Jazz game in Mexico City is part of NBA's growing presence south of the border

SALT LAKE CITY — It sounded so natural, you could have thought he had just slipped into French.

When Rudy Gobert was asked about his thoughts on the Jazz going to Mexico City to play Orlando on Saturday, the Frenchman chose to answer in Spanish.

“Muy bien,” Gobert said, drawing laughs from the surrounding media.

He continued by saying (all in Spanish) that he has visited Mexico three times previously and his grasp on the language is limited. But he sold it well.

So while he might not be quite ready for a permanent home south of the border, that is something the NBA is considering.

The Jazz game on Saturday against Orlando is part of the league’s increasing presence in Mexico.

The contest will be the NBA’s eighth regular season game in Mexico City since 2014. The NBA has also opened up a basketball academy in the country and is hopeful a G-League team will soon call Mexico home.

“We are hopeful in a few weeks will have more to say on that,” Silver said at a press conference Thursday. “We want a G-League team that is planting a flag here. It would be exciting for the market and for us to learn more about operating on a regular basis here.”

Why would they want to learn more? Because a G-League team is not where the vision ends. Silver said the G-League squad would serve as the next step towards the league eventually putting a team into Mexico. And he called it “logical” for the NBA to look at doing just that.

“Mexico City is the largest market in the Westen Hemisphere,” Silver said. “If you are a North American sports league, it’s hard not to focus on this area. We have a team in Canada, it would seem to make logical sense we would next look South and eventually have a team in Mexico.”

The Mexico City metro area has a population of 21.2 million and Silver called the 22,300-seat Mexico City Arena, where Utah and Orlando will play Saturday, “state of the art.” Last year’s two NBA games in the arena average 20,170. So the city appears to have the infrastructure and interest to support a team. And Silver believes a Mexican-based team would win many fans in the United States.

“When you look at the enormous Mexican-American and Hispanic population in the United States, we believe if we had a team in Mexico, many of those fans in the United States would identify with that team in this market,” Silver said.

So while there are a number of steps to go before the league is close to having a team in Mexico, the process has started. The league has staffers stationed in the country helping with the now-open academy and assisting in grassroots efforts to help build the game up in the country.

The Jazz will be playing a part of that Saturday. The Utah organization is no stranger in helping expand the game internationally. The Jazz took part in the NBA’s first ever regular season international game when they and the Phoenix Suns played a two-game series in Tokyo, Japan in 1990. And with six international players on the current squad, growing the game globally is something they feel is important. The game will be Utah's fourth contest in Mexico, but its first regular season game.

“We’ve known the schedule for a while now, obviously,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “It’s a nice honor to represent the league down there. ... An opportunity to play a game in front of a bunch of NBA fans from a different county in a very historic city.”

It’ll be a quick stop for the Jazz and will add a unique layer to what has already been a travel-heavy first two months of the season. Utah will only be in Mexico for about 24 hours — flying in on Friday night and leaving after the game to head to Houston. But it’s a trip the players are looking forward to.

“I’m excited,” Kyle Korver said. “I’ve never been to Mexico City. Get to go check out the city and hopefully play a good basketball game.”

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