Through the world of basketball

Through the world of basketball

[by Tobias Seitz] - I went from Athens, Greece to Rome, Italy and now I will get the chance to go to  the NBA Finals.
I am really new to this - traveling through the world to write about basketball events. Actually I really started with the Euroleague Final Four in Athens. It was more of a "Let's see how it goes" thing. It turned out to be such an interesting event and the best start I could have. I saw exciting games, got to see Athens and of course met some very nice and interesting people. I have been hearing people saying "Well basketball will never have the status of soccer here in Europe and nobody really wants to invest in this sport". On my very first day in Athens I learned how wrong those people are. The receptionist of my hotel was like:" You have tickets for Euroleague Final? I pay you 500 Euro!" Well I did not have tickets besides my own media pass so I did not make 500 Euros but it just showed how much they love the sport. Of course it could have been a basketball enthusiast but I must have met about 20,000 of them as I was sitting in the OAKA Arena in Athens. Just in case you have not seen it: hoopnation.de has the video.

Now Athens was over and I was heading to Rome, Italy. First of all it is really cool to be in two historic cities like Rome and Athens within two weeks and I must say that "Roma" is one of the best cities I have ever been to. In case you do not speak Italian and you want a picture of yourself or with your wife/girlfriend just ask in English - 9 out of 10 people will be Americans anyway. But where is the relation to basketball in Rome? Well, we will have to wait until October 6th and 7th when the Toronto Raptors will bring the Italian #1 Draft Pick Andrea Bargnani to play against the Boston Celtics and local team Lottomatica Roma for the NBA EUROPE LIVE 2007. A little more about that later on.

As any person that comes to Rome I also went to see the Vatican area and got to see the Pope. Now you have to know that I was born in Bavaria, Germany where Pope Benedict XVI is from. I am not really that religious but to see this man that close was really a moving moment. Even Michael Jordan was not able to leave this kind of impression.

Right now I am following the NBA Conference Finals not only because I love basketball - I am trying to find out where my next stop will be. I will be blogging LIVE and with pictures from Game 3 of the NBA Finals 2007. But who will I get to see? San Antonio-Detroit Pistons? Or will I have to go to Utah for game 3?

At first I was like "Hey I hope I will get to see LeBron James in the NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz". I guess you have heard about the crazy crowd in Utah - I do not have to tell you that everybody wants to see LeBron. But why is that? Why do just a few people want to see the Spurs battling the Pistons? I have read some interesting thoughts from Henry Abbott about how hard every team works to get to the Finals. They do not have to work that hard. It is more about pride and desire. I must say Henry is right saying that we have to show some respect to those guys.

So I will be fine with any match up. Hey, I will get to see a NBA Final game, LIVE! Live practice, pregame press conference, the game itself, press conference after the game, a crazy crowd ... and so on. Wow.

But why do I tell YOU about this? Well, I will try to bring those feelings, emotions and experiences right onto your computer.

What a summer for basketball fans.