Basket Ball

Growing up in the US, since early adolescence I have followed the NBA with unflagging enthusiasm. While I have seen many live NBA games, my exposure to European basketball was limited to the first couple Dream Teams’ domination tours, old, blurry footage of legends like Petrovic, Kukoc, and Sabonis, and, more recently, and watching with jaw dropped as the once mighty Americans fell to foreign powers in the last three major international competitions.However I had yet to experience the real thing, live, with those famously fanatical European basketball fans et al…. And so when I heard that an NBA team would be playing a Turkish team in Turkey for the first time this fall, I realized that this was an opportunity I could not pass up. I bought a ticket for my father (who is Turkish) and I and we arrived at Abdi Ipekçi, the home arena of Efes Pilsen, ready for my first taste of live Turkish (and European) basketball.