More NBA Lockout stuff

My main beef with the NBA lockout is the promotion of the sport, or lack of it.

Last year, the NBA agreed to play 2 regular season games outside of North America, the first time this had ever happened. I was lucky enough to get tickets to the 2nd game, in which New Jersey Nets beat Toronto Raptors 137-136 in a triple-overtime thriller. The game happened at the O2 Arena in front of a full house.

These 2 games were a fantastic advert for the sport, and it attracted people from far and wide. It got many people interested in the game and the whole thing was a real success.

Sure the NBA gains publicity from the lockout, but nowhere near as much as it did from these 2 games. If the lockout isn't resolved quickly enough to save some of the season, many people who started following the sport would stop following it. They would quickly lose interest and give up on 'American Sports' as a whole. The only way to maintain this interest is to resolve the lockout, and hopefully schedule another couple of games in England.

There are 2 Team USA warm-up games being played in England next July, one involving the male team and one involving the female team, but people won't know about these games and won't watch them if there has been no season. Also there is a pre-season game being held in Manchester in 2013, but that is 2 years away nearly.

The sport is obviously huge in countries like Spain, Turkey and Lithuania, but it can become big in the UK IF the lockout ends. More and more people are getting interested in the sport, and it can gain the same interest levels in the UK as such sports as Rugby and Tennis.

Just let them play #StandUnited