At the end of their seasons, in July 2025, the NBA will close its Global Academy in Australia and its Latin American Academy in Mexico, which opened in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The NBA Africa Academy in Senegal will remain intact and a new global center will open in the future.
These two closing Academies produced five NBA draft picks from Australia and Canada in the last three years, including top 10 picks Josh Giddey, Dyson Daniels and Bennedict Mathurin.
Going forward, the NBA league office and team owners have chosen to place greater emphasis on identifying and developing talent from larger, non-traditional basketball countries that do not have high-level infrastructure. They will prioritize markets that are considered most essential to globalizing the NBA and, in turn, generating long-term revenue, such as China, India, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Korea and Japan.
“This is a strategic move,” Justice said. “Change locations and reallocate resources to be in places where we can help provide opportunities to more players in underrepresented countries. Our goal is to grow the game globally, raise the level of play around the world and help those who need it most “We want players from 80 countries to be represented on NBA rosters, not 43, as we have now. There is so much talent out there. “We just need to help support their growth.”
A new NBA Global Academy hub will be launched in a country more centrally located to those priority markets in the future, with Asia or the Middle East thought to be the most likely landing spots, with Abu Dhabi an option. especially strong.
The NBA has established a growing presence in the United Arab Emirates, which has hosted six NBA preseason games and four USA Basketball exhibitions, as well as a Basketball Without Borders camp and several Jr. NBA camps in Abu Dhabi.
The NBA’s seasonal tournament, the NBA Cup, was recently rebranded as the Emirates NBA Cup as part of a massive sponsorship deal with the UAE-owned airline, based in Dubai.
Dubai Basketball Club this season became the first Middle Eastern team to join the Balkan-based Adriatic League and is expected to eventually transition to the EuroLeague at some point. The next FIBA Basketball World Cup will be held in neighboring Qatar in 2027.
No final decisions have been made regarding the relocation of the Global Academy to the United Arab Emirates, but the presence of high-level basketball infrastructure already in place, as well as local partners to help support the costly multi-million-dollar annual investment that requires the initiative of the Academies, they make him a logical candidate.
“We’re evaluating everything,” Justice said. “There’s nothing concrete or specific yet, but we know there’s an opportunity to do a lot more. Asia and the Middle East region are areas that connect everything. That’s the center of a lot of places we need to be.”
Beyond the high cost of operating three academies, the NBA says part of its decision stemmed from the difficulties it encountered convincing the families of elite prospects to move to Australia due to its distance from the rest of the world and the logistical challenges of transporting players to international camps. and events several times a year.
What doesn’t look set to change anytime soon is the NBA’s investment in Africa, which began with the opening of the NBA Academy Africa in Senegal in 2017 and culminated with the selection of its first player last June, when Ulrich Chomche was selected. in 57th place. by the Toronto Raptors.
NBA Academy Africa has a big success story in the making: projected 2025 lottery pick Khaman Maluach, who is currently a freshman starting at Duke. The 7-foot-2, 18-year-old may not have found basketball had he not been identified by the NBA Academy coaching network in Uganda and invited to join the program in 2021 when he was 14. years. Maluach spent parts of the last three seasons with the NBA’s Basketball Africa League (BAL) and helped South Sudan qualify for the Paris Olympics with a standout performance at the FIBA World Cup 2023.
“Khaman reaffirms our belief that the NBA Academy concept is working,” Justice told ESPN. “While the NBA Academy footprint is evolving, the overall commitment to identifying and developing elite international talent is not changing. The NBA Academy program continues. The Basketball Without Borders program continues. The NBA will continue to invest in youth basketball. We just want to invest it in the right way.”
At one time, the NBA operated seven academies globally: three in China (Jinan, Urumqi and Hangzhou), one in Saly, Senegal, one in Delhi, India, one in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, and the Global Academy in Canberra , Australia. . 115 NBA Academy alumni (men and women) have gone through Division I college basketball programs since 2018. Others, like Brooklyn Nets wing Jacky Cui of China, came to the NBA through the professional route.
Justice said they plan to increase the roster size of their two academies to provide more opportunities to players from countries around the world, including even more players from the more than 50 countries that make up the African continent, as well as the United Arab Emirates and other countries. in Europe that don’t have the best basketball infrastructure, for example the United Kingdom or Scandinavia. The NBA will continue to invest in global coaching development through its Jr. NBA programs and NBA basketball schools.
“This is a long-term investment,” Justice said. “We have been at this for eight years and have seen incredible results. We are looking to build ecosystems and expand basketball globally in a way that has a significant impact. We can’t do it all ourselves, so we need to focus on where we need to be, “What we should do and who needs us most. This is a crucial moment for us, but I am confident that we are moving in the right direction.”
