The NBA will not hold any preseason games in the Middle East this year, the first time in five years the league has skipped the region for its international schedule.
Sources told ESPN that the ongoing war in the region is the reason for the decision. No alternative location for those games has been announced.
The league has used international preseason games as a regular part of its global growth strategy, and the Middle East had become a recurring stop in recent years. The absence marks a direct interruption to that pattern driven by conditions outside the sport.
