story; as the match was sold out!

An hour before tip Bercy was buzzing, there were a number of French celebrities in the house, I recognized none of them, I figured the amount of flashes that went off meant that these folks standing next to me were quite well known. There was a big cheer at one point, as I turned my head, I did this time, know who the cheer was for – former French basketball legend Richard Dacoury, a bad boy from Limoges’ glory days.

I think the biggest cheer of all was saved for Eva Longoria (Mrs Solice). She did look quite stunning. She is a class act, not because she looked flawless, but she blanked me for an interview by giving me a smile and a wink and being very apologetic!!! As for her partner, all I can say is “He’s a chain!!” (If you don’t know what I mean, ask someone).

The game turned out to be a bit of a bust, as the starting five from San An’ drilled Maccabi Tel Aviv early. Popovich ran his bench which allowed the game to appear on the scoreboard, as a competitive encounter. Which it was not! Former standout guard from Georgia Tech, Will Bynum, was made to look very average. He was determined to drive the lane against the trees, but found that the new Spalding didn’t agree with his skills – consistently getting his shot batted into the cheap seats.

At the conclusion of the game it was the usual mad scrum for interviews, Ahmad Rashad, Iceman Gervin and anyone else that was willing to talk. I had noticed Thierry Henry on courtside, flanked by security and the NBA bigwigs who were trying to usher the football ace away. I was surprised to see him there after the drubbing they took from Scotland the night before. He must have been in a very good mood, he came up to me, Yes, I said it!! He came up to me and said “I’m a fan of your show, I watch it all the time”. In my mind I’m like, “Are you kiddin’ me?” Now I’m very chuffed as one of the worlds greatest sportsman is a fan of mine. As my boy Simon Ho would say, “Ya havin’ a larf!”

Night time in Paris was off the chain – after dinner we decided to crash TP9’s private party! Both teams were in da club getting their groove on. Even Tim Duncan let his hair down and was spotted jamming to ‘Ridin’ Dirty’. At this point I text my boy Rog Ho and asked the question “What jam can’t we get into?”

3am…… “TAXI!”

Tomorrow begins our five hour trek to Cologne, Germany. I’ll be catching up on some Z’s in the back with I-pod and noise excluders. I’ll hit you on Tuesday.