With Toronto currently hosting the league's first All-Star Weekend
outside of the United States, Silver acknowledged that finding ways
to bring its midseason showcase overseas was being discussed.
"We're always talking about it," Silver said during a news
conference. "It's logistically more difficult than it may seem
because there's a ripple effect in terms of the number of days we
take off on the rest of the schedule."
The NBA currently plays its 82-game regular season schedule in about
162 days and has recently made strides in reducing the number of
times a team plays on consecutive days or a more gruelling stretch
of four games in five nights.
But Silver said the league was talking to the NBA Players
Association about the length of the season, which ends in June, and
the pre-season.
"If we travel overseas for All-Star ... players will need additional
time to adjust their sleep patterns and to get re-acclimated when
they come back to the States," said Silver.
"So the problem is if we leave the country for All-Star, it puts
pressure on the rest of the schedule.
"It's something we'd love to do one day. It's not going to happen in
the next two, three, four years, but I think down the road it could
be a really exciting element for the NBA."
The NBA, which had 100 international players from 37 countries and
territories on opening night rosters when the current campaign began
last October, has played a number of regular season games overseas,
mostly in London or Tokyo.
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But the NBA, which is the only American sports league with a
significant following throughout Asia, said getting the All-Star
Weekend there could prove too difficult to pull off.
Charlotte, North Carolina, has already been named host of the NBA'S
2017 All-Star Weekend, which includes an exhibition of top players,
a three-point contest and slam dunk contest.
"Just to be really honest, I think getting to Asia during an
All-Star break would be that much more difficult than traveling to
Europe in an All-Star break," said Silver.
"If we do get to the point where we believe we can experiment with
playing an All-Star Game outside of the U.S. and Canada, I think in
the first instance we probably would not be looking to go to Asia."
(Editing by Ian Ransom)
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