It’s not Victor Wembanyama, but the NBA’s Paris game for this season stands to be special anyway.
The league announced Wednesday that the Brooklyn Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers will play in Paris on Jan. 11, about seven months before the city hosts the 2024 Olympics — and with it perhaps the most anticipated global basketball tournament ever.
This will be the third NBA regular-season game in Paris. The Pistons and Bulls played there last season.
GO DEEPER
How the international game made Malcolm Hill an NBA player
In perhaps a bit of a surprise, the San Antonio Spurs, who drafted 19-year-old French sensation Wembanyama first last month, are not included in this game, but the Spurs played internationally last season in Mexico City. The Nets will have two current Team USA members on the floor in January — Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson — and Bridges is an early favorite to make the Olympic team from the FIBA World Cup roster this summer.
The Cavs, meanwhile, have at least two players who passed on playing for Team USA this summer: Jarrett Allen and Donovan Mitchell. Both decided not to play for personal reasons, the NBA said. Cleveland’s Evan Mobley could be a member of the Americans’ select team (secondary roster) this summer.
The Paris Olympics are expected to feature a men’s basketball tournament in which some of the biggest American stars, such as Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and possibly even LeBron James, could suit up despite being in the advanced stages of their NBA careers. The host country is also expected to field an extremely strong team, as are the Canadians, Australians, Slovenians, Serbians, and Greeks (if they qualify for Paris) — all with NBA stars on their rosters.
Brooklyn last played overseas in 2019 in China — during an infamous period in league history when former Rockets general manager Daryl Morey sent a tweet in support of Hong Kong protesters while the Nets and Lakers were on their way to Shanghai, angering the Chinese government and basically trapping the two teams in their hotel for most of the trip. Cleveland’s last international appearance was in Rio de Janeiro in 2014 when LeBron James rejoined the team and immediately faced his former teammates on the Miami Heat.
Required reading
(Photo: Wendell Cruz / USA Today)