The NBA returns to Abu Dhabi this week as Arabian Gulf countries increasingly use their wealth to establish a foothold with the league.
The Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves play Thursday in the first of two preseason games in the United Arab Emirates capital, but most of the real action is taking place off the court.
Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is buying a minority stake in the Washington Wizards with the move coming less than a year after the league’s Board of Governors opened the door to such institutional investors.
LeBron James recently visited Saudi Arabia on a trip that came a couple of months after the Los Angeles Lakers star joked on social media that he’d accept the kind of astronomical figures that the Saudis are paying to lure soccer stars.
The Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks played preseason games in Abu Dhabi a year ago after the NBA signed a multiyear partnership with the emirate’s department of culture and tourism. It was the first time the league had staged games in the oil-rich Arabian Gulf — also called the Persian Gulf.
@Dallas Mavericks
