PARIS — If you’re an NBA fan born in the United States, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a waste of time for teams to play games on European soil while altering your body’s internal body clock. their players. After all, why not stay the course and keep the National Basketball Association, well, national?
However, for NBA fans born in Europe, it’s anything but a waste of time. The league’s presence on the continent is actually vital to maintaining strong interest in the region and growing the game.
“Playing games outside of the United States and Canada is a critical part of the NBA’s year-round efforts to engage our passionate international fans, many of whom would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience the “excitement of an in-person NBA game,” NBA said. George Aivazoglou, general manager for Europe and the Middle East, told Yahoo Sports.
“While fans in Europe have 24-hour access to live NBA games, programming and content on the devices and platforms they use most, nothing can replace the live NBA experience, which is why we We have played more than 215 matches in more than 20 countries outside the United States and Canada, including almost 100 in Europe.
Aivazoglou is right. As an NBA writer who has covered the league from Denmark for 17 years, it’s simply necessary to see the league establish itself in Europe and dig deeper roots. In doing so, more basketball fans are created, which means more players and makes the NBA product more global.
This week, the NBA Paris Games are coming. Two games will be played on Thursday and Saturday, both between the Indiana Pacers and, to no one’s surprise, the San Antonio Spurs, featuring French superstar Victor Wembanyama.
The event is marketed everywhere and rightly so. Near the Accor Arena, with the game still more than 55 hours away, people were taking selfies with the NBA logo, carefully planted in the concrete outside the venue.
Posters, both print and digital, featuring numerous advertisements for both games, adorned the car ride from Charles de Gaulle airport during the approximately 40-minute journey through the bustling streets of Paris.
This makes sense for several reasons.
According to figures provided to Yahoo Sports by the NBA, the acquisition of Wembanyama dominates the French market.
Not only are the Spurs the most watched team in France, since Wembanyama’s debut in 2023, but the audience for Spurs matches on NBA League Pass stands at plus-233% compared to a comparable number of matches during seasons without him.
This underlines the importance of bringing the star to French soil, according to Aivazoglou.
“These games and the activities surrounding them serve as a catalyst for the continued growth of the game in Europe at a time when basketball is the fastest growing sport in the region,” Aivazoglou said.
Let’s put aside the numbers, impact, growth, ratings and analytics for a moment. Because there is something else at stake here.
He feels really important, and this feeling is everywhere, which means that East important.
The NBA is currently in its best era in basketball, and the vast majority of the biggest stars are international players, a large portion of whom are European. Nikola Jokić is the best player in all of basketball. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Dončić are not far behind. The aforementioned Wembanyama is closing in on the top five, if he’s not there already.
In no case can anyone reject the hypothesis that European interest is increasing, largely due to the representation of these talents. Not organizing an annual match on the continent would be pure professional misconduct.
It seems that, much to the delight of people here, the league agrees. The Paris Games, and those in London before them, are also generating enthusiasm within the ranks of the league, including teams, players and staff.
Some take the opportunity to bring family members and make it a working vacation, creating memories that will last a lifetime.
Two years ago, when the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons were in Paris to play, several members of the Chicago group of writers and content creators called the trip “once in a lifetime,” noting the importance of the visiting American perspective.
Ultimately, the NBA Paris Games represents what sport is all about: coming together across different cultures, beliefs and ideologies. These are, in part, reserved for the common effort to celebrate the common love of basketball.
City of Love, indeed.