ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- It's a few minutes before tipoff in the first NBA game of any sort in the 2025-26 season and the basketball court inside Etihad Arena is overflowing with training camp-sized rosters of Knicks and 76ers players and officials.

On the sideline, Patrick Ewing is shaking hands with a man from Beirut who is wearing a vintage No. 33 Knicks jersey. Derrick Rose, who was flown in for the event, is posing for photos with a group of Filipino fans.

Steve Harvey and Patrick Schwarzenegger, among other invited celebrities, are being escorted to courtside seats.

Throughout the crowd, many Emirati men are wearing kanduras, traditional ankle-length white robes, but they are vastly outnumbered by ex-pats from dozens of other countries, including a teenager from Riyadh

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