Euroleague teams to host NBA in October
Euroleague Basketball is proud to announce that a pair of its teams will highlight their preparations for next season by playing exhibition games against NBA opponents at their home arenas in early October. For the second season in a row, Fenerbahce Ulker of Turkey will welcome an NBA visitor to Istanbul, while Uxue Bilbao Basket of Spain will play its first game ever against an NBA team. The two dates for 2013 continue an ongoing collaboration between Euroleague Basketball and NBA teams that has seen their teams play a total of 48 pre-season exhibition games on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean over the last seven years.
“We are very happy to continue our successful collaboration with the NBA,” Roser Queraltó, Euroleague Basketball Chief Business Development Officer, stated. “Since 2006 we have offered our fans the opportunity to enjoy games with teams coming from the best leagues in the world and bringing basketball to an international stage with the aim of continuing its enormous growth. I am sure that our fans in Istanbul and Bilbao will enjoy these games.”
Fenerbahce Ulker will host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday, October 5, 2013. That is a special date for the hosts, as it will mark exactly one year since their very first game against an NBA opponent, a 97-91 victory over the Boston Celtics on October 5, 2012.
Fenerbahce Ulker is a five-time Turkish League champion whose roster features three former All-Euroleague selections: Mike Batiste and David Andersen, who also won five Euroleague titles between them, and 2012 Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy winner Bo McCalebb.
The Oklahoma City Thunder is a perennial NBA playoff team whose roster includes four-time all-star and three-time NBA leading scorer Kevin Durant and his fellow 2012 Olympic gold medalist, Russell Westbrook. The date with Fenerbahce Ulker will mark Oklahoma City’s first game ever on Asian soil.
“Having hosted the Boston Celtics in a sold-out arena and a joyous environment last autumn, we are very happy and excited to host another NBA team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, on October 5, 2013 in Europe’s most beautiful arena,” Kemal Dincer, Fenerbahce’s Basketball Branch General Coordinator, said. “We are going to do whatever is necessary for this to be the entertainment event of the year.”
One night later, on Sunday, October 6, Uxue Bilbao will play host to the Philadelphia 76ers. Bilbao was a playoff participant in the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague season, its first in the top continental competition, and had been a semifinalist in each of the two previous Eurocup seasons. The current roster of the “men in black”, as Bilbao is affectionately known, boasts a former world champion in Alex Mumbru and European national champs in Nikos Zisis and Raul Lopez.
Philadelphia, whose current roster features 2013 NBA all-star Jrue Holiday, previously played one game in Barcelona, Spain, and two games in Cologne, Germany in 2006.
“We are very happy to increase our existing collaboration with the NBA by playing a friendly game against an NBA team,” Predrag Savovic, Uxue Bilbao Basket President, said. “This kind of initiative reinforces the high level reached by Uxue Bilbao and it is also very important for Bilbao to be the host city for such an interesting game, like Milano, Istanbul, Madrid, Berlin, Barcelona and other European capitals in previous editions. We are confident that this game will be a great showcase to show the touristic interest of Bilbao on a global basis.”
The Thunder and 76ers will complete their European schedule with a game against each other on Oct. 8 in Manchester, England at the Manchester Arena. For the second year in a row the NBA’s series of games in Europe will be presented by BBVA, the league’s official bank partner, with Garanti Bank, which is part-owned by BBVA, to be presenting the game in Istanbul.
“These games continue the NBA’s decades-long tradition of bringing the live NBA experience to our fans in Europe and is a testament to our commitment to grow the game on the continent,” Benjamin Morel, Senior Vice President, NBA Europe, said. “With the collaboration of Euroleague Basketball and the support of BBVA and all of our partners, we look forward to bringing the excitement of our game to fans in Europe.”