PICTURES: Manchester United players at NBA game – Januzaj, Rio, De Gea and Fletcher

Rio Ferdinand, Darren Fletcher, Sam Johnstone, David De Gea were at the NBA Global Games 2013 match between Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Philadelphia 76ers at the Phones 4 U Arena in Manchester tonight.

Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand has described it as “phenomenal” to have Olympic gold medallist Kevin Durant returning to Manchester tonight to play for the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Phones 4 U Arena as part of NBA Global Games 2013.

Durant, who has led the NBA in scoring in three separate seasons, played at the arena for USA Basketball against Great Britain last summer and returns tonight for the first-ever NBA game in the UK outside of London..

Ferdinand said: “I am so happy that the NBA are bringing two teams to Manchester, we here in England love the NBA and watch it all the time and to have a superstar like Kevin Durant coming and playing is just phenomenal so we can’t wait to watch, to get a little bit closer to these guys and see how big they really are, to see how great they are, such great athletes

“It’s great that such a major sport like the NBA is coming to the UK and especially Manchester, we as sportsmen look at other sports to see how they prepare for the games and then how they put that preparation into the game so it’s a real insight for us, a few of the lads have been talking about this and we can’t wait for it to get started.”