Off to Mexico
Miami will play Nets in a Dec. 9 regular-season game
Heat, Nets will play in Mexico City on Dec. 9.
MIAMI — The Miami Heat will turn to a road less traveled this season, with a Dec. 9 game in Mexico City against the Brooklyn Nets, the first regular-season game in the franchise’s 30 seasons outside of the United States and Canada.
The game at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico will count as a home game for Brooklyn, which will also be the home team in Mexico City two days earlier against the Oklahoma City. The arrangement will leave the Heat with their full complement of 41 regular-season home games.
Both of the games in Mexico will be televised on ESPN. The Heat have yet to announce the season’s broadcast schedule on Fox Sports Sun.
The NBA announced only the two Mexico games Wednesday, with the full 2017-18 regular-season schedule expected to be released Monday.
The game against the Nets will be the first for the Heat in Mexico. The team previously has played exhibitions in the Dominican Republic, Israel, France, England, China, Brazil, the Bahamas, as well as Puerto Rico.
Forward Kelly Olynyk, who signed with the Heat as a free agent in July, previously played in Mexico City during the regular season with the Boston Celtics.
“It’s awesome, man. I’ve been in Mexico City a lot,” he said during a Wednesday appearance at the Heat’s youth camp at Miami-Dade College’s Kendall campus. “I went to the Olympic qualifiers with Cana-
da, spent almost a month there. Mexico City is a great place to be. The fans were great there, especially when we went with Boston, and they brought us there before. They love basketball.”
He said he did not view the game as a distraction.
“It doesn’t matter where you play,” he said. “You’re going to leave it all on the floor.”
The return to Mexico plus his acclimation to South Florida could lead to a crash course in his Spanish, which he laughed was, “sub-par, at best. We didn’t learn a lot, but I’m definitely going to try to get up to pace with that.”
The Phoenix Suns hosted the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks last season, with each game drawing in excess of 20,000 spectators. It was the first year the NBA played two regular-season games in Mexico, which again will be the case this summer.
“We are thrilled to be able to participate in the NBA Mexico City Games,” Heat President Pat Riley said in a statement. “The game of basketball is truly a global game and we are proud to be a part of its return to Mexico City. We look forward to our firstever regular season game there and bringing the Heat experience to our fans in Mexico.”
The NBA Mexico City Games 2017 will feature a variety of interactive fan activities, NBA Cares community outreach initiatives and Jr. NBA programming.
“These games will be our 25th and 26th in Mexico, the most played in any country outside of the United States and Canada,” Commissioner Adam Silver said. “They will also mark the 25th anniversary of our first game in Mexico City, a milestone in our relationship with our Mexican fans and a further indication of our desire to strengthen our ties to Mexico and Latin America.”
The regular season has been moved up this season to better space the games, with the NBA season opener to be Oct. 17.
“That extra week will allow for some additional travel during the season, some extra rest when teams are traveling, so we hope to use those additional days to produce more games outside the U.S.,” Silver said during last season’s NBA visit to Mexico City. “And, as I said, there is no market more important to us than Mexico.”