Usually, the National Basketball Association goes on a tour abroad for the NBA Global Games during the preseason. But this week, the league showcased regular season games in Mexico and London and with the success of those games, a midseason tournament in Mexico might be on the way for the NBA.
The NBA held a game between the Indiana Pacers and the Denver Nuggets in London while the Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs and the Phoenix Suns starred in back-to-back games in Mexico City. Silver, while talking to the press in Mexico City, revealed that the league is looking to add more regular season games or some sort of tournament in Mexico City, SB Nation reported.
Moreover, Silver said that the possibility of taking an NBA franchise to Mexico City is still not in the horizon and they will first test waters by adding regular season games. The success of the game between the Spurs and Suns, which drew a sellout crowd of 20,532 at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico, may have paved the way for the league to consider having a midseason tournament in the city.
Expanding throughout the Latin America is just a part of NBA's globalization as the league has 13 regional offices all over the world, with the two offices recently opened in Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, USA Today reported. Through the years, there has been an increase in international players which has now reached 113 players from 41 different countries.
Also, the NBA claims to have a solid fanbase of 50 million throughout the Latin America with 17 million fans in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Columbia alone. If the league decides to take a franchise in Mexico City, it would tap on the market of its 20 million population, and can possibly create a bigger fanbase throughout Mexico which has a population of 122 million.
Watch the video below for Silver's press conference in Mexico: