For the past four years, the NBA has played a preseason game in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, as the league tries to expand its fan base in the region (and cozy up to the kind of monied families that the NBA always wants to keep close).
Not this year. Due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East between the U.S., Israel and Iran, the NBA is staying away, reports Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst of ESPN. Sources with the league told ESPN the NBA will return to the Middle East for preseason games in the future, just not this year.
This should not be a surprise, especially considering Iran has launched missile and drone attacks into the UAE targeting military and oil production facilities. The NBA isn’t the only sports league facing this situation. Formula 1 had already postponed its Bahrain stop (now taking place in Malaysia in October), and it still has yet to announce plans for races scheduled in Abu Dhabi and Qatar later this year.
The NBA did not announce preseason games in Abu Dhabi this year, as it has in the past. The NBA is still going overseas this preseason with the Mavericks and Rockets playing a couple of games in October at The Venetian Arena in Macao, China. The NBA also will play regular season games, one in Paris and one in Manchester, England, in January.
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