London in line to host NBA All-Star Game, says commissioner Adam Silver

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London calling | LeBron James in action during last year’s NBA All-Star Game
Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
James Benge11 January 2018

London could host the NBA’s prestigious All-Star Game featuring the best names in basketball, says league commissioner Adam Silver.

The O2 Arena will tonight stage its eighth regular-season game, as Eastern Conference leaders Boston Celtics take on an exciting young Philadelphia 76ers side led by star centre Joel Embiid.

With each NBA team playing 82 games over five months, it is highly improbable that the league will be able to follow in the footsteps of the NFL, with a franchise in London likely one day.

However, Silver is eager to see London host the league’s All-Star Weekend, which culminates in a match-up between the NBA’s top 24 players and features the likes of LeBron James, Stephen Curry and James Harden.

NBA London 2017 | Denver Nuggets vs Indiana Pacers | 12/01/2017

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“It’s something we’d love to do, to play our All-Star Game in London or Europe,” Silver told Standard Sport. “We have talked about it for years. Logistically it’s very difficult because of the length of break we’d have to take around the game but in terms of doing things on a one-off basis it’s much more possible than bringing a franchise over here.

“The payoff in terms of fan interest is arguably that much greater even than playing a single game here.”

It could be some time before the showpiece game moves outside the United States - Indianapolis has just been announced as the 2021 host - but in the meantime fans can be sure that there is a long list of teams eager to follow the Celtics and 76ers across the Atlantic.

“There’s actually a waiting list of teams who want to participate in these games,” Silver said.

“There could be [more than one game a year] but ultimately it’s not clear that doing one-off games is something that scales.

“If we’re not in a place where we can bring a team to Europe, adding a few more regular season games doesn’t accomplish much. But on the other side it makes it that much more difficult to schedule our games back in the United States.

“Even though we added a week to our schedule with the same number of games we still have roughly three-and-a-half games to schedule a week. In the case of the 76ers and Celtics neither one of them will play for roughly five games before the game tomorrow and neither one of them will play for roughly three days after they return. We have to make those days somewhere in the schedule.

“t’s a trade-off they’ll accept, especially because we’re not even halfway through our season. Nobody’s concerned it will have implications on their ability to be successful in the Playoffs but as you get later in our season that becomes an issue as well.

“Maybe Concorde will come back? There’s lots of things from a technology stand point that will make it easier to play games in Europe but at least at the moment we’re satisfied with our existing presence.”

The status quo does mean that most European fans are probably never going to see their favourite teams and players in the flesh but Silver is sanguine over the issue, noting that the NBA is “a programming company” looking for the best way to bring its product to the world.

“At the end of the day the vast majority of our fans will only see us through some form of media, even in the United States the vast majority of our fans never see a game in person.

“For us it’s about how can we embrace new technologies and find better, more advanced ways to bring the games directly to our fans. Maybe over time we’ll look to play more games in the US that are at times that are more convenient for British and European viewers.

“We know there’s enormous interest, especially among young fans who are consuming enormous amount of NBA content through social media.”

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