From London to Madrid
MADRID ‘ — Made it from London to Madrid, which actually is a less costly venture than the taxi ride from the remote Canary Wharf-area hotel that the Jazz stayed at in London to Gatwick airport there.
In other words, if you ever plan on traveling to London for pleasure, and you have a couple pieces of luggage that you’re toting, you might want to consider tapping into that already drained 401K fund so you have enough cab fare to get out of the city.
Either that, or forget about sending junior to college. Anyway, a few lingering items from the Jazz’s London stop, ‘a one-point preseason loss Tuesday to the Chicago Bulls ‘ before moving on to
the next, Thursday’s exhibition game against Spanish power Real Madrid:
ITEM: The 02 Arena, which will host basketball at the 2012 Summer Olympics, would be the NBA’s coolest venue if it were located in North America.
The place has 25 restaurants and pubs under the same tent as the main area, two, count ‘em Starbucks, 11 movie screens, a 2,500-seat theater, an exhibition hall currently featuring a British music experience and the most polite security folks in NBA history.
It was built by the same folks who did the Staples Center in Los
Angeles, by the way, but the L.A. digs simply don’t come close to living up.
ITEM: Harrods is the most awesome department store anywhere. It kind of makes Macys look like a Dollar Tree. Saw at least four watches costing about $200,000 or so ‘ and they were just being sold as simple ol’ watches.
Coolest things there might have been the $10,000-plus fossils for sale. They’re actually from Wyoming originally, and imported by a Utah company based in Logan. Go figure.
The feet, by the way, are still saying thanks for a pair of socks bought there that cost about 16 bucks ‘ and was worth every last pound.
ITEM: Even Jazz coach Jerry Sloan soaked in a bit of a London,
visiting a Winston Churchill museum. But several Jazz players stayed in their rooms for the practically the whole trip and passed the time playing cards. Spades, apparently. Their loss. And too bad somebody from the organization didn’t force them to go see Big Ben or some other iconic landmark, or at least encourage them to venture beyond a 200-yard radius from the hotel. Just about everyone from the franchise brought their wives along, after all, so it wasn’t like this was being treated strictly as a business trip.
ITEM: The operations manager (rough equivalent of a GM) of the local Watford football club, Iain Moody, happens to be a big Jazz fan. He attended the game, but sadly didn’t get a chance to meet as hoped.
ITEM: Enjoyed tasting a sweet, corn-based snack called Ghost Pops ‘imported from South Africa, and billed to offer a pleasant surprise every time you pop one in your mouth. Much prefer a big bag of Doritos, though.
And on to Madrid
What a cool city ‘ ranking, so far, right up there with previous
personal visits to Rome, Paris, Amsterdam and highly underrated Brussels.
Cab ride from the airport, first of all, wasn’t a ripoff. How
refreshing. The arena here, Palacio de Deportes, is a classic European set-up.
Shaped like a box, and even the highest seats seem to be looking straight down onto the floor. No barbed-wire fence separating the lower deck from the rowdies in the upper deck like when the Jazz played a preseason game in Mexico City a few years back, though. Awesome venue, it seems. Those who
know expect the crowd to be even more into the game than the fans in London were, and they really got into it.
Andrei Kirilenko seemed to have goosebumps just thinking about when he led Russia to FIBA’s Eurobasket title at the same arena in 2007, making it apparent why Euro players care so much about international play.
Met the Madrid-based guy who does HoopsHype.com, by the way. It’s one of the best NBA Web sites on the Internet, and its daily rumors section is a go-to for most everyone around the league, including not just fans and beats writers, but also players, scouts and even many general managers.
And finally
If Wesley Matthews plays anything Thursday here in Madrid like he did Tuesday in London, and continues the same throughout the preseason, the undrafted rookie swingman from Marquette might just make the Jazz roster.
Too bad his name doesn’t sound nearly as cool in Spain as it did in Great Britain.