Making Joe Mazzulla jealous!

OK, OK: I doubt Boston's coach will even see this piece ... but if he does I am quite sure he will be envious to hear that I just spent a week in Manchester with his favorite soccer team

MANCHESTER, England — Springtime typically takes me to California's Sonoran Desert to immerse myself in tennis coverage and the tour life that Young Me dreamed of but had to forsake for good when I moved into full-time NBA writing decades ago.

This spring?

My soul and psyche needed something a bit more long distance and even more international than the self-proclaimed Tennis Paradise of Indian Wells.

Which naturally led me to Blue Heaven, Manchester.

The goal of the trip was to see Manchester City play in person three times in the space of eight days. I had to settle for twice because Sunday's epic game at Anfield proved to be the hardest ticket to secure in my nearly 30 years' worth of trips to the Great North West of England to see the Blues. After taking in comprehensive 3-1 victories over Manchester United and FC Copenhagen L-I-V-E, I turned to the telly in the hotel bar for City's exhausting (for viewers as much as players) 1-1 draw with Liverpool.

You won’t hear one complaint from me, though. I had a tremendous time, miss the city deeply already and can’t wait for my next encounter with the Celtics to trade notes with their coach, since Joe Mazzulla (as the enclosed YouTube clip suggests) appears intent on displacing me as the club's most frequent guest from Planet NBA.

I've also assembled a photo album for interested readers to hopefully provide some flavor from the trip … albeit shared with my usual reminder/disclaimer/warning that I’m totally a Words Guy who can only do so much (as in not much) as a photojournalist:

What a nice surprise in the city centre: LeBron James on a huge poster looming over Market Street with Erling Haaland. I took this one late at night with a plan to return during daylight hours to get a clearer shot. When I came back a couple days later, this advertisement for Beats headphones was already gone and replaced.

Onto some football photography …

Not sure I have the words to properly spell out how energizing it feels to walk this bridge to the stadium on a European night …

TOP LEFT: Blue flares greet the arrival of the City team bus; TOP MIDDLE: "Champions Again, Champions Again, Champions Again, Olé Olé"; TOP RIGHT: Blue flares also found their way into André Onana's penalty box in the second half; MIDDLE LEFT: I like to get there early; MIDDLE MIDDLE: The 192nd Manchester Derby kicks off; MIDDLE RIGHT: Got excited when Ederson came all the way up to the opposition box for a late free kick that, sadly, he did not get to take; BOTTOM LEFT: Not a bad vantage point ... not at all; BOTTOM RIGHT: The first six pictures are from the Manchester derby; this is from Pep's post-match press conference after the Champions League victory over FC Copenhagen.

And back to basketball …

As I've mentioned numerous times previously ... Europe is the place to go for Bulls gear. Chicago remains hugely popular in other parts of the world because of the Michael Jordan Era. Witness: DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine mercnahdise readily available in ... Manchester, England.

Most certainly did NOT expect to see an NBA sale display in the front window of the local Primark store. My bad for not snapping one more pic to include the mannequin wearing a Brooklyn Nets top.

And back to football one more time since I also sneaked in a trip to one non-league game (Oldham Athletic 0, Bromley FC 0) and one game in the third tier (Port Vale 1, Shrewsbury Town 2) …

TOP ROW: Images from Oldham's Boundary Park and a nod to my all-time favorite City manager Sir Joe Royle; BOTTOM ROW: From Saturday's trip to Vale Park ... with the third and last (and much clearer) photo courtesy of my pal Simon Humphreys at full time of a damaging 2-1 loss for The Valiants..

And last but not least: Some dining highlights!

TOP LEFT: Two coffees at every sitting is pretty much my Manchester minimum; TOP MIDDLE: Gaucho Argentinean steak house is another go-to; TOP RIGHT: Scrambled eggs in England, with salmon, are often next level; BOTTOM LEFT: Found the tapas on King Street to be España-worthy; BOTTOM RIGHT: Finally (and thankfully) made it to the highly regarded Chips @ No. 8 for my very first meal after landing.

Actually there's two more (because I couldn’t resist) …

Definitely did NOT mind seeing this display while I was sipping those two coffees pictured above … five full days after the derby was played.

A hotel that still puts newspapers out (almost) daily for its guests? The V&A in Manchester knows the way to my heart.

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Numbers Game

(Editor's note: Because this post is so absurdly long with all the pictures, I’m going to send out Numbers Game separately on Wednesday.)

(Editor's note 2.0: It was indeed still Tuesday in all but one U.S. time zone when this article was published.)