Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo is unarguably the biggest name currently in the NBA and has a global fan following so it made sense for him to headline the NBA’s first-ever foray into the Gulf region alongside Atlanta Hawks’ Trey Young as the two teams played the NBA’s first game in the region on Thursday inside a sold-out Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
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Even though the Bucks were named favorites for this season’s title in the annual survey of the league’s 30 general managers, they lost the first pre-season game 123-113, but there was no denying the fact that Antetokounmpo was the star attraction of the night. with 18,000 strong fans in attendance giving a loud shout out to the 27-year-old forward every time he had the ball in his hand.
Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 19 points, but it was debutant Dejounte Murray for the Hawks who top-scored 25 points with nine assists and eight rebounds, followed by teammate Trae Young who had 22 points.
The NBA Experience in Abu Dhabi is part of the league’s expansion plans and resumption of overseas trips after the pandemic. The current champions The Golden State Warriors had two pre-season games in Japan against Washington Wizards in Japan and talking about his experience playing in Abu Dhabi, Antetokounmpo said, “playing in Abu Dhabi was fun, it was an exciting game, a different crowd , different energy, he said, adding, “I will be with my family going through this experience, making new memories unique experience in this city, something I will talk about with my kids years from now.”
Antetokounmpo was also posed a rather interesting question on which two countries he would like to play in the next pre-season games and even though he missed out on mentioning his own country, Greece, the 2019 and 2020 MVP of the year picked China and India as the two places he would like to play.
“I have played in London, I have played in Paris, played for the first time in Abu Dhabi… I have gotta think about this. I would love to play in China, maybe Shanghai or Beijing; that will be a fine experience. And maybe somewhere in India try to expand the game as much as possible and make it global and reach places that we have not reached. A lot of people around the world love basketball and we have got to present [NBA] and we want to create something for the fans,” he said.
NBA did visit Indian shores way back in 2019 with two games in Mumbai featuring the Indiana Pacers and the Sacramento Kings before the pandemic and Adam Silver, Commissioner of the NBA also talked about the league’s intention to visit again ahead of the game on Thursday.
“We do have plans to come back to India and again that was one of the setbacks that occurred with the pandemic, as you recall, it was the fall right before the pandemic really hit the whole world,” he had said earlier.
The Bucks and Hawks will face off in the second pre-season game on Saturday at the Etihad Arena.
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