Victor Wembanyama returns to France: How many NBA games have been played overseas?

The San Antonio Spurs will play two regular season games against the Indiana Paces in Paris, France next year as part of the NBA Global Games. The matches will be played on 23 and 25 January 2025, at the AccorArena.

The overseas match-up will give Spurs star Victor Wembanyama the chance to return to his native France after a stellar start to life in the NBA. Wembanyama is expected to clinch the 2023/24 NBA Rookie of the Year award after being the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft.

Wembanyama played for Parisian team Metropolitans 92 before declaring for the 2023 NBA Draft. The Spurs will be hoping to benefit from Wembanyama’s celebrity status back in his native country, where they previously played a regular season fixture in 2003.

How many NBA Global Games have there been?

There have been countless preseason matches played overseas but the list of regular season NBA games played in other countries is comparatively short. So far there have been 37 regular season fixtures played overseas, with next year’s Parisian double-header set to take the figure to 39.

The first of these games came in November 1990 when the Pheonix Suns and the Utah Jazz met at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, Tokyo for a two-game series. Japan became a popular haunt for NBA side looking to broaden their global standing, with 12 of the first 13 Global Games being played in the Asian country. The only exception was a meeting between the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks at Palacio de los Deportes, Mexico.

There was an eight-year break between 2003 and 2011, before a flurry of games played at The O2 Arena, London. In recent years Mexico City, Paris and London have been the most popular destination for these mid-season jaunts. The most recent NBA Global Game was a meeting between the Brooklyn Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers in AccorArena, Paris with 15,887 fans in attendance.