Knicks' Abu Dhabi trip hopefully a team bonding experience
Head coach Mike Brown of the New York Knicks speaks to the media at Knicks Training Facility on September 23, 2025. Credit: Getty Images
YAS ISLAND, Abu Dhabi — The assembly was still in progress, streets already lined with lights heralding the NBA’s arrival, NBA Store venues outside Etihad Arena being constructed and after a 13-hour flight and an eight-hour time difference the Knicks were kind of under construction, too.
The team arrived to a greeting that included falcons and a long line of welcoming faces. And Mike Brown, after the photo ops and tourist attractions, wanted to get the Knicks ready for the start of preseason with a game against the Philadelphia 76ers Thursday and another one Saturday before they return home.
So the Knicks landed, exchanged pleasantries and headed to the practice court to get loose and their sleep patterns set for this excursion.
“That’s performance department,” Brown said before the trip began of the efforts to get the players prepared. “They are talking to our guys and doing certain things. They gave our guys compression socks. All those little things. I’m not a sleep expert.
“One thing we may try to do is when we land, we don’t want the guys going to sleep.
“We are going to go to the hotel and hang out a little bit and strategically practice at a certain time to keep the bodies right. When we land it will be 3 p.m. [New York time], but it’s eight hours later here. After we practice we will have dinner. If they want to go to bed early after dinner, that’s probably the right time.”
The sleep would come and the adjustments would be made, part of NBA life even if it is rarely this drastic of a change.
“The travel, Philly is going to be traveling as well,” OG Anunoby said. “Just getting there, getting acclimated, trying to sleep right and stuff. Just playing the two games, just building each game.”
The Knicks’ 2024-25 season extended nearly into the summer, reaching Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals before it finally came to an end against Indiana. So getting a head start to the preseason with the overseas excursion might seem like an unnecessary addition to a season filled with high expectations.
But with a new head coach in Brown and relationships to be fostered, a family-accompanied trip might be a fitting way to get to know each other.
“Have some fun,” Brown said. “We’re going to go over there, we’re going to work. But this is a great opportunity to bond and hang out, get to know one another, get to know each other’s families, because we’re bringing families with us. It is what it is. The NBA is a global game, and so you embrace anything that comes your way and, for us, I know, for me personally, I’ve never been to that part of the world, and so I’m looking forward to it. But I think there are probably 10 to 12 other teams that are doing the same thing. They’re going someplace.
“So they got to go through those challenges and then some people look at it as we get to start earlier than teams that aren’t going. So we may have an advantage there. So at the end of the day it all washes out.”
Another part of it is growing the game internationally, as well as continuing the relationship between Abu Dhabi and the Knicks with it joining as the team sponsor last season and the second Sphere project in the works for Abu Dhabi after the debut in Las Vegas last year.
“To me, that’s the biggest thing,” Brown said.
“Adam Silver’s done a fantastic job growing this league as well as everybody else. If you make it to a point where it’s global, everything is going to be better for everybody . . . All across the board.
“I would beg to say that basketball is probably when it comes to us, sports, it’s the most global game. Everyone else is trying to follow our lead, [as] the NFL [is doing]. Financially, there’s a lot out there. For the NBA to understand that how many years ago and have teams play overseas, it’s been beneficial for us financially.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
