Action from the Saigon Heat -

Free tickets ahoy! Saigon Sports Academy have (somehow) set up Saigon's first professional basketball team which compete in the ABL and I went with a few friends last night to the game against Singapore Slingers at the Tan Binh Sports and Cultural Centre. A decent crowd saw the match, with atmosphere enhanced by a team of drummers pounding away throughout the game and providing drum rolls during free throw time. My first professional basketball game, and I learnt a lot of the rules I never quite understood before hand. What I can tell you is that there were a lot of missed baskets in the first half, and that's where the Heat lost it, the Slingers staying consistent in the last two quarters and hitting some nice 3 pointers. Undoubtedly, the smallest player on the court was the also the most talented. Here's the match report from the ABL website.

I think the highlight was a slam dunk from Slingers 11 Little which almost bought the basket and its frame crashing to the court - luckily, it teetered, found its balance, and rocked back onto the court. It was then decided that someone should sit on it to provide extra ballast. A Slingers player was also dealt a hefty blow to the face and on attempting to walk off the court collapsed onto a row of chairs. You know its not the NBA when the medical team is an aged looking Vietnamese man in a white coat. Eventually a very old looking stretcher appeared to withdraw the player, who later remerged to play in the fourth quarter - something that would give onlooking doctors a heart attack as he had suffered a head injury. It didn't stop him making some free throws though!