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…
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