Slam dunk: these are the only words I know about basketball. In fact it’s the only thing I know about the game. If you grew up in a small Northern Yorkshire village in the ’60s, then basketball didn’t really feature on the sports horizon. You either kicked a ball around a pitch if you were a boy, or you "bullied off" in a game of hockey if you were a girl (usually freezing to death on a frozen pitch as the Yorkshire moors are not too conducive to outdoor play). We did get to see the antics of the Harlem Globetotters on TV in cartoon form, but this game that involves a "jump off" with giants never really made it to my part of the world.

So when Graham Dunbar (GenevaLunch’s sports reporter) sent me an email saying that Nyon was doing rather well in basketball, in the cup and league, and there was a match on Sunday in le Rocher, with BBC Nyon against Fribourg, I was intrigued, so went along.

At 17:00 it was already busy in the lobby before the game started with a mixed crowd of different ages and a buzz in the air. Families with enthusiastic children, grandparents, supporters of the visiting team were there either chatting, snacking, drinking beer or sharing a bottle of Chasselas.

There were cheerleaders practising their dance moves and there were
also lots of very, very tall men. I read in the leaflet handed out with
my entrance ticket that the tallest in the Nyon team is 2.07m, and in
the Fribourg team the tallest is 2.09m. Now my own partner is not
exactly small at 1.95m, (just under 6ft 5"). Tall enough that when we
go to a rock concert there is a collective groan of "oh no!" from the
crowd if he stands in front, but at the same time, very useful to spot
in a busy street or for reaching stuff out of a high cupboard. But
these guys at le Rocher were positively enormous.

After a bit of rap/rock music before the game started to get the
team and the audience pumped up, the game began. I should really have
Googled or done a bit of research in advance on the rules of
basketball. When the referee awarded a penalty point, there was such a
protest from the crowd I had no idea what it was about but other than
that, the game itself was easy to follow and exciting.

Nyon started off doing quite well, if they had managed to beat
Fribourg it would have been a real coup as Fribourg are currently at
the top of the league. But there is a great atmosphere at a game like
this. On Sunday the crowd had drums, horns, they stamped their feet and
there was lots of cheering when points were scored. I looked around the
crowd and hardly recognized anyone I knew despite the place being
three-quarters full. I was delighted to discover a whole new world out
there.

Sadly Nyon lost the match, 54-73 but nevertheless it was a fun way
to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon. I probably won’t go
to every game but I will certainly go again and recommend you try it
too. If like me your knowledge of the game is pretty basic, then a slam
dunk is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps
in the air and manually powers the ball downward through the basket
with one or both of his hands.

Fantastic when it happens, so keep an eye on our weekly events page to see if there is a match and a slam dunk near you. 

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