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| The NBA House opens Friday in Rio's newly developed Praca Maua waterfront district. |
The NBA House on Rio’s newly redeveloped Praca Maua waterfront district opens Friday, leveraging the Rio Games to continue building the league’s presence in South America’s largest market.
I took a quick tour of the large port warehouse space this afternoon, getting a sneak peak while construction workers were putting on the finishing touches. Nine NBA sponsors are activating on site, with Samsung and Cisco having the largest presence. The NBA House expects up to 60,000 fans to stroll through during the 10 days that it’s open.
The NBA House is near a major Coca-Cola installation and Olympics gathering site in downtown Rio, an hour by car or two hours by public transport from the main Barra Olympic Park in the suburbs.
Fans will enter through a portal designed as a locker room with selfie stations and are then directed to a series of other showcases and experiential displays. Samsung has an elevated room where fans can try a new virtual reality experience that gives them the view of a player who hits a buzzer-beating three-point shot, and a way to take home a gif of themselves dunking created with a 360-degree camera and an app.
ESPN’s display documents the international history of the NBA, and fans also will be able to try the new edition of NBA2K a month before it launches. Bruce Bowen, Tiago Splitter, Gary Payton and Glen Rice are scheduled to make appearances, along with the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
While I was touring, Jerome Meyinsse was dunking for cameras on the Cisco-branded center court. He’s a former University of Virginia star and current center for Flamengo in the Novo Basquete Brasil league.
