Daniel theis takes the return flight from london to boston with full satisfaction. "It was just a great experience," said the german basketball pro of the boston celtics after the nba london game.
In front of 19,087 spectators in the sold-out o2 arena, theis and his team had come back from a 22-point deficit to win 113-104 against the philadelphia 76ers. The seventh win in a row for boston was loudly celebrated by the spectators in london – with choruses, singing and stormy applause.
"In any case, there were predominantly celtics fans in the hall," theis also noted. "There was a lot of grun, the atmosphere was really good. It was worth it for us."Despite his exertions on the playing field, the 25-year-old was aware of what was going on in the hall. "Sure, i have to enjoy it," stressed theis, who still had to play with a mask on after breaking his nose. Other NBA professionals also expressed their enthusiasm. "I’ll remember this for the rest of my life," enthused theis’ teammate kyrie irving, who was hailed with calls of MVP (most valuable player) during free throws.
Again and again, loud hip-hop music blasted from the loudspeakers, cheerleaders danced on the court and in the audience numerous soccer stars watched the spectacle, including the german national players ilkay gundogan, shkodran mustafi and julian draxler, who had come from paris and is rumored to be courted by the london club FC arsenal. Even france striker antoine griezmann didn’t want to miss the sporting event. After the game, fubball players took selfies with basketball pros.
In the fubball stronghold of london, basketball enthusiasm is traceable coarse. In addition, many fans had traveled from all over europe for the game. According to the NBA, the game was sold out in less than an hour. "The fact that it took so long is only because of the technical conditions," NBA commissioner adam silver joked, "because people still have to enter all their credit card details."According to silver, the hall could have been filled twice.
Nevertheless, more games could be played in europe in the future. Silver would also like to see another nba game in berlin, but so far he has "no schedule for it", he said. The former BBL-professional theis will be happy about it. "That was already for me, of course." the strains of the long journey had not had a negative effect. On the contrary. "We were already rested," explained theis, who had to play with the celtics every two to three days during the first half of the season. "For us it was something new that we didn’t have a game for five days. We were able to train and also put our feet up for a while."
On the plane home, theis will try to stay awake "so that I can go to bed early in the evening and get used to american time again. The next game is on tuesday against the new orleans pelicans. Then the celtics aim at the eighth victory in series. "If the training days do us so well again, the winning streak can naturally grow," theis said.
And the salzgitter resident has one more hope. "I hope i can take the weather from london with me," laughs daniel theis. "It’s really very cold here. And it was times already to run around now a few days without jacket."10 degrees expected in boston on saturday.