The Sacramento Kings and Indiana Pacers will play two preseason games at the NSCI Dome in Mumbai next year, marking the first time ever that a North American pro sports team will play in India. It had been rumored for a while now but the decision finally came across. The announcement was made Thursday by NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum and NBA India Managing Director Yannick Colaco in Mumbai, according to the NBA.
The commissioner of the NBA Adam Silver hopes that the games in India will ‘further untap the enormous basketball potential’ in a country with the world’s second-largest population. Silver said in a statement released by the NBA:
“Our inaugural NBA India Games will help further untap the enormous basketball potential in a country with a thriving sports culture and a growing, young and engaged population,” Silver said.
The NBA opened an office in Mumbai in 2011 and most recently the NBA Academy India in 2017 for elite prospects in the country. Currently, there are more than 350 televised games on different channels in India, including 78 broadcasts in the country’s most widely spoken language, Hindi, according to the NBA.
Kings owner Vivek Ranadive who is originally from Mumbai was very excited to be included in the ground-breaking decision:
“The Sacramento Kings are proud to be playing in the first NBA games ever held in India. As an Indian-American, it is an honor to help bring this historic moment to the country where I was raised. The sport is experiencing tremendous growth in India and we are excited about continuing to expand the NBA’s reach to fans across the globe. The world wants to watch basketball and India is a fast-growing new frontier,” Vivek said.
In 2010 Vivek became the first Indian owner of an NBA team with the Golden State Warriors. Now as the Kings majority owner, Vivek hosts an annual Bollywood Night in Sacramento and in 2017 streamed a Kings game live on Facebook for users in India.
