The Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings will be the first NBA teams to play in India, the league announced Thursday morning.
The teams will play two preseason games in Mumbai in 2019, Oct. 4-5 at the NSCI Dome. The games will be the first staged in the country by a North American sports league.
"We are thrilled to be one of the first two teams to play the first-ever game in India and proud to be part of the expanding NBA worldwide footprint of our game of basketball," Pacers owner Herbert Simon said.
"Our inaugural NBA India Games will help further untap the enormous basketball potential in a country with a thriving sports culture and a growing, young and engaged population," added commissioner Adam Silver. "We thank the Kings and Pacers organizations for participating in this historic event."
The NBA and its partners will also conduct outreach events designed to bring the NBA to Mumbai on a larger level. The games will air live in India, and reach more than 200 countries and television, digital and social media.
Since 2006, more than 35 current and former NBA and WNBA players have visited India on behalf of the NBA. The NBA office in Mumbai opened in 2011.
The league opened the NBA Academy India, an elite basketball training center in Delhi National Capital Region for the top male and female prospects from throughout India, in 2017.
