Victor Wembanyama is going home to France next season.
The San Antonio Spurs — and this season's unanimous Defensive Player of the Year pick in Wembanyama — are headed to Europe next season for a pair of regular-season games. They'll play the New Orleans Pelicans, first in Paris on Jan. 14 and then in Manchester, England, on Jan. 17.
Wembanyama and the Spurs played a pair of games in Paris in January 2025, with tickets for those matchups against the Indiana Pacers getting snapped up quickly.
“Always looking forward to expanding the game and being part of the cool process of being able to play outside the country," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said this week when asked about his team returning to France next season.
Wednesday's announcement comes with the NBA and FIBA, the sport's global governing body, deep into plans for a new league that could start play in Europe as early as the fall of 2027. Paris and Manchester are on the list of cities expected to have teams in that league.
The Spurs, tapping into the massive global appeal that follows Wembanyama, have maintained a near-constant presence in France since landing the 7-foot-4 center with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft.
Earlier this season, the team debuted "Spurs Week Paris” to bring elements of its business and fan experience from San Antonio directly to French fans, with a retail pop-up shop, a court renovation, free youth clinics, a professional development program for French women working in sports and a watch party.
This trip for the Spurs and Pelicans will include similar elements, with plans for those days in Europe already scheduled to include youth basketball clinics, coach and referee development programming and interactive fan events.
And it will be the second visit for a New Orleans team to Paris in a three-month span. The NFL's Saints will play the Pittsburgh Steelers in Paris on Oct. 25, that league's first regular-season game in France.
“Together with the Saints playing in Paris next season, the opportunity for the Pelicans to play internationally in Paris and Manchester represents another significant step in strengthening our organization’s cultural and economic ties in these regions," said Pelicans governor Gayle Benson, who also owns the Saints.
The NBA revealed last year that it planned to play at least six regular-season games in Europe over three seasons. That started with a pair of games between the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic this past January, in Berlin and London. The games in the 2027-28 season will take place in Berlin and Paris, with teams to be announced.
Jamahl Mosley coached Orlando in those Grizzlies-Magic games; he'll return to Europe next season, this time as the coach of the Pelicans.
“Playing games in Paris and Manchester reflects the strong momentum we’re seeing for basketball and the NBA in France, the U.K. and across Europe,” George Aivazoglou, the NBA’s managing director for Europe and the Middle East, said in a statement.
“As interest in the game continues to grow across the continent, we look forward to working with the Pelicans, the Spurs and our partners to deliver unique experiences for fans, aspiring players and the local communities.”
The NBA will be playing a regular-season game in Paris for the sixth time and playing in France for the 16th time since 1991. The league is going to Manchester for the second time — the first for a regular season game — and to England for the 20th time since 1993.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
