Basket(ball) Case

In our attempt to try all things American, last night we found ourselves at a basketball game at the University of Illinois in Chicago. It was a WNBA game featuring Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever. I didn't even know there was professional women's basketball. It's been around for about three years, and the Americans are even sending two of yesterday's players to compete in the Olympics.

I was much more enthusiastic about watching a fast moving game like basketball than baseball. That's so slow they have to throw entertainment in to keep the crowds awake. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Although the game itself is fast, they kept stopping every few minutes, apparently just so a variety of silly games and wild t shirt throwing could take place. (That's new ones thrown into the crowd, no one actually took any off).

In the end it was pretty much like a baseball game, except the teams ran back and forth instead of round and round. How they could play with the crowd roaring, drums beating and commercials running around the top of the court was beyond me.

I mean surely all those screams when you score can only put you off, right?

The last few minutes seemed to go for hours, as the clock was stopped every few seconds. I knew they'd dragged it out for too long when the cleaner appeared on court. At least there was a young girl sweeping the court with a big broom, so I guessed that's what she was doing.

All the action was shown on a giant screen, just in case you couldn't see the court directly in front of you. It also showed the crowd, who went wild whenever the camera picked them out. Oh look, it's Grumpy..yey Spike and Divine..oh, but who's that bored looking woman checking her Blackberry?