NBA Deputy Commissioner Glows About NBA's Global Reach

The NBA is no longer just a domestic league. Over the last couple of decades, the NBA has gone from a primarily American league with a few international players to a global league made up of the greatest basketball players from everywhere in the world. 

To highlight this, the NBA decided to make this season’s All-Star game formatted as USA teams vs. Team World. Part of this was to increase the competitive nature of the game, but it was also a good opportunity to highlight the league’s diversity and international reach. 

NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum recently spoke about the global reach of today’s NBA and how excited he is about it. He was specifically asked by Israeli media about Deni Avdija’s naming to the All-Star team. 

"Oh, it's amazing. This game is played and loved all over the world based on just the fact that nearly 30% of our players (note: NBA players) were born outside the United States; to see Deni as an All-Star now is fantastic. This whole concept of the USA vs. the world - a lot of people have been asking for that, so it's nice to be able to bring the international players together - they're such impactful players, and to create this opportunity for the USA to play the world, especially with our new partner NBC and during the Olympics...We know that Israeli fans all over the world are staying up late and watching Deni; and he is such a great, great young man, and such a great representative, so we're excited to have him in the league.”

The NBA vs. World setup did actually work. The All-Star game was more interesting than it had been for years. Perhaps the league will continue with this setup to continue to showcase how global the league has become.