76ers, Celtics meet in London as NBA plays in England

LONDON » When the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers play Thursday in London, they’ll both be looking to leave a mark on the league’s global stage.

For the teams, that’s the obvious payoff.

It’ll also provide a reminder of the league’s future.

A number of the players — including Kyrie Irving and Joel Embiid — set to take the court at the O2 Arena are also likely to appear in February’s All-Star Game, some surely going to be bolstered by votes they get from those fans in London and watching worldwide. And the amount of young talent that will be on display makes this the most hotly anticipated matchup of the eight regular-season games that have taken place in England.

“I’m appreciative of all fan votes. I’m just a fan of basketball, a fan of sport and now I get to mark off my bucket of playing at the O2 Arena,” said Irving, who is averaging 24.1 points per game to lead the Celtics to a 3310 start and the top spot in the Eastern Conference standings.

“I can’t wait for that experience and to have the opportunity to come here to Europe and especially London and to grow the game of basketball for the NBA.”

After the first round of fan voting for this season’s All-Star starters, which NBA followers from all over the world can participate in online, Irving led his nearest challenger among Eastern Conference guards by more than 500,000 votes, leaving him all but assured of a starting spot in Los Angeles on Feb. 18.