LONDON — Tomas Satoransky wanted out of practice.



He wasn’t sick. He wasn’t hurt. He was merely a budding teenager who wished to do budding-teenager things. And that meant watching his favorite basketball player, Kobe Bryant. But doing so wasn’t easy for Satoransky, who grew up in Prague.



He loved Bryant. He wore No. 8 for him as a kid. He spent much of his youth scavenging the Internet for Kobe and Shaq highlights. But unlike the American Bryant fan, he didn’t get to watch his idol’s games all too often.



See, Satoransky suffered from a complication that is common and inescapable inside the Czech Republic and surrounding countries. His hometown was nine hours ahead of Los Angeles, which meant the Lakers game wouldn’t even start until 4 a.m. his time. It’s a problem European diehards have to deal with — in some form — from October until June. Maybe there’d be days when the Lakers were on the...