The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced its regular-season European schedule for the 2025-2026 seasons and unveiled plans to play regular-season games in Paris (France), Berlin (Germany) and Manchester (UK) in 2027 and 2028.
‘yahoo!sports’ stated that the National Basketball Association (NBA) team Memphis Grizzlies and the Orlando Magic will play two games in Europe this season – in Berlin (Germany) on January 15th and in London (UK) on January 18th.
New York (US)-based the National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams. The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional basketball league in the world.
Observed George Aivazoglou, NBA Managing Director, Europe and Middle East, “Announcing the next three season’s regular-season games in Europe reflects the incredible momentum and appetite for NBA basketball in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and across the region. We look forward to welcoming the Grizzlies and the Magic to Berlin and London and to engaging the fans, the players and the local communities through the games and the surrounding events.”
The Magic’s Franz Wagner (German basketball small forward) and Moritz Wagner (German basketball power forward) are from Germany and the Berlin game will be the NBA’s first regular-season game in the country.
The Wagner Brothers said in a joint statement, “To have the Orlando Magic and the NBA play a regular-season game in our hometown of Berlin means everything to us. Growing up here we dreamed of moments like this. It’s a huge honor to represent Berlin and Germany and show how much the City and the country love basketball. We hope we can inspire the kids the way we were inspired watching games from afar.”
‘yahoo! sports’ further stated that the NBA’s push into the European market has been steady and unsurprising. As the league considers expansion of its North American-based league it is also exploring the creation of a new league based in Europe – with the idea of adding already existing franchises and creating franchises in the underserved markets.
Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner, said at the NBA Finals, “Just as the same as in the American Cities we think there’s an opportunity to serve the fans in Europe. No knock on European basketball because most of those international Most Valuable Players (MVPs) I just talked about are coming from Europe. There’s really high-level basketball being played there. But we think there is an opportunity to better serve the fans there. I view that as a form of expansion as well and that’s something we’re also thinking hard about.”
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