London Lions vs Tel Aviv (Basketball)

Updated: Aug 4, 2023

Hi everyone,

Hope you’re all well!

On Wednesday 11th of January, I attended my first basketball game. The London Lions were hosts to Israeli side Tel Aviv at Wembley OVO Arena in the EuroCup. The lions are usually based in the Copper Box Arena so with the game being so close to me and wanting to experience different sports it was the perfect opportunity for me.

I had only been to Wembley Arena once, but it was for a concert, so I didn’t know what the seating would be like. The wheelchair seats were located one level above the ground and were directly behind the away team’s bench, so we had a great view of the whole court!

With this being my first basketball game, I didn’t know what to expect, but I was very surprised. The noise was fantastic throughout the whole game from a sold out Wembley Arena, majority of which came from the travelling away fans who were there in hundreds, even though some did get kicked out before the end for causing trouble! There was also entertainment in between all quarters by a dance school.

Ex love island star Ovie Soko was supposed to be playing for the London lions but was absent with an injury.

One thing I did like about basketball was the togetherness between the teams. Before the game coaches and players form a line for each player to run through

and fist bump everyone when their names are being announced, they also always fist bumped and congratulated the players as they came off and on the court. I knew basketball players were tall, but I did not expect them to be such giants, they take ‘high-fives’ to a different level!

From a journalism point of view, I did notice that players and managers were interviewed before at the halfway point of the game and at the end which is very interesting.

Whilst I am only a newbie to the sport and know the bare minimum about the rules, I still really enjoyed the match, though I was very surprised about

the amount of pauses and team talks there are in the match, thankfully I had my friend with me to explain some parts!

London lions were in complete domination going into the fourth quarter 75-65 up. Sadly, they did suffer a defeat as Tel Aviv came back in the final 4 minutes making the final score 95/93 to the visitors, the scores were level with 19 seconds remaining but a final 2 pointer for the away team stole the game … a very tight game! Tel Aviv’s Jordan McRae stole the spotlight netting 36 of his teams’ points; London Lions points were more spread out with Sam Dekker being a standout getting a total of 29 points including plenty of free throws.