Stephen Curry is heading back to Japan, Rui Hachimura is going home and the NBA is planning to take another step toward normalcy.
The NBA announced Monday night that Golden State and Washington will be headed to Saitama, Japan, for the first two games of the 2022 preseason schedule. The Warriors and Wizards will play there on Sept. 30 and Oct. 2.
Those will be the first games for the NBA outside of North America since Jan. 24, 2020, when Milwaukee and Charlotte met in Paris for a regular-season game about six weeks before the global pandemic began.
The last time the NBA traveled overseas for preseason contests was October 2019, when Sacramento and Indiana played twice in Mumbai, Houston and Toronto played twice in Saitama and the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn played a pair of games in China.
The league has a deal in place to bring games to Abu Dhabi for the first time this fall as well, though has yet to officially reveal which teams are heading there for preseason games.
“We’ve had…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at www.espn.com – NBA…