The NBA Has Gone Middle Eastern 🌍

The NBA Goes Middle Eastern

We all knew the the NBA would eventually find a sponsor for the In-Season tournament.

I thought it would be something standard like State Farm, but not even close…

The NBA sold the naming rights to Emirates Airlines and it will now be called…

“The Emirates NBA Cup”

That wasn’t enough though!

As a little sweetener, the NBA tossed the refs into the deal.

At this year’s All-Star game you’ll see them rocking Emirates jersey patches.

Now on the surface, maybe this doesn’t seem like a big deal.

I’d agree with you there.

Nothings really gonna change in the short term, but in the long run it’s massive.

This is proof that the Gulf States want in on basketball.

To be clear Emirates isn’t a Saudi company. Their HQ is in Dubai, but we’ve seen this play out before.

Emirates started sponsoring top European Football clubs in 2011.

Phase 2 of that plan was to buy the clubs outright…

• Man City: Emirati owner

• PSG: Qatari owner

• Aston Villa: Egyptian owner

• Newcastle & Sheffield: Saudi owners

Phase 3 was writing ridiculous checks to lure superstars like Ronaldo and Neymar to Saudi - who is obviously the most important player here.

Their gameplan is to be more like Dubai, because Dubai drives global tourism.

Sports help them do this and they’re not stopping at golf, soccer or boxing.

Basketball is the world’s 2nd most popular sport and they want a slice of the pie.

Now it might take a few years, but do not be surprised when you start seeing Saudi billionaires making offers to buy teams and NBA stars signing $800 million contracts…

…to take their talents to Riyadh.

- FMS

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