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The Nets global ambitions won't end with the FIBA World Cup.
The team will travel farther and face better international competition this pre-season than any other NBA team, with a trip to China to play the Kings and their opening night, now only a month away, vs. the Euroleague champions, Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The NBA released details this week on what international teams will play NBA squads in October. Last month, it released the Global Games schedules, the dates when NBA teams will play overseas.
The Nets open their preseason on October 7 vs. Maccabi, which won its sixth Euroleague title last year. Jeremy Pargo, who played for Lionel Hollins at Memphis, leads Israel's perennial champ. The next day, they board a plane and head for China, where they will play the Kings on October 12 in Shanghal and three days later in Beijing. Be prepared for a lot of Kevin Garnett love. He and Kobe Bryant are the most popular players in China.
"We're going to China this year (because) We aspire to be global," said Brett Yormark Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg News, repeating a team mantra that started with Mikhail Prokhorov buying the team in 2010. The Nets will also have at least five international players in training camp, a record for the team.
The games are two of five international preseason games the league will play in four countries this October as part its efforts to connect with its fans globally. In addition to the games held in China, the Cavaliers, Heat and Spurs will play a series of games in Brazil, Germany and Turkey. But no one will fly as far as the Nets and Kings. And the Kings will face Maccabi Haifa,a lesser Israeli league team
The Nets and Kings are the NBA's only internationally owned teams, Brooklyn owned by Russia's Mikhail Prokhorov and Sacramento by Vivek Ranadive of India.