Following a successful game between the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons in London this season, the NBA has announced another round of international games for 2013-14. The Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks will return to the O2 Arena on January 16. More significantly, the Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs will play the NBA’s first game in Mexico City in over 15 years on December 4 at Mexico City Arena.
The choice of the Spurs and Wolves for the NBA’s maiden voyage to Mexico is a logical one. The two teams boast two of the most high-profile native Spanish speakers in the NBA—Minnesota’s Ricky Rubio (from Spain) and San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili (from Argentina). The Timberwolves also have the Puerto Rican J.J. Barea.
The NBA has made a concerted effort in recent years to appeal to its international fanbase. In 2009, the league launched ene-be-a, an offshoot of NBA.com designed specifically for its Spanish-speaking fans.
This game will be the NBA’s second regular-season game in Mexico City, but its first in over 15 years. The Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets played a game there in 1997. Since then, the NBA has exploded in popularity on a global scale, and many more international players have come over.
In 2012, David Stern told reporters that he hopes the league will eventually expand into Europe, although he said that was more than a decade away. These international games will go a long way towards deciding how realistic that is.
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