The sport of Kings

At the end of last basketball season, the NBL chucked out my team, the Hunter Pirates, for being too poor, playing too poorly, or both. This season, they admitted two new franchises - the South Melbourne Dragons and the Singapore Slingers.

When I learnt a number of staff and players from the Pirates were involved in the latter, I thought about switching my allegiance to them. But, realistically, the chances of me making a home game were nil - dreams of sipping a Singapore Sling in the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel notwithstanding.

I opted instead to become a Sydney Kings supporter. Some might say I should have done so long ago, on account of having lived in this city almost eight years, attending their games whenever I'm in need of a b-ball fix.

All I can say is: Newcastle blood runs deep :-)

But the decision had been made, and on Friday night I rocked up to the Entertainment Centre to watch my new team take on the Adelaide 36ers (the South Oz capital was settled in 1836). While the outcome was disappointing, the game was closer than Siamese twins in a sleeping bag.

At the end of the first quarter, we were down 17-19.
Half-time: 44-43.
Third quarter: 70-64.
Full-time: 97-99.

Our number of fouls really caught up with us in the final quarter, but it was also one of those occasions when players missed two-pointers, panicked and went for three-pointers which they shouldn't have.

Still, the Kings fought hard till the buzzer and made up for things tonight with a 93-90 away win over the Razorbacks, which sounds like it was another exciting game.

They always are when you've got a side to care about.