NBA to stage regular season matches in London as part of 2012 Olympic build-up

August 9 - Regular season NBA matches are to be staged in London next year as the sport tries to maximise the development opportunities offered by the capital hosting the 2012 Olympics.

NBA commissioner David Stern has confirmed the Toronto Raptors will play the New Jersey Nets on March 4 and 5 next year at the O2 Arena, which will host the semi-finals and finals of the Olympic basketball tournament in 2012.

The game will follow four consecutive seasons in which the NBA have played pre-season friendlies at the O2, with the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers due to play Minnesota there in October this year.

"To me this is the next step in the progression about which we spoke leading up the London Olympics, which for us present an extraordinary opportunity for the continued growth of basketball in Europe and the NBA," Stern said.

He added that he wants to build on momentum being created by Great Britain's qualifying campaign for the European Championships, which continued with a 104-96 overtime win over Macedonia yesterday.

"I know there has been a lot of coverage recently of the Great Britain team leading up to EuroBasket," Stern said.

"I think it's great the sport is getting this coverage and I hope it will continue to get it in a positive way as sports fans in the UK get to see basketball at the highest level."

Stern had made the promise to bring a regular-season game to London before the Olympics while promoting previous friendly games, and the hope is that by giving fans a glimpse of a game played at full intensity, the NBA can showcase basketball at its very best.

"We want to give as much support to the 2012 Olympics as we can," he said.

"The London Olympics are going to focus many current and prospective NBA fans on our sport and it's going to make basketball shine as a sport of passion, intensity and teamwork, and a great deal of diversity and inclusiveness."

The Raptors and Nets both volunteered for the trip, and were selected from the interested parties due to the international diversity of their rosters, as there are likely to be many players on show in the game that will return with their countries to play in the Olympics.

"With the Raptors and Nets they're going to have, possibly but not certainly if they change their rosters, players from France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Lithuania ... this is going to demonstrate the global representation in this sport and lets fans appreciate what globalisation has meant to the sport.

"We want to capture the imagination of fans all over the world and it's very important to lead into the 2012 Olympics."

Stern expressed the hope that fans who buy tickets for the NBA games will then be inclined to return to watch Olympic basketball in 2012.

"In Beijing [at the 2008 Olympics] basketball was the hottest ticket in town," he said.

"We don't necessarily expect that to be the case in London but if things break right, in respect to Team Great Britain, I think there's a good possibility it will assume a role that folks in the UK might not have anticipated."

Britain's progress is likely to be key to the success of basketball in London.

The programme has made huge strides since being formed specifically with the Games in mind back in 2006, but is yet to be assured of its place in the Games by world governing body FIBA.

That is despite making a first ever appearance at a EuroBasket last year, while Chris Finch's team have started 2-0 in qualifiers for next year's tournament, and continue against Bosnia & Herzegovina in Sarajevo on Wednesday.