The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) announced the launch of the expanded second season of the Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League.
The season will feature boys and girls leagues, each comprising 450 players, aged between 11-14, from schools across the UAE capital city.
The leagues will begin on January 21 and finals slated for March 12.
DCT Abu Dhabi and Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League
The run up to the tournament got off with a draft event hosted by DCT Abu Dhabi and the NBA on Saturday at the NYU Abu Dhabi campus’s three-court facility.
The 60 participating youth teams – 30 boys teams and 30 girls teams – were assigned an NBA team for the season, received corresponding NBA team-branded jerseys and participated in basketball development clinics, skills challenges and contests.
DCT Abu Dhabi Chairman Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, NBA Europe and Middle East Managing Director Ralph Rivera, seven-time NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady and 10-year NBA veteran Luis Scola attended the event and interacted with the youth players.
The Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League started with 30 teams in its inaugural season in March 2022.
Al Mubarak said Abu Dhabi is contributing to the growth of global youth basketball as it inspires the youth to get active and enrich their lives with respect, teamwork and values of the game.
“In 2023, we are looking to have another set of games in Abu Dhabi, fan events, Jr. NBA. We will also do things like NBA 2K which is the esports division and we will have activations around ComiCon and a couple of things we are not ready to announce yet,” Ralph Rivera, Managing Director, NBA EME told Arabian Business.
When asked about the Middle East, Rivera said “the Middle East Market has responded and resonated beyond our imagination, the reception to the game itself was amazing, you can attest to that based on all of the social media and reporting on it.”
The Jr. NBA is the league’s global youth basketball programme for boys and girls, teaching the fundamental skills and core values of the game – teamwork, respect, determination and community – at the grassroots level in an effort to help grow and improve the youth basketball experience for players, coaches and parents.
During the 2022-23 season, the Jr. NBA will run 111 leagues in Europe and the Middle East that will collectively reach nearly 50,000 youth in 28 countries.
The partnership also sees DCT Abu Dhabi, under “Experience Abu Dhabi,” the tourism promotion initiative of the UAE’s capital, serve as the Official Tourism Destination Partner of the NBA in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and China.
Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi said, “Abu Dhabi is contributing to the growth of global youth basketball as we inspire our youth to get active and enrich their lives with respect, teamwork and values of the game. It is a joy to witness the grassroots passion and excitement among our youth players that can only fuel more interest in sports and pave the way for a new generation of home-grown sporting talent, inspired by the Jr. NBA and the many sports initiatives across Abu Dhabi.”
“It was so much fun to engage with the youth teams taking part in the second Jr. NBA Abu Dhabi League and witness their excitement for the upcoming season, basketball is a global sport that transcends countries and cultures, and I’m thankful to have played a role in helping grow the game here in Abu Dhabi,” said McGrady.
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