NBA Commissioner Adam Silver “particularly excited” about future for NBA Abu Dhabi Games

“We’re particularly excited about, not just the opportunity here in Abu Dhabi, but the Gulf region generally,” Silver told reporters in the capital ahead of Friday’s tip-off. “We have a long history in this market, games have been televised for roughly 35 years.

“The game is probably 100-years old here in the Middle East… Today, we’re the second-most-popular sport after football and the fastest-growing sport in the world, in terms of basketball.

“One of the things in particular we’re excited about is the dramatic increase we’re seeing in girls and young women playing. I was at the Abu Dhabi Campus of NYU [New York University], where we have a program called ‘Her Time To Play’.

“We had approximately 130 girls, 11-14 years old… There were two components to the program; there was about an hour spent in conversation with these players about the values of the game, life skills, importance of hard work and respect for the game, dedication to your craft and then an hour on the court, in terms of basketball experience.

“We’ve had an opportunity over the last week here with our on-the-ground basketball through Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA programs to connect with more than 7,000 kids. That includes 450 coaches, some based here, some who travelled here for the basketball portion of this experience.

“From our standpoint, it’s been very successful so far.”

Bonds between the NBA and Middle East have gone from strength to strength. In addition to NBA Abu Dhabi Games, Jr. NBA/WNBA and NBA Basketball School programs have been established, while UAE airline Emirates have been named Global Airline Partner of the NBA and Title Partner of Emirates NBA Cup.

NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum was convinced this is just the start.

He said: “I think the number of partnerships that you’re going to see here in the region I think will grow. Emirates is a partner of ours with the new NBA Cup, they’ve been terrific partners in the region.

“We have a partnership with the Qatar Foundation to do grassroots programs, Jr. NBA programs in Qatar for boys and girls, too. BeIN has been a long-standing media partner of ours throughout the entire Middle East and North Africa.

“I think the partnerships that we develop here, local companies Aldar, ADQ are also investing in basketball. I think that will continue to grow over the next five years as well.”

Growth in playing and training opportunities was also a key theme for Commissioner Silver. He hoped to take advantage of Abu Dhabi’s status as “a sports and entertainment hub for the whole region”, potentially bringing an elite academy to the UAE.

He said: “We’re focused on some elite training here. Abu Dhabi has become a sports and entertainment hub for the whole region, we see an opportunity potentially with an elite academy here to bring in young people from the region broadly described… and take some of the best youth players and bring them here to train together, to develop to play at the highest levels for their national teams and potentially in professional competition.”

It is not just the giant footprint of NBA’s superstars that has been felt in Abu Dhabi. Participation in Jr. NBA/WNBA leagues has grown exponentially across the UAE, with Tatum taking particular pride in their development.

He said: “I think the main learning is that if you invest in the community, invest in giving kids the opportunity to play the game of basketball, you will see a tremendous impact.

“That is part of the partnership. When we first sat down with Abu Dhabi, it wasn’t just about the games, it was about the activities we’d create around the games.

“They understood that it was a good thing to get more kids active, playing the game of basketball. That is why we started off in that first year creating Jr. NBA programs for boys and girls.

“Participation is up 60 per cent in the UAE, 120 Jr. NBA leagues this year up from 90 last year. Those are the things for governments around the world, Abu Dhabi is saying ‘that’s a good thing for us’.”