The Golden State Warriors, still flying high after winning the NBA Finals back in June, just touched down in Japan.
The team isn’t there to take a vacation or run a training camp but is instead there to play games.
They are going to face off against the Washington Wizards this weekend in a couple of preseason games in Tokyo.
There are many NBA fans here in America who aren’t even aware of the international games but it’s a big deal in Japan.
The NBA is using a 3D billboard in Japan to promote this weekend's Warriors-Wizards series 🇯🇵pic.twitter.com/7QnuSQMNw8
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) September 27, 2022
To raise awareness about the games, a very unique and jaw-dropping billboard is lit up in Tokyo, featuring the Warriors in a flashy manga-inspired look.
It’s a great ad and a wonderful way to catch the attention of Japanese fans.
These games in Japan might be the biggest and perhaps most consequential international games in the history of the league.
An International Game
The first international preseason games were played back in the late 1970s but things were really taken up a notch in the 1990s.
It was then that Commissioner David Stern attempted to bring in even more global fans.
To do this, the league held regular season games in Japan between the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz.
This was just one part of the NBA’s goal of finding more foreign fans to root on the league – and possibly play for it someday.
This push in the 90s would eventually lead to stars such as Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, and others.
As the game found more fans in other countries, it inspired young players to set their sights on joining the league.
Now you can understand why Adam Silver is so intent on keeping this tradition alive.
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