The high octane glitz of NBA basketball will descend on Paris on Thursday night as the San Antonio Spurs - who feature the French star Victor Wembanyama - take on the Indiana Pacers in the first of two regular season games.
The teams will play at the Accor Arena in Bercy, south-eastern Paris, in front of a sell-out crowd of 18,000 people.
The Spurs stand 12th in the Western Conference mid way through the 2024/2025 campaign while the Pacers lie fifth in the Eastern Conference.
On Monday, shortly after arriving in France, Wembanyama limbered up with his teammates at the Palais des sports Maurice-Thorez in Nanterre, north-western Paris, where he spent his formative years playing for Nanterre 92.
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"Obviously there are lots of emotions coming back here," said the 21-year-old who turned out for the club between 2014 and 2021 before before moving to ASVEL Lyon-Villurbanne.
"Seeing the town, the club and the people who work at the arena, it has been a real pleasure.
“This trip is my way of giving back a little to the French public, trying to please many people who might never have the chance to go to the United States to see a game."
Tour
NBA chiefs have sanctioned regular season matches in Paris since 2020 as part of an international drive to boost the popularity of NBA teams.
Mexico has hosted pre-season and regular season NBA games for more than 30 years. NBA superstars have also played in Britain and Japan.
As part of the pre-match interaction with communities around Paris, Jim Boylen from the Indiana Pacers and Mike Noyes from the San Antonio Spurs held clinics on tactics for basketball coaches while players from both teams ran coaching and education clinics for youngsters.
"Basketball is on fire here in France," said Boylen, an assistant coach at the Pacers. "The level of talent and the coaching is up there. It's amazing how every year there are three or four guys who come into the NBA ready to play and they understand how to play. It’s very impressive.”
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Remainder
With three months left of the regular season, both teams will be looking for victories on Thursday and Saturday night to help them move into the slots for the post season play-offs comprising 16 teams.
The top six from each conference advance automatically and the following four teams contest the play-ins for the two remaining berths.
The eight teams then fight to become conference champions. Once that accolade has been acquired, the victors then slug it out with their counterparts from the other conference for the overall NBA crown.
The Spurs have brandished the supreme title on five occasions since they were founded in 1967 as the Dallas Chapparals. The Pacers have yet to lift an NBA trophy in their 58-year history.
