Hooray for the U.S. hoop stars

NBA basketball came to town and the stars came out to play in east London last night.

Lewis Hamilton and Didier Drogba, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, while the Las Vegas Showgirls and the Crazy Dunkers all made an appearance as the O2 Arena proved a stage fit for the spectacle of a pre-season exhibition game between the Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves.

Americans abroad: It could be Madison Square Garden as the O2 arena hosts the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves

Formula One ace Hamilton and Chelsea footballer Drogba sat courtside as Garnett and Pierce strutted their stuff in the green vests of the Celtics in a 92-81 win, and the Showgirls did, well, what showgirls do.

The sell-out crowd who packed into the arena in which the 2012 Olympic basketball event will take place were royally entertained, most notably by the Dunkers, whose acrobatics between quarters drew whoops and hollers when the Celtics' mascot joined in.

What is not so certain is whether this exercise in growing the sport of basketball managed to ignite the hoop dreams that it had proclaimed as one of its primary ambitions?

Born in the USA: The Boston Celtic cheerleaders go through their paces

The NBA recouped their investment with tickets between £15-£85 but hardly reached out to the kids of Britain who actually play the game and could be inspired to follow Luol Deng - once of Brixton, via the Sudan and Egypt - to glory in the United States.

The impression of an opportunity spurned was evident in the vast reception hall of the O2 Arena, from whose rafters two giant basketball jerseys draped down.

Off to one side, the cash registers of the merchandising stall ticked rhythmically over, but while replica jerseys were snapped up, there was one glaring omission in the choice of team colours available.

Super hoops: Minnesota Timberwolves Gerald Green, right, and Craig Smith, left, fail to stop Boston Celtic's Kevin Garnett from shooting

The Heat, Grizzlies, Nuggets, Lakers and Raptors were all represented. These are the teams belonging to the cities of Miami, Memphis, Denver, Los Angeles and Toronto, to the uninitiated, although they were outnumbered by the aficionados last night.

Also on sale were Cleveland Cavaliers armbands embossed with No 23 - that worn by the NBA's latest superstar, LeBron James. Yet a Chicago Bulls jersey bearing the No 9 and the name Deng? Nowhere to be seen.

Given that 22-year-old Deng has just led Great Britain to qualification for the European Championships and is regarded as possessing the talent to become as well known in the future as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant, surely his status as Britain's only global hoop star ought to have been exploited.

It was hard to believe that an American sport could miss such an obvious marketing ploy, especially when NBA commissioner David Stern is so keen to promote basketball as a worldwide game.

Famous faces: Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton (2nd R) sits with football players Anton Ferdinand (2nd L) and Carlton Cole (L) while watching the game

If the sport is to grab hold of a British audience and lure it from the playground and the court down to the local park and into arenas in which the game can flourish in this country, Deng has to be used as the figurehead, otherwise exhibitions like this one - as gloriously technicolour as it was - will remain occasions for the curious and the famous, not the passionate.