The NBA's quest to make London basketball's second home takes another step forward this week, as the Denver Nuggets go toe-to-toe with the Indiana Pacers in front of a sold-out crowd at the O2 Arena in London.
Amongst those looking to make an impression is 27-year-old power forward Kenneth Faried of the Denver Nuggets, whose team currently occupy 11th place in the NBA Western Conference. All eyes will be on the O2 Arena on Thursday night, with a mix of the UK's hottest actors, musicians and athletes occupying court side seats to see if Faried and his team can put on a show for the now-annual NBA Global Games.
When adidas Basketball took over the Pro:Direct LDN19 store on Carnaby Street for one day only, we caught up with Kenneth Faried to talk about the stuff athletes and fans really care about: sneakers, hip-hop and whether an NBA team can ever exist in London.
COMPLEX: Welcome to London. How much of the city do you actually get to see on these trips?
Kenneth Faried: I’ve been two times and always had a great view of the city. I’ve done Big Ben and been to lots of the museums, seen all the monuments and stuff.
The Denver Nuggets and Arsenal both share an owner in Stan Kroenke – have you got any plans to pay a visit to Arsenal while you’re here?
I’m actually going to visit Arsenal today, so it’s going to be fun and exciting to meet those guys. Hopefully we’ll exchange jerseys with them and it’s always cool to meet different cultures and different facets of life. I love soccer but I always prefer to go to the games as oppose to watch them on TV.
We found a picture of you with Neymar on your Instagram, what’s the story behind that photo?
It was interesting! He’s a huge star and we had a good time just having a couple of drinks and dancing to the music. There was a lot of people around him, you know? He’s a huge star, it was crazy.
Athletes are famed for their sneaker collections and you’ve got your Yeezys on right now, what’s your collection like?
I’m big on dope shoes, especially when it comes to adidas. They’re taking over the market right now, especially with the NMDs, Ultraboost and the biggest shoe of all right now: the Yeezy! It’s nice to be working with a brand who’s growing and for me to be able to grow with them.
Were you excited to find out you’ll be playing in London again when the fixture was announced?
I was very excited to play in London, it’s a great city and people really love basketball out here. I heard the tickets sold out ASAP so that’s nice to hear, the people really want to see us play.
Would you like to see more NBA games overseas and maybe even a London franchise? It’s been talked about in the NFL for years now.
It’s very interesting. To have a team out here in London, it’s a beautiful city and there’s so much culture, so it’d be cool to see how a team did.
What’s on the pre-match playlist for you and the Nuggets right now?
“T-Shirt” by Migos. Lots of Migos, actually. They’re killing it right now and it’s nice to see, for me, because I knew those guys through a friend before they even blew up. They’re cool dudes. They grind real hard like I did and basically came from nothing and made it.
Drake’s association with the Toronto Raptors is pretty famous. If you could recruit one person from the UK to be a Nuggets fan, who would it be?
Anybody? I respect the Queen, so maybe her! Of course I want the Queen, I want the top person to be a fan of mine because then everybody else is gonna follow suit!
Finally, what should we all expect from the game tomorrow night?
I expect us to handle our business and get out of the slump we’re in. We’re gonna focus on getting the W, we didn’t come here just to see the city – we came here to handle business.
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