A Taste of Boston

Last night the Boston Celtics played the Minnesota Timberwolves at The O2 in London. I knew about the game for some time but with my schedule I never know if I'm going to be around, on Monday when I finally confirmed that I would be free on Wednesday night I bought a ticket. I know at The Garden additional tickets were always released a couple of days prior to the event and luckily that was the case here as well. I was able to get excellent seats even though a month ago they were saying the event was sold out. You can see the view from my seats in the shot below.

Prior to the game I decided to have a beer at the bar in the O2 as there was about 45 minutes until tip off. In addition to the standard beers they always serve on this special occassion they had Sam Adams! Unfortunately the Sam wasn't served inside the arena but I did enjoy one before the game.

While there were a lot of people in Celtics jerseys (or kit as they say here) there was representation from some other teams as well. Jerseys I saw included Nets, Knicks, Heat, & Pistons. Not to mention the few people that wore NFL jerseys - I guess they didn't have any other kit to wear. I myself proudly supported a Celtics t-shirt from the 2002 playoff game in Boston. As I was leaving a guy stopped me to ask if I was at that game - what was odd is that as I was leaving I had put a sweatshirt on. He must have seen me earlier in the game.

I found it entertaining that some people were more interested in the local sports celebrities that were at the game than the NBA players. On a similar note I picked up The Metro on my way to work today as I do every morning and was quite surprised that there was nothing in the sports section on the game. They had coverage the day before but nothing afterwards.

Celebrities in attendance included Chelsea footballer Didier Drogba and Formula 1 driver, Lewis Hamilton. In the picture above of the court Lewis is the third guy from the rightTowards the end of the game I witnessed some interesting interactions between the security staff at the arena, a group of women and a guy with the Lewis Hamilton party. I will tell you what I saw and let you draw your own conclusions. The security staff and the representative went over to the women helped them out of their seats and then they left the arena. A few minutes later the rep went over to Lewis whispered in his ear and they both left.



With all the hype about Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joining the Celtics I was expecting a blow out game through most of the first half it was way too close and at some points the Timberwolves even had the leave. By the end of the first half they had about a 15 point lead. In the end they won and that is all that matters.