Silver continues to emphasise importance of global growth of the league…
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has revealed that his plan is to host the All-Star Game overseas in the future although there are no immediate plans to do so.
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Since taking office, Silver has made growing the game outside of the US one of his priorities, and as well as multiple pre-season games being played abroad, he continued his commitment to having a regular season game played in London.
Although there is no confirmation that there will be a game in the UK again next year as of yet, Silver has also discussed his vision of having four franchises based in Europe to create an additional division in the NBA. That would essentially make the plan more viable in terms of lessening the burden on teams based in the US.
Nevertheless, that isn’t expected to come to fruition for many years, and so in the meantime Silver has hinted at possibly having the All-Star game abroad in the coming years.
“There are no plans in the drawer yet, but it’s something that as the NBA continues to grow around the world I’m sure we’ll look at it down the road,” he told The New York Post.
“Right now, because of the scheduling issues and the additional time that would be required to move the game outside of the U.S. or Canada it’s not realistic right now. But as we look to grow the league, there are so many great cities outside the United States that would love to host a game. It’s something we’d look at.”
The game will be played in Toronto next year, effectively in another country albeit not a significant distance away, but it is certainly possible that London will not be far off from being given the opportunity to host the weekend.
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