FC Barcelona v Philadelphia 76ers Tickets . Thursday October 5, 21.00 at the Palau Sant Jordi: THE NBA COMES TO TOWN!

The 15,000 seater Palau Sant Jordi up on Montjuic (next to the Olympic Stadium) is the venue as FC Barcelona and the Philadelphia 76ers play the first of a series of games being played around Europe dubbed NBA Europe Live.
As was plain to see at the World Championship in Japan last month, in which Spain beat Greece in the final and Team USA had to settle for bronze, if there is any gulf left at all between European and North American basketball, then it is not a very wide one.
NBA sides have been coming across to Europe in dribs and drabs for preseason camps since the mid 1980s, but never in such numbers or taking it quite as seriously as in 2006. Along with the Sixers, the Spurs, the Suns, and the Clippers are all in Europe, and given the quality of the sides they will be meeting, it is more than likely that we could witness the first ever win for a European club against NBA opposition. And why not believe that the team to do it can be Barga? In fact, if the bookies are anything to go by, this game could go either way, and Barga, who are much further into their pre-season programme than the Sixers, look to be the better prepared of the two. The Catalans, Euroleague champions in 2003, became the first club to ever have a player on both teams in a World Championship final this year (Juan Carlos Navarro of Spain and Michalis Kakiouzis of Greece, both of whom led the scoring for their respective countries in that match). Denis Marconato and Gianluca Basile starred for Italy, while new point guards Jaka Lakovic and Roko-Leni Ukic are among the most promising talents in the world right now and new signing, centre Fran Vazquez enraged Orlando Magic when, after being drafted as 11th pick last year, decided he would rather stay in Spain. Meanwhile, the Sixers, who have been training in Barcelona since September 29, are anything but the cream of the NBA. The 1983 NBA champions (with Charles Barkley in his heyday) have been struggling big time of late, with just one post-season appearance in the last three attempts, and that one (2005) ended in first round loss 4-1 to Detroit.
On their first ever trip to Europe, they are now coached by the starting point guard of the 1983 championship winning team, Maurice Cheeks, but last year a miserable 2-10 streak at the end of the season doomed them to missing out on the play-offs with a 38-44 record.
Looking for big names on the Sixers roster and you need look no further than Allen Iversen, one of the most prolific scorers in the history of the game and ranked 53rd on SLAM Magazine’s Top 75 NBA players of all time. He has spent all ten of his pro years at Philadelphia, with only Kobe Bryant of the Lakers having been at the same club for longer.
But beyond Iversen, you ain’t got too much to look out for in the visiting team. There are Chris Webber and Andre Iguodala, while this will be the first test for the Sixers first pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, Rodney Carney. Also worth checking out is Hip Hop, the 76ers hare mascot. He’s class. This will be the third time that FC Barcelona have faced NBA opposition. The first was a loss to the Denver Nuggets in Rome in 1989 (137-103). Then in 2003, FC Barcelona played the Memphis Grizzlies (whose All-Star, Pau Gasol, is a former Barga player and a living legend in these parts), with the Americans winning 91-80.
All in all, the game is a cracking prospect, but getting to see it live is not going to be easy. Despite moving the venue to the Palau Sant Jordi, which holds 15,000 and considerably more than Barea’s usual Palau Blaugrana, all the tickets have long been sold out. Perhaps best if you have a word with our pals at the Spain Ticket Bureau (see cover). They might be able to sort you something out.