NBA announces regular season games in London and Mexico City

In December of 2013, the NBA ventured to Mexico City for a regular season game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Minnesota Timberwolves. While it seemed like a fantastic idea on paper to spread the game’s popularity in that area, things turned disastrous in a hurry when the game had to be cancelled because of an in-arena fire. However, the league is apparently determined to hold a game in that location, as they announced two cities for this year’s Global Games, and they are Mexico City and London.

Here is the release from the league:

"The Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves will play at the Mexico City Arena on Nov. 12, as part of NBA Global Games Mexico City 2014. NBA Global Games London 2015 will feature a game between the Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks at The O2 on Jan. 15.The two regular-season games will follow the NBA Global Games preseason games in October that will feature five teams — the Brooklyn Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Sacramento Kings, and San Antonio Spurs — playing a series of games in Brazil, China, Germany, and Turkey."

It is tough to blame the league for trying in Mexico City again, especially after what seemed to be a fluke instance, and the existence of the London game is an obvious one after success there in the past. The Timberwolves are an interesting choice for the Mexico City affair, simply because they were victims of the previous year’s blunder, but aside from that, the Knicks and Rockets have worldwide appeal already, and the Bucks are about to have one of the well-known prospects from this year’s draft.

Adam Silver and the NBA will likely continue to aim for expansion of their brand, and this is a solid way to market the NBA abroad.