The NBA officially staked its claim for the attention of Abu Dhabi sports fans young and old, committed and casual, on Saturday night with its biggest and best show yet in the city.
As the Minnesota Timberwolves claimed a 104-96 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, the world’s top basketball league demonstrated how seriously its top brass takes its relationship with the UAE capital, after making its presence felt across the city for weeks.
The NBA Abu Dhabi Games pitted two of the league’s best young players, Dallas’s Luka Doncic and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, against each other for a pair of games at the city’s Etihad Arena.
This was no coincidence - both of these exciting scoring stars could have been built in a lab with the purpose of appealing to a growing basketball fan base.