NBA Global Games

The NBA Global Games are a series of games featuring NBA teams that are played outside the United States and Canada. Its purpose is to bring teams from the National Basketball Association (NBA) to play games against either another NBA team or a foreign club.

The games themselves are played under NBA rules, which differ slightly from the FIBA rules which the foreign teams normally play under. Court markings and dimensions also differ slightly.

The first official overseas game featuring an NBA team was an exhibition matchup between the Washington Bullets and Maccabi Tel Aviv on September 9, 1978. The then-defending champions lost 98–97 at the Yad Eliyahu Sports Arena in Tel Aviv, Israel. The Bullets would play three more exhibition games the following year in Beijing and Shanghai in China, and in Quezon City in the Philippines.

In 1984, a series of exhibition matches pitting the New Jersey Nets, Phoenix Suns and Seattle SuperSonics against local European clubs were held in Israel, Italy, West Germany and Switzerland. Then in 1988, the Atlanta Hawks played against the Soviet Union national basketball team in a three-game series in Tblisi, Vilnius and Moscow, becoming the first NBA team to play in the Soviet Union.

In 1987, the McDonald's Championship was introduced. While the first edition was held in Milwaukee, the following editions of the event were held in Europe, with the NBA teams emerging victorious against their European counterparts in each staging. The McDonald's Championship was discontinued in 1999.

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