Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Stateside the winter sports programmes are entering their final phases as both the basketball and ice hockey leagues reach their conclusion.
In the NBA there is an intriguing match-up between defending champions the LA Lakers and the all-time most successful team, the Boston Celtics.
The Lakers enter the World Finals as the number one seeds, having secured their berth for the third successive season. The Lakers are led by the talismanic Kobe Bryant who will be playing in his seventh NBA finals, in search of his fifth championship. However, his record pales into insignificance when compared to LA coach Phil Jackson who has won 11 championships, five with the Lakers.
The Celtics enter the finals as fourth seeds with a record 17 championships. Having started the season well there followed an implausible slide with a succession of defeats in March and April.
Unbeknown to many, including their own fans, while no one likes to lose, coach Doc Rivers was planning for this end of season showdown.
Even the more seasoned commentators questioned the benching of his star players. With a month of the regular season remaining he took star players Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, among others, and told them they would receive less game time and more conditioning training, effectively kissing goodbye to a preferential seeding and home court advantage through the playoffs. The plan is working so far - the Celtics made it to the finals with a comfortable victory over Orlando.
The last time these teams met in the final two seasons ago the Celtics came out on top, with the Lakers bus notoriously getting trapped by Celtics fans who proceeded to pelt the motionless bus with rocks and stones.
The Lakers had entered the finals as firm favourites yet Boston took control in Game 4, rallying from a 24-point deficit before thrashing LA at home in Game 6. However, this only spurred the Lakers on to win last season's championship.
Historically, the Celtics are seen as the hard-working lower-class side and are matched against the glamour of the Hollywood Lakers. This is the NBA's fiercest rivalry. It will be an interesting 12th match-up in the finals - Bryant v Garnett, Jackson v Rivers. The Lakers are the top seed playing against a Celtics side that has never lost while their starting five are free from injury and have been preparing specifically for this match-up.
Turning to the ice, the Chicago Blackhawks battle the Philadephia Flyers for the Stanley Cup in a match-up that's likely to be more physical than the respective routes each team took to get there.
Chicago, with home advantage following an outstanding regular season will look to dangerous forwards Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane and, most intriguingly, Marian Hossa who is visiting his third consecutive final - hoping it will be third time lucky!
Their defence shows scars from previous battles, with Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook having left plenty of teeth on various US rinks. In goal the Hawks have newcomer, Finnish Antti Niemi who is a surprising starter but has repaid the faith with outstanding saves throughout the play-offs.
The Philadelphia Flyers only started to play well together in the final third of the regular season and are now the form team coming into the finals. They will look to Mike Richards and Chris Pronger to lead, although there is journeyman Michael Leighton providing the feel-good factor between the pipes (at least until he was yanked off in the first match of the Finals).
The first match of the Finals was rather more open than many expected. With the match tied at a remarkable 5-5 at the end of the second period, it was Chicago who stole the opener with a late goal in what was a much tighter final period.
Whoever wins, the triumphant city's fans will have cause to celebrate the casting off of years of pain - Chicago have not won since 1961 while the Flyers last lifted the Stanley Cup in 1975.
