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Brian Windhorst, ESPN Senior Writer
Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak attended his first NBA game as a teenager in Boston, going to see his beloved Los Angeles Lakers play their bitter rivals at the arena then known as the FleetCenter.
He and his brother, Khaldoon, then a student at Tufts University, reached their seats and found themselves next to an older couple.
“They must have been both over 80. And I looked at them, I said, ‘Wow, it’s amazing how these guys are just so in love with the sport,'” Mubarak said. “I gave a little smile and I expected a smile back. And they looked at my Laker shirt and flicked me off. And I said, ‘Well, that’s my welcome to Boston moment.'”
It didn’t turn off Mubarak’s love for the NBA. He later attended Northeastern University in Boston, rooting against the Celtics the entire time.
He is now formally known as “His Excellency” and has been the chairman of the powerful Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism since 2016. And he is a driving force behind this week’s high-profile preseason games in United Arab Emirates involving the Celtics and Denver Nuggets, the past two NBA champions.
The games represent a centerpiece of the league’s deepening relationship with power brokers in the Middle East. Since the NBA returned to normal operations after the interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the growth in the Arabian Peninsula has largely replaced China as the NBA’s front-facing international focus.
A series of factors, many of them outside the NBA’s control, has seen the league’s decades-long push to engage the Chinese market slow. The fallout from the 2019 Hong Kong tweet by then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey led to NBA games being taken off broadcast television in China for 18 months. The NBA had more than 10 Chinese sponsors pause or cancel their deals. The NBA also closed the three academies it had in China.
While high profile, the Morey incident was only a small part of a much larger set of challenges between China and the United States, which included a trend of China somewhat turning away from its long-running embrace of Western culture — a poll by one of China’s official media outlets earlier this year found that 54.6% of young people in the country look down upon Western countries. The NBA hasn’t been immune. The league hasn’t played preseason games in China, once a cornerstone of its international strategy, since 2019. In 2022, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the financial losses to the league stemming from the China rift had cost “hundreds of millions” in revenue.
Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai, who is a co-founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, said earlier this year relations between China and the NBA had improved and he was hopeful the games would resume soon. But for now the preseason games remain in Abu Dhabi and major sponsorship dollars keep flowing from the UAE.
The population of the Middle East market is a tiny fraction of that of China, where the NBA maintains a huge fanbase, but it is outsized in terms of its potential as a business partner. Abu Dhabi’s population is roughly equal to the state of New Jersey, but three of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world are based there, including the behemoth Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which has nearly $1 trillion under management. That has contributed to Silver embracing the region, despite it not currently being seen as a possible producer of NBA talent, as China had once been viewed.
This weekend’s Celtics-Nuggets games are the biggest yet the NBA has staged at Etihad Arena on Yas Island, part of a sparkling sports and entertainment complex that has amusement parks, a golf course that hosts a DP World Tour golf playoff event and a racetrack where the Formula 1 season culminates each year.
Over the past three years, six NBA preseason games and four Team USA exhibition games have been played in Abu Dhabi. The crowds are large and diverse, made up largely of expats and tourists. In July, a record crowd of more than 12,000 fans attended a Team USA exhibition game against Australia, thousands lining up in the midsummer heat just to watch the Americans warm up. The NBA has more preseason games in Abu Dhabi on the way in the future as part of a long-term contract signed in 2021.
Earlier this year, the NBA signed a massive sponsorship deal with Emirates Airline, based less than 100 miles down highway E11 in Dubai. The NBA Cup, the in-season tournament, will carry the brand’s name. It’s part of a broader investment in pro basketball from the ruling family of Dubai, including the recent purchase of a EuroLeague team that could eventually play its home games in the UAE.
Last year, the Qatar Investment Authority became the first sovereign wealth fund to buy into an NBA team when it purchased roughly 5% of the Washington Wizards‘ parent company.
Experience Abu Dhabi, the Department of Culture and Tourism’s marketing wing, already has a multiyear sponsorship deal in place with the Celtics and has been in discussions to become the jersey patch sponsor for the New York Knicks, sources said.
As the league expands its relationship with Abu Dhabi, Human Rights Watch — an independent nongovernmental advocacy organization — has accused the UAE of using sports to distract from its human rights record, specifically citing the country’s zero-tolerance policy toward dissent and its failure to protect migrant workers in a critique of the NBA’s decision to play preseason games in Abu Dhabi. The NBA previously faced similar criticism over its relationship with China, and has been called out by two U.S. senators for partnering with Rwandan president Paul Kagame with its Basketball Africa League.
“I hear the comments about sportswashing,” Silver said in reference to Middle East investment in American sports in an interview last year on “The Dan Patrick Show.” “On the other hand, you’re talking about it, others are talking about it. In the same way the soccer World Cup brought enormous attention to Qatar, I think people learn about these countries, learn about what’s happening in the world in ways they otherwise wouldn’t. So I think the media does its job.
“Talking specifically about the NBA, we’re such a global sport,” Silver continued. “I think people are a little too dismissive these days about the benefits that come from the commonality around sports. That with a sport like basketball, our Finals are distributed virtually everywhere in the world, the sport is played, everywhere in the world. It’s an opportunity to bring people together.”
In addition to premier golf, racing and tennis events, Mubarak has struck a series of deals with the UFC over the past decade and there are now two events held there each year. Jiujitsu is the national sport of the UAE, all school children are taught it by mandate, and mixed martial arts fighting has become very popular. Mubarak wants basketball to follow in those footsteps. Since striking the deal with the NBA in 2021, basketball participation in the country is up 60%.
No longer getting flicked off at Celtics games with his brother, Khaldoon Al Mubarak is now the founding chairman of the government-backed City Football Group, which owns 13 soccer teams, including Premier League powerhouse Manchester City and MLS team New York City FC. Khaldoon is on the board of the Mubadala Investment Company, a separate sovereign fund with more than $300 billion in assets.
Mohammed Al Mubarak makes no secret he’d like to eventually add a controlling share in an NBA team to the Emirati’s portfolio.
“Absolutely. Why not? I think we have showcased when we invest in sport, what that means to us: a long-term approach that is building capabilities within that city,” Mubarak said.
“I think what the City Group has done, not just in Manchester itself, but throughout their range of investments, they’ve done a fantastic job in creating infrastructure both hard and soft in creating a talent pool with their academies. So is this [with the] NBA something that we would love to look into? Absolutely, but I think it’s a matter of finding the right opportunity and the right framework for us to work with the NBA in that regard.”
That would even include interest in Mubarak’s rival Celtics, who are currently for sale and expected to fetch a record price. But the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will not be buying a controlling share of the Celtics or any other NBA team in the near future. The league currently restricts sovereign wealth funds to passive stakes in teams no higher than 20%, and there are no current discussions or plans to alter that rule, league officials said.
“I don’t want to say what could ever happen, but there’s no contemplation right now,” Silver said last year, a position that has not changed.
In the interim, Abu Dhabi will continue its investment in basketball while bringing major events to the country. The NBA will continue to be a part of that and benefit from the country’s investment as more dollars flow into the league from partnerships and sponsorships as well as sending teams over each fall.
“We have a long-term view in this” Mubarak said. “I’m not thinking that there’s going to be an Emirati basketball player who’s going to play in the NBA tomorrow, but the fact of the matter is seeing the light in the youth’s eyes today … maybe not this group, maybe the group after them or the group after them, but eventually there’s going to be a player or two that are going to make it to the NCAA and then maybe take it a step further. So once that happens, the dream becomes a reality.”