NBA pre-season games to be played in India next year
The National Basketball Association has announced that Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings will play two pre-season games in Mumbai next year. NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum and NBA India Managing Director Yannick Colaco made the announcement today during a function in Mumbai.
Historic NBA India Games 2019 will feature the Sacramento Kings and Indiana Pacers on October 4 and 5 in Mumbai. Tickets to the games will go on sale at a later date. The matches will mark the first games the NBA has played in India and the first games staged in the country by a North American sports league.
In addition to the games, the league and its partners will conduct interactive fan activities, Jr. NBA youth basketball programming and NBA Cares community outreach events that will bring the NBA experience to fans in Mumbai. The NBA India Games 2019 will be produced by BookMyShow and AEG and supported by a roster of marketing and merchandising partners. The games will air live in
“We are proud to be the first global sports league to bring games of this scale to India. The NBA and basketball have never been more popular in India, and fans will get to enjoy world-class showcases for our sport between two exciting teams in the Sacramento Kings and the Indiana Pacers,” said NBA India Managing Director Yannick Colaco.
The Kings, under the leadership of the NBA’s first Indian-born majority owner and Mumbai-native Vivek Ranadivé, currently features 2018 No. 2 overall draft pick Marvin Bagley III, 2017 No. 5 overall draft pick De’Aaron Fox and 2016 No. 6 overall draft pick Buddy Hield (Bahamas). The Pacers’ roster currently features 2018 NBA All-Star Victor Oladipo, 2016 NBA All-Rookie second team member Myles Turner and 2016 No. 11 overall draft pick Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania).
More than 350 live NBA games are available each season on SONY TEN 1, SONY TEN 3 and SONY ESPN, including 78 games with Hindi commentary. The 2018-19 season also includes five consecutive Sunday games from March 10 to April 7 that will air in primetime in India, marking the second straight year that five games will be televised in primetime.
Since 2006, more than 35 current and former NBA and WNBA players have visited India on behalf of the NBA. The NBA office in Mumbai opened in 2011.
The NBA Academy India, an elite basketball training center in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) for the top male and female prospects from throughout India and the first of its kind in the country, officially opened in May 2017 and builds on the NBA’s existing basketball and youth development initiatives in India, including The Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program that has reached more than 10 million youth from 10,000 schools and trained more than 10,000 physical education instructors nationwide since its launch in 2013.
“Our inaugural NBA India Games will help further
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