Stern fumes at Games snub as Knicks halt the Pistons

 
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Giuseppe Muro18 January 2013

NBA chief David Stern slammed the decision to cut British basketball’s funding for the 2016 Olympics.

The sport received £8.6million in the build-up to London 2012 but after a poor showing has seen its financial backing completely removed ahead of the next Games in Rio.

Stern, the outgoing NBA commissioner who was speaking at the third regular season game staged at London’s 02 Arena, said: “Before the Olympics, basketball was being talked about as a sport being played in neighbourhoods in a country bemoaning the fact they had shut down so many playing fields. The decision confounded me.”

Basketball was one of the hottest tickets in town during the Games but, after the New York Knicks beat the Detroit Pistons 102-87 in front of a sell-out 18,689 crowd last night, Stern’s deputy, Adam Silver, said the organisation could not guarantee another game would be staged in the capital.

He said: “There is a good chance we will play a regular season game again in Europe but it is very difficult the way our schedule is configured.

“We are not ruling out another regular season game here. Manchester is something we are continuing to look at. It is not set yet but we are looking at it.”

Stern added: “The UK remains a very intriguing market to us.

“There was a good bit of interest stirred up by the Olympics and we think that will continue over time.”

A host of Premier League players — including Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, Ashley Cole, Wojciech Szczesny and Clint Dempsey — were in attendance last night but the star turn was Carmelo Anthony.

The outstanding Knicks forward scored 26 points on his return to the venue where he won Olympic gold with the USA in the summer.

Anthony said: “It was great to be back, having the chance to play here one more time.”

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