Regional youth tournament part of NBA’s multi-year collaboration with SportSG, S’pore Tourism Board

SINGAPORE – Basketball fans in the region can look forward to a fortnight of basketball action in June, after the National Basketball Association (NBA) announced on Feb 6 that it has signed a multi-year collaboration with Sport Singapore (SportSG) and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to bring a series of NBA events to the Republic.

In a media event at JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach, the NBA revealed that a two-week festival will culminate in the June 25-29 NBA Rising Stars Invitational, the league’s first regional basketball tournament for youths aged 18 and under.

The competition, which will take place at the Kallang Alive precinct, will feature boys’ and girls’ teams – including two each from Singapore – from 10 countries and territories across Asia-Pacific.

NBA Asia managing director Wayne Chang said the tournament aims to capitalise on basketball’s popularity in Asia. He added: “Our goal with the NBA Rising Stars Invitational is to build on that momentum and provide a stage for top players to compete alongside and against their peers from across the region.”

The event, he noted, “will help accelerate and elevate the basketball ecosystem in Asia-Pacific while serving as a viable pathway for players to receive additional basketball training”.

The five-day tournament will tip off with round-robin play before advancing to single-elimination competition, with pool games taking place from June 25 to 27 and the semi-finals and finals on June 28 and 29 respectively.

On why the tournament targets basketballers of that age group, NBA Asia head of marketing Sheila Rasu explained: “We already have many types of elite programmes that we already run but the gap is at the school level, where if you think about someone who goes to school, they play and then what?

“There’s nothing for them. So this gives them an additional platform to continue that basketball development and not just play within that small circle.”

She added that the winners of this tournament will have some “additional basketball development, some kind of unique NBA experience” but the details have not been firmed up yet.

Two-time NBA champion Chris Bosh, who attended the media event, believes the tournament will provide valuable experience for young basketballers here.

The 40-year-old said: “The first thing is inspiring the youth, that’s the first thing you want to do.The Rising Stars tournament coming here is going to a phenomenal situation where the youths get inspired and they’ll get exposure.

“They’ll get to see other players from all over the world and get to play in front of different crowds, develop their talent and hopefully take the experience back home with them.”

In addition to the tournament, the basketball and entertainment festival will be headlined by current and former NBA and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) players, who will be announced ahead of the event.

There will also be clinics conducted by NBA legends and coaches for ActiveSG Basketball Academy participants.

When asked whether NBA games will be played in Singapore, Rasu said there are no plans for that yet.

But she noted that the NBA has staged pre-season games and regular season games outside of the United States and Canada.

In 2022, the Golden State Warriors and Washington Wizards played two games in Tokyo.

Rasu said: “We will continue bringing more NBA experiences and we’ll continue building on that.”

Basketball Association of Singapore chief executive Leon Neo is excited by the collaboration between SportSG, STB and the NBA, and believes it will help to grow the sport here.

He said: “We are working very hard on the pathway development... I can imagine that as a kid, if I have the ability to play in this competition, it’s going to be a life-changing experience so with this kind of high-level competition, it’s very useful for our pathway and youth development, which will then channel back to our national high performance sports programme.”

SportSG chief executive Alan Goh added: “Through this multi-year partnership with the NBA, we aim to elevate basketball – one of Singapore’s most popular team sports – to the next level, inspire our next generation of players, and fuel our nation’s passion for this game.”