(Liam Getreu is a Melbourne student and BPL Citizen Journalist).

Last week I attended my first NBA game between the Chicago Bulls and the San Antonio Spurs. Truly, it provided me with one the most interesting insights into American culture I've ever had. The Bulls won, leading virtually from the start and really charging home in the final quarter, and the Chicago press is now, albeit hesitantly, considering that this Bulls team might be destined for bigger things.

The first thing I observed was just how tribal American supporters were. I think it's partly because Chicago's a one-team city; there's no one else to support if you like basketball. In Melbourne, with 10 AFL teams vying for your support, you'll rarely get a stadium full of supporters of only a single team, and supported with such vehemence by politicians and the media. But that's what happened at the United Center: around 21,000 Bulls supporters and less than a thousand Spurs supporters had all packed in, making it a veritable cauldron of Bulls fans. In fact, I could count the Spurs supporters around me on a single finger.

Their passion is hardly trivial either, manifesting itself in extreme, even brutal ways. The one Spurs supporter near me was pretty much attacked by "Benny the Bull", the Bulls's mascot. He came up to the supporter, threw away her sign, doused her in silly string and made her the crowd villain. More remarkable is the composure with which she stood there and took it — I asked around and it seems it is so common in American sporting games now that it's now become acceptable.

In fact, the hatred of the opposition was so intense that not only were the Spurs booed as they entered the court, but Darth Vader-style Star Wars music played as the players were individually presented. Never could I imagine that happening in Australia. We might boo an opposition player if he knocked out my team's gun forward the last time the teams met, or if he'd recently switched teams, but never the whole team!

Having said that though, Australian sports players and supporters do have a habit, to put it mildly, of taunting and goading opposition players, with our cricketers possessing particular skill in that department. But in NBA basketball there was such little downtime such sledging would have been impossible. What's more, the stars were also offered up as role models, their Facebook and Twitter pages displayed to all on the big screens, in a way that Peter Costello would have found abhorrent.

Next, with so many time-outs and breaks between quarters, I was half-expecting to be bored at times, perhaps with moments spare to play that new level of Angry Birds I've been looking forward to. Last year when I went to see the Yankees in New York there was entertainment and competitions in the breaks, but nothing like this. Last night there wasn't a moment's rest; I couldn't even find time to get a refill of my (giant-sized) Coke! Free Big Macs and Dunkin' Donuts were given away (and anything else cheap that sponsors could offer), there were breaks for an air guitar contest and also to superimpose celebrities' hair on top of members of the crowd. It was truly incredible.

I also found it interesting the way that the supporters were chanting for their star player Derrick Rose. At every opportunity, all 20,000-plus fans would scream "MVP! MVP! MVP!" begging basketball journalists to make him this year's most valuable player. I could not imagine a crowd at the MCG singing "Brownlow! Brownlow!" as it approached September. Though that might be a way to remind the umpires there are more players on the field than just midfielders.

Finally, it was the affordability of the game, or lack thereof, that I just could not believe. Admittedly, I got last minute seats, but there couldn't have been too many others that were worse off than mine, save for those in standing room areas. I paid $75 for my ticket, and I can't believe how the average American family can afford to go see their heroes on a regular basis. Speaking to other fans I actually got quite a good deal, which makes the American family's predicament a very difficult one. And that is the greatest shame of all.