On 1 October, the NBA confirmed it had closed NBA Academy Africa, its only elite training centre on the continent, Reuters reported from Dakar. Eight days later, the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets tip off in Macao in front of one of the longest sponsor lists the league has ever put on an overseas preseason game.
Neither story makes sense on its own. Read together, they show a league that has stopped treating international basketball as a mission and started running it as a portfolio: some markets for revenue, some for asset sales, and a single hub where the development work now happens.
Senegal out
The academy opened in Saly in 2018 and trained around 110 students. Many went on to elite US schools and universities, and its most successful graduates were drafted, per the same Reuters report. Its best-known alumni include Khaman Maluach and Ulrich Chomche, both now in the NBA, as Yardbarker noted.
The league told Reuters the move reflects a shift in its global development strategy. It has already closed academies in Mexico and Australia. NBA senior vice president Troy Justice said the league remains committed to developing the next generation of African players.
The elite programme is not ending, it is moving. Development work now runs through the new NBA Global Academy in Abu Dhabi, per Eastleigh Voice. The Gulf, which already hosts NBA preseason games and the EuroLeague SuperCup we covered last edition, has now taken over the league's player pipeline as well.
The reaction in Africa has been sharp. Michael Abbott, the academy's former head of academic planning, told Reuters the decision showed commercial considerations winning out over students. He also accused big companies of arriving on the continent with an "extraction mindset."
Africa as an asset sale
The timing is what makes the closure awkward. It lands in the middle of the NBA's push to sell permanent Basketball Africa League franchises, the process whose $50 million-plus bids we covered last edition.
The new detail is how the league is running that sale:
Government talks. NBA executives lined up meetings with African government officials during UN General Assembly week, before going back to preferred bidders, Sports Business Journal reported, as relayed by Diya TV.
A phased start. Deputy commissioner Mark Tatum has said the league plans to start with four franchises and build toward 10 over several years, per Andscape.
An investment bank. The league has hired Moelis to run the process.
The result is a league that is cutting a cost centre in Senegal while selling equity in a revenue centre a few hundred miles away. Both decisions can make financial sense at the same time. What the NBA has not yet explained is how buyers of BAL franchises should read the closure of the academy meant to feed them talent.
Macao in
Asia shows the other side of the ledger. The NBA China Games 2026 run on 9 and 11 October at The Venetian Arena, presented by Taobao 88VIP, with Alibaba Cloud, AWS and a list of consumer brands behind them, per the NBA's announcement.
This is year two of a five-year arrangement with Sands China to stage two preseason games in Macao each year, per ESPN. Tickets top out at MOP 24,888 for courtside seats, per the official ticketing site.
There is also an ownership twist. Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont is also president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands, the parent of the arena's owner. One of the two teams on the floor is controlled by the same family that controls the venue.
What the ledger says
Put the three moves side by side and the model becomes clear:
Asia pays: sponsors, premium tickets and e-commerce and cloud partners.
Africa is being capitalised: franchise sales, government partners and an investment bank.
The Gulf is becoming the operating base: training, preseason games and, increasingly, European club basketball.
It is a coherent strategy. It is also one that leaves the NBA's African pitch exposed. The league is asking investors to pay record sums for African franchises in the same month it stopped training African players in Africa.
THE DIGEST
Europe's €700 million choice
EuroLeague's 13 shareholder clubs meet at Villa d'Este in Cernobbio, on Lake Como, to weigh a confidential NBA offer for a joint European project. Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore puts the formal session on Tuesday morning. The offer was first reported by Eurohoops, per Hoops Rumors, and its terms have not been disclosed.
EuroLeague arrives with a fallback that already has a price on it. Eleven candidates for new permanent franchises have submitted binding offers worth nearly €700 million in fees, per TalkBasket. Going into the meeting, Sportando reported that a split looked more likely than a deal, citing club doubts over the NBA's revenue projections and the absence of broadcaster offers, as relayed by RealOlimpiaMilano. Neither NBA nor FIBA representatives are expected to attend.
