Some of the Euroleague Basketball’s finest teams will participate in a unique, new showcase when NBA Europe Live presented by EA Sports comes to the Old Continent in October. Four teams each from the Euroleague and NBA, plus ULEB Cup squad Khimki and Adecco Asvel of France, will take part in a total of eight preseason games in five countries. The one-of-a-kind event culmiates with a four-team tournament on October 10 and 11 at Kölnarena in Cologne, Germany featuring Euroleague champion CSKA Moscow, runner-up Maccabi Tel Aviv, the Phoenix Suns and the Philadelphia 76ers. The fun stars well before that, however, and touches down in six different European cities before Cologne.

One Euroleague team that is not playing any of the games, Benetton Treviso, is nonetheless a part of NBA Europe Live. Benetton hosts the training camp of the Phoenix Suns in Treviso starting October 1/2. The other three NBA teams arrive about the same time to the cities where they will play their first games, the Philadelphia 76ers to Barcelona, the San Antonio Spurs to Lyon, France and the Los Angeles Clippers to Moscow.

The games start on Thursday, October 5 with Winterthur FCB and world champion Carlos Navarro hosting Philadelphia at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. That same night, the San Antonio Spurs and former Euroleague MVP Manu Ginobili visit Adecco Asvel at the Astroballe in Lyon.

The following day, Friday, October 6, the action shifts to the capitals of Italy and Russia. In Moscow, new ULEB Cup team BC Khimki faces the LA Clippers. Yaroslav Korolev, a product of the CSKA youth system, returns home to Moscow for that game. Later that night, former Euroleague Final Four head coach Mike D’Antoni guides Phoenix against Lottomatica Roma and three-time Euroleague champion Dejan Bodiroga at PalaLottomatica.

On Saturday, October 7, also in Moscow, reigning Euroleague champion CSKA gets into the swing of things by hosting the Clippers and Korolev.

And on Sunday, October 8, the Spurs will take on Euroleague runner-up Maccabi Tel Aviv. Former Maccabi guard Beno Udrih, now with San Antonio, will take on his former teammates in that game.

NBA Europe Live culminates in Cologne on Tuesday, October 10 and Wednesday, October 11. The first night, in one semifinal, CSKA will face Maccabi in a rematch of last season’s Euroleague title game. Philadelphia and Phoenix plays the other semifinal that night. The next day, after a third-place game between the previous day’s losing sides, Tuesday’s winners will play in the tournament final.