{"id":432384,"date":"2025-09-18T00:15:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T00:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/432384\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T00:15:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T00:15:13","slug":"nba-u-k-government-invest-13-7m-to-grow-basketball-in-england-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/432384\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA, U.K. government invest $13.7M to grow basketball in England \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.K. government and NBA<\/a> have teamed up to expand recreational basketball in England<\/a> through an investment of 10 million pounds ($13.7 million) ahead of the possible launch of an NBA-affiliated league in Europe.<\/p>\n

The funds will go toward building courts and providing more playing opportunities for women, girls, people with disabilities and ethnic minorities, the government and NBA said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The announcement came a day after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that\u00a0a new basketball league based in Europe<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 which the NBA and FIBA hope to jointly launch \u2014 could begin play in 2027 or \u201928.<\/p>\n

The NBA is also set to play\u00a0at least six regular-season games in Europe\u00a0over the next three seasons, starting with a pair of games between the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic this season \u2014 in Berlin on Jan. 15, then in London on Jan. 18. A game will be played in Manchester, England in the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n

The government’s announcement Wednesday said both parties are “committed to exploring additional games in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Silver met at No. 10 Downing Street in July \u201cand have agreed to work together on the growth of basketball in the U.K. and potential future investment opportunities around NBA Europe,\u201d the government\u2019s announcement added.<\/p>\n

Each side will contribute 5 million pounds in the initiative.<\/p>\n

NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum thanked the government\u2019s efforts to \u201cprovide safe spaces for people of all backgrounds and abilities to learn and play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to working more closely together in the years to come, including around the potential launch of a new pan-European league that would bring more world-class basketball to fans in the U.K.,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Basketball is the second-most popular team sport for young people in England, the government said. It added that NBA fandom among U.K. adults has grown by 24% in the last three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasketball is booming in Britain \u2014 and this investment will help take it to the next level, opening up the game to thousands more people right across the country,” Starmer said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAs expected, Cooper Flagg went No. 1 overall to the Dallas Mavericks. The 76ers drafted Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe third overall. Here’s how the rest of the 2025 NBA Draft top 10 played out.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.K. government and NBA have teamed up to expand recreational basketball in England through an investment of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,12056,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-432384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115222421396251359","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}