NBA sticking by capital as Manchester muscles in on action

NBA chiefs have vowed not to turn their backs on London despite agreeing to stage pre-season games in Manchester after the Olympics Games.

London's O2 Arena hosts Europe's first-ever regular season games tomorrow and Saturday when the New Jersey Nets take on the Toronto Raptors on successive sell-out evenings.

The venue has staged annual pre‑season games since 2007, however, the NBA this week announced a series of fixtures at Manchester's MEN Arena, including and Olympic warm-up for defending gold medallists Team USA and a pre-season fixture in 2013.

NBA Europe's senior vice president Sophie Goldschmidt said the games in Manchester would be in addition to their plans to continue to bring
top-level basketball to London.

"Manchester has made a big commitment over the next three years and we are very excited about it," she said.

"We are very committed to London as a market. It is a fantastic city to play games in and we plan to go back to London many more times."

The Nets and Raptors both began shaking off the jet lag when they trained at the 02 Arena yesterday.

Toronto arrived on the back of a morale-boosting victory over the New Orleans Hornets and boasting the NBA's most cosmopolitan line up.

Drilled by Canadian Jay Triano, the only non-American coach in the NBA, the Raptors ended a run of two successive defeats by beating the Hornets 96-90 in Toronto on Tuesday night before immediately boarding a plane to Heathrow.

Andrea Bargnani, the No1 draft pick in 2006, hails from Italy and is the Canadians' leading scorer. The centre was joined on the flight here by Spanish point-guard Jose Calderon, Brazilian Leandro Barbosa, Alexis Ajinca, from France, and Nigerian Solomon Alabi.

The main focus of attention in the Nets team is Deron Williams, one of the NBA's leading lights who joined the New Jersey side hours before the deadline for trades.

However, two of his new team‑mates are in the spotlight in the States for their off-court connections. Croat Sasha Vujacic, who was traded to the Nets days after playing in New Jersey with the champion LA Lakers at Christmas, is engaged to Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova.

The pair have yet to announce a wedding date but team-mate Kris Humphries may find it harder to keep his plans a secret as he dates US reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

Humphries will not discuss his relationship but Kardashian, daughter of the late Robert Kardashian, who defended OJ Simpson over the murder of his ex‑wife Nicole, is starring in her third reality TV series and rarely breathes without it being filmed.