NEW YORK – The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced today that as part of its effort to connect with its fans globally, NBA teams will play five preseason games in four countries this October as part of NBA Global Games 2014.

As part of the schedule, five teams – the Brooklyn Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Sacramento Kings, and San Antonio Spurs – will play a series of games in five cities in Brazil, China, Germany, and Turkey.  NBA Global Games will also include regular-season games to be announced at a later date.

Along with the oncourt action, NBA Global Games 2014 will feature a variety of off-the-court activities, including NBA Cares community programs and interactive fan events in each city.  The games will also be supported by a variety of marketing and merchandising partners, and will be available to fans globally on television, digital, and social media.

“As the passion for the game continues to grow globally we are focused on finding unique and meaningful ways to connect with fans worldwide, and the NBA Global Games are part of those efforts,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.  “Basketball brings people together across cultural and geographic lines, and these games are a great opportunity for our fans to experience the excitement of the NBA first-hand.”

NBA Global Games 2014 Schedule:

NBA Global Games 2014 will tip off when the San Antonio Spurs travel to Europe for two games against teams from longtime partner Euroleague Basketball.  The Spurs will open the international schedule in Berlin, Germany on Oct. 8 with a game against eight-time German champions Alba Berlin at O₂ World Berlin.  San Antonio will then travel to Istanbul, Turkey to take on five-time Turkish champions Fenerbahçe Ülker Istanbul at the Ülker Sports Arena.

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat will play the NBA’s second game ever in South America when the teams meet on Oct. 11, at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  As part of the game, Cavaliers center Anderson Varejão will play an NBA game in front of his countrymen for the first time.

The NBA Global Games preseason schedule will conclude with two games in China between the Brooklyn Nets and Sacramento Kings.  The teams will play on Oct. 12 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, then travel to Beijing for a game on Oct. 15 at the MasterCard Center.

The NBA is a global sports and media business built around three professional sports leagues: the National Basketball Association, the Women’s National Basketball Association, and the NBA Development League.  The league has established a major international presence with games and programming in 215 countries and territories in 47 languages and NBA merchandise for sale in more than 125,000 stores in 100 countries on 6 continents.  NBA rosters at the start of the 2013-14 season featured a record 92 international players from 39 countries and territories.  NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, which is available in 60 million U.S. homes, and NBA.com, which set a record last year with more than 9.5 billion page views, with more than half of all visitors originating from outside of North America.  The NBA is the No. 1 professional sports league on social media, with more than 580 million likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms.  Through NBA Cares, the league and its teams and players have donated more than $230 million to charity, completed more than 2.8 million hours of hands-on community service, and created more than 860 places where kids and families can live, learn, or play.