NBA's Adam Silver: UK "Very Much a Focus of Ours" - Hoopsfix.com

NBA’s Adam Silver: UK “Very Much a Focus of Ours”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has emphasised that the British basketball market is a big focus for the league despite it’s current small size.

Speaking at the pre-game press conference ahead of the NBA London match-up between Indiana Pacers and Denver Nuggets, when asked where the UK ranks in terms of international markets for the NBA, Silver responded:

“Well, since I’m here, No. 1. (Laughter).

“You know, I don’t have the precise ranking. I will say that historically the UK has not been as big a market for us as some of the other Southern European markets. Specifically, Greece and Italy have been incredibly strong markets; France has been a very strong NBA market. I mentioned Serbia and Croatia, and Spain is a fantastic NBA market. I think we have almost 10 players from Spain right now in the league.

“I was here for the London Olympics, and we saw a real surge in basketball interest while I was here. It’s an ongoing effort. It’s where we have our headquarters. We participate in an enormous amount of grassroots activities. I think it’s no secret that we appeal to a very multicultural audience. London, of course, is a very multicultural city, and increasingly, so is England.

“So it is very much a focus of ours on this market. I think that if you look at the data we have, whether it’s from Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or YouTube or other social media services, we’re seeing enormous growth. I mean, it’s almost up 100 percent, but it’s off a relatively small base, so we still have a lot of work to do here.”

The @NBAUK Twitter account is approaching 50,000 followers, meanwhile, the NBA UK Facebook is at 1.3million likes.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *