The NBA Finals travel across the States tonight, from Los Angeles to Boston. And if some people get their way, one day the games will keep heading east until they reach Paris, Berlin, Barcelona and London.

Global expansion? Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, is only playing at it with his 39th game. The NBA runs the professional game in China and has plans to set up a European division of its main league including a team in the heart of London. Perhaps only one question needs answering affirmatively to make it happen: will you turn up?

Can the O2 Arena in Docklands sell out 41 home games of top-class professional basketball? Can they possibly know the answer before they try it? I will be there, but then I was fortunate enough to see Michael Jordan at his peak. I was lucky that the sport's greatest exponent opened my eyes to the dexterity and grace that can be found even in the biggest of men in one magical night at Madison Square Garden.

It remains the most breathtaking individual sporting exhibition I have seen and an education in the game's finer skills. But the appeal can vary. “I like that it is fast and furious,” David Beckham said at the weekend, having watched his home-town LA Lakers battle back to extend their their championship battle with the Boston Celtics, trailing 3-2.

There is something that must attract the English because the NBA has packed them in for one-off exhibition games and will do so again later this year when the New Jersey Nets face the Miami Heat in October in a pre-season game in the capital.

Perhaps that is less to do with the finer points of the pick or the screen than the cool street culture, which Jordan did so much to help cultivate. Noticeably in America, basketball is the sport that brings out the celebrities more than baseball, ice hockey or gridiron.

David Stern, the NBA commissioner, will not mind whether it is just the popcorn people are after as long as they buy tickets. Taking the league into new territories is his big idea in much the same way that Scudamore has made a personal mission of the 39th game. The difference is that Stern is not facing revolt among American fans who are used to their teams flying thousands of miles for games away from home. It makes little difference if the planes are heading across the Pond.

What also makes it possible, in Stern's eyes, is the construction of more American-style arenas in Europe. The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) has established the O2, which is superior to many of its US equivalents, and the company will be opening a similar venue in Berlin. The NBA wishes for others to spring up sooner rather than later in Barcelona and Paris.

The timing is important. In London, basketball is certain to become more high-profile in the next four years thanks to the GB team being put together for the 2012 Olympics. Through hoovering up players with British links - what might be called a process of Jack Charltonisation after his scavenging for Ireland - there is the possibility of a credible challenge for a medal in London.

Luol Deng and Ben Gordon of the Chicago Bulls have already committed. But could they ever be persuaded to play full-time in England? A bigger question hangs, Jordan-like, in the air. If the NBA lay on the party, will you come?

Pacquiao in struggle for recognition

The world's best boxer came to see his people this weekend. Shame more of them did not turn up to meet Manny Pacquiao. Visiting the Filipino area of Los Angeles, the No1 pound-for-pound fighter according to The Ring magazine drew a crowd of less than 100 to a public workout.

“Showbusiness with blood,” Budd Schulberg called the hardest game and, more than ever, it seems that stardom in boxing is less a matter of talent than marketability. Joe Calzaghe would sympathise.

Pacquiao is so huge in the Philippines that the military called an informal ceasefire with Marxist and Muslim rebels when he fought recently in Las Vegas but wider recognition is harder to come by.

One solution is to fight Ricky Hatton which appeals on a number of levels, not least because the two of them love to brawl. History would also be at stake. Pacquiao is on a quest to set records for beating up bigger men. Having started at flyweight, moved through super-bantamweight and then super-featherweight, he will meet David Diaz for the WBC lightweight crown a week on Saturday. To beat Hatton at light-welterweight would make Pacquiao a miracle of the sport.

“I'd love to fight Hatton,” Pacquiao said. “It's the fight of the year,” Freddy Roach, his trainer, said. “It is a natural for Vegas.” Bring it on.

Lost in translation

The man from ESPN thought that Bogdan Lobont was having a “huge outing in the cage”. Translation: the Romania goalkeeper was playing a blinder between the posts. Adrian Mutu was a “major factor in the second stanza”. Since when was football a poem, unless it involves Eric Cantona?

Still, he was less grating than his co-pundit. There is still no escaping Andy Gray's incessant jabber.

Access all areas

It does not matter how many times you do it - you still cannot quite believe that they allowed you into the locker room. In England, the media are still forced to loiter in the car park. In America, the athletes are accountable to a dozen microphones shoved under their noses while they are still dripping from the shower.

One or two Premier League clubs have thought about instituting the same kind of access but they did not have the courage to see it through. So the distance between the press and the players grows ever wider, to no one's advantage