American Basketball on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra as NBA comes to the UK

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra will broadcast live the first ever, regular season NBA games to be played in Europe this weekend (Friday 4 and Saturday 5 March).

Atlantic Division rivals the New Jersey Nets and the Toronto Raptors will face each other at London’s O2 Arena, where the Nets will be hoping their new NBA All Star signing, Deron Williams, will be able to avoid a seventh successive loss for the team.

Chris Mitchell, who has covered basketball for BBC Radio World Service for many years, will present the 5 Live Sports Extra coverage, and will also co-commentate on both games with the respected writer and broadcaster on British, European, NBA basketball and editor of NVP Magazine, Mark Woods.

Chris and Mark will be joined on Friday night by summariser Tony Garbelotto, who is the head coach of the Merseyside Tigers, and on Saturday by Rob Paternostro, the head coach of the Leicester Riders.

Sports Extra will also have the latest from the players and coaches of both NBA teams, and will be hearing from FIBA Secretary General, Patrick Baumann. Plus, there’ll be a focus on Great Britain’s Olympic dreams with the GB coach Chris Finch and GB captain Drew Sullivan.

In the build-up to these landmark games Colin Murray will be heading down to the NBA fan zone to shoot some hoops with NBA legend Darryl Dawkins. Listeners can hear how he gets on from 7pm on Friday 4 March in Kicking Off With Colin Murray on BBC Radio 5 Live and he can be seen in action on the 5 Live website.

BBC Radio 5 Live and Sports Extra Deputy Controller, Jonathan Wall said: “We know how big the NBA is in the UK and it’s great that sports extra can capture this historic event.”
Notes to Editors

Uninterrupted commentary on the NBA regular season games between the New Jersey Nets and the Toronto Raptors will be on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra on Friday 4 March, 7.45-10.30pm and Saturday 5 March, 7.45-10.30pm