The NBA is once again, coming to Mexico.
The league announced on Wednesday the Phoenix Suns will host two home games in Mexico against the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs on January 12 and January 14, 2017.
It’s the first time in league history that two regular season games will be hosted in Mexico in the same season. Mexico has hosted 22 preseason and regular season NBA games since 1990-91. The Boston Celtics and Sacramento Kings faced off in Mexico last December.
It was further announced the matchups, called the NBA Global Games Mexico City 2017, will feature multiple fan and community events.
https://twitter.com/harrylylesjr/status/755765242915872768
It’s awesome to see the NBA continue to make efforts to expand the game outside the U.S. and Canada. Hosting two games in Mexico should help in the effort. Fans of the Phoenix Suns get the short end of the stick, as they lose two home games, but at least it’s at the expense of watching them represent you in another country.
The Phoenix area has many connections to Mexico (as Arizona obviously borders Mexico), so they’re the perfect team to represent the NBA in consecutive games. The Suns are the closest thing Mexicans have to an actual team. It wouldn’t be at all surprising to see the arena packed full of Suns fans who made the trip.
The NBA’s effort here to include Mexico in the league is tremendous. Two consecutive games in a non-NBA arena is practically unheard of. Adam Silver continues to take the league in a positive direction.
