QUAI 54 TOURNAMENT - PARIS, FRANCE
By Greg Tanner

I first heard about the Quai 54 tournament last year. People were talking about it after Fat Joe's Terror Squad team (the then EBC champs) couldn't hack it there.

"There's this mad tournament is Paris," was the rumour. "Real physical, skilled players - some even NBA level".

This sounded too good to miss - so I got in contact with the tournament organisers and arranged to go over there.

I knew I was going to have a good time. But things got even better when Midnight Madness boss Nhamo Shire confirmed shortly before the tournament that he was entering a team. "This shit just got REAL exciting!" I thought.

How would our boys fare against such competition? We were about to find out....
 
Friday 7th July

Arriving at the park in east Paris (along with Jimi From The Crowd and Paul Gudde) I was struck by how much smaller the court seemed in real life than it looked on the Quai 54 DVD.

We were there crazy early - and the tournament team were busy attaching cameras behind the backboards and putting up Nike banners.

We met tournament organiser Hammadoun Sidibe and got our VIP passes from the PR people (that's how we rolling).

Gradually, ballers began turning up and the atmosphere started to build. Then, just as the first game of the tournament began, the Midnight Madness team bowled in.