Project B picks Asia first
Project B will open its global women's tour in Hangzhou on 19 to 24 January 2027, after a draft and training camp in Seoul, Reuters reported, as carried by Devdiscourse. Later stops follow in Valencia and Tokyo. Games will stream free on YouTube, produced by HBS, the FIFA World Cup's host broadcaster, and players receive equity. Unrivaled, valued at $650 million in our last edition, owns the US winter. Project B is betting on an off-season, travelling, Asia-first model that does not clash with the WNBA or FIBA calendars.
EASL tips off in Cebu
The East Asia Super League opened its 2026-27 season on 3 October with 12 clubs from seven territories, per Focus Taiwan. The opening games were also the first professional games at the new SM Seaside Cebu Arena, per SunStar. The MPBL has replaced the PBA as EASL's Philippine partner. With FIBA's BCL Asia cancelled this year, as we covered last edition, EASL has become the region's most dependable cross-border club product.
Korea's sponsors sign long
The KBL opened its 30th-anniversary season with two renewals:
Dong-A Otsuka, the Pocari Sweat maker, extended as official beverage partner through 2029-30. That takes the partnership to 24 seasons, per Star News.
DB Insurance returned as official sponsor for a third straight season, with branding on shot clocks, courts and LED boards, per SBS.
The league also now lets teams field two foreign players at once in the second and third quarters, per SBS, a product change aimed squarely at entertainment value.
Gulf real estate buys into European basketball
Dubai Basketball has signed a three-year exclusive partnership with branded-residence developer Mr. Eight Development, whose name goes on the club's jerseys across EuroLeague and ABA play, per the club. It joins dnata, Equiti, adidas and Audi on the roster. The club also signed a development agreement with Serbia's KK Čačak 94, a European feeder link for a Gulf club.
More betting money for the ABA
Volcanobet, the betting brand of Vezuv Group, has become a Diamond Sponsor of the AdmiralBet ABA League on a three-year deal, per Vijesti. That puts a second bookmaker at league level in a competition whose title sponsor is already a betting operator. It extends the thread from Winamax and Paris Basketball last edition: in the Adriatic, betting money is part of the league's core funding, not an add-on.
DAZN gives Portugal away for free
DAZN has become the home of Portuguese basketball for 2026-27, streaming more than 400 games free in its app across eight national competitions, men's and women's, per Advanced Television. Outside Portugal, the games go exclusively to Courtside 1891, DAZN's dedicated basketball service. It is the opposite of Telekom's exclusive BCL deal last edition: DAZN is trading rights fees for reach and volume to feed a global subscription product.
Two patches, two economies
The Philadelphia 76ers have named Bloom Energy, a fuel-cell company, as their new jersey patch partner, replacing Crypto.com. Sportico reports it is the second-biggest patch deal in the NBA, with talks starting around the time LeBron James signed. The deal was brokered by Elevate, per Elevate, an agency part-owned by the 76ers' parent company.
The same week, UConn put a patch on its men's and women's basketball uniforms for the first time in program history, per UConn Athletics. The sponsor is UConn Health, part of the same university. In the NBA, a superstar raises the price of the patch. In college, the university is moving money from one of its own budgets to another to help cover revenue sharing.
Dončić's Rome club hires a Mavericks sponsorship veteran
BC Roma, the club co-founded by Luka Dončić with Donnie Nelson as managing partner, has hired George Killebrew as president of global business operations, per Eurohoops. Killebrew spent 27 years selling sponsorships for the Mavericks. Rome is one of NBA Europe's named target markets, so whichever European structure wins, BC Roma is building an American-style commercial operation ready to sell into it.
Quick hits
Brazil: The NBB CAIXA will broadcast every one of its 2026-27 games for the first time, per the LNB, and JBL has signed on as a new sponsor, per Meio & Mensagem.
Australia: The NBL has signed Select Cards as its official trading card partner, joining the AFL and NRL in the collectibles market, per Ministry of Sport.