Iverson helps build NBA in Spain - Tonight's game demonstrates the inroads basketball has made in a soccer-mad country

BARCELONA, Spain -- Walking the streets of downtown Barcelona, one does not get the impression that people know the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA are in town for their training camp and to play a "friendly," as they say around here, tonight against the local squad.

A 21/2-hour walk from busy Placa d'Espanya to the touristy La Rambla saw no NBA merchandise being worn by anyone yesterday. The middle-aged proprietor of a busy newsstand was shown a picture of a shirtless, flexing Allen Iverson in yesterday's La Vanguardia newspaper and shrugged, "Sorry, but no, I've never heard of him."

The reality, however, is a lot different. A sellout crowd of more than 15,000 fans is expected to pack Palau Sant Jordi tonight to watch the Sixers' preseason "baloncesto" opener against Winterthur FC Barcelona. Their eyes will be fixed upon Iverson, arguably the most popular NBA player around these parts.

Yes, even bigger than the NBA's three Spanish players -- Pau Gasol (Memphis), Jorge Garbajosa (Toronto), and Jose Calderon (Toronto).

"Iverson is a very popular guy here in Spain," Sergio Heredia, a sportswriter for La Vanguardia, said yesterday while watching the Sixers practice at the game venue. "Some people say his name sells more shirts than Pau Gasol here in Barcelona. He's a famous guy."

This game is getting extra attention, according to Heredia, because the wildly popular FC Barcelona soccer team is taking a break from its league schedule while its players go back to their home countries to compete in international matches.

"Of course, the No. 1 sport in Spain is soccer, but there's no soccer this weekend, so most of the interest will be on this match," he said. "Plus the game will be played at 9 p.m. so people can come see it."

Workers in Spain normally work later in the day, until 7 or 8 p.m., with a longer lunch break than their American counterparts.

Robby Dunne, manager of the George Payne, an Irish pub on Placa Urquinaona, said the game received a huge boost when a publication called Sports Matters, one that caters to area bars and restaurants, featured the game on its cover this month instead of soccer.

"That's big," Dunne said. "That's on the cover and that will be seen for an entire month. You have to understand that there's the Champions League on right now. The Sixers took precedence over the Champions League, the European Cup and La Liga [Spain's professional soccer league], and you don't see that very often."

Terry Lyons, vice president of international communications for the NBA, said Spain was one of the first European countries, along with Italy and France, to express interest in the NBA, attracted in large part by the exploits of the Sixers' Julius Erving in the 1980s.

The NBA organized a world tournament, the McDonald's Championship, in 1988 in Madrid and that boosted interest in the American sports league exponentially.

"Three or four journalists came to me and said Iverson seems to be more important to [Spanish fans] than any other player," Lyons said. "I think the game on TV really is the NBA, and Iverson has been in big games -- the NBA Finals, all those All-Star Games. That gets you on the map. Dwyane Wade [of Miami] took a huge jump this year."

Spain is still abuzz over winning the FIBA World Championship in Japan. One of the players on that title team, Juan-Carlos Navarro, known to his fans as "La Bomba," will play tonight for Winterthur, which made the European League Final Four last season.

Of course, soccer remains king. A long corridor at the Espanya metro stop shows a huge ad for Reebok, which Iverson endorses. But the ad, which includes Iverson's signature "I am what I am," features soccer star Thierry Henry, who shook hands with Iverson after Monday's practice in a display of friendship and corporate synergy.

Only one billboard for tonight's game was seen during yesterday's stroll. It featured Chris Webber, Andre Iguodala and Iverson. Iguodala's image appeared to be slightly bigger than his two more experienced teammates, suggesting monster dunks have won over some fans here.

But Dunne, who has a special interest in the Sixers because he hosted them Sunday night for a NFL viewing party, said basketball in general was creeping up as a close second in popularity behind soccer, and that the NBA has helped greatly.

"Basketball is absolutely enormous here," he said. "When Barcelona won the championship in 2003, it was the kind of massive spectacle you usually only saw with football [soccer]. Countries in Europe compete in basketball pretty well. If you look at the NBA, you have at least one person [from Europe] on each team."

As for the Sixers, Dunne said they were "an incredible bunch, really friendly, shaking hands, and saying thanks for the hospitality. They were great."

That can't hurt the NBA's popularity here, either.