Dubai's EuroLeague Journey Began with a Five-Minute Presentation

Dubai Basketball Club owner Abdulla Saeed Juma Al Naboodah described how the club's story, which led to the EuroLeague within a few years, began on the Euroinsiders podcast. It all started with his first meeting with EuroLeague CEO Dejan Kamenjašević in 2021, and the meeting lasted only five minutes.

Kamenjašević had said that he set up a basketball academy in Dubai in 2016 and dreamed that one day the city would have a team competing in Europe. Al Naboodah admitted that he was initially skeptical of the project. He said he found the idea somewhat funny and did not take it seriously.

About 60 days later, a phone call changed the picture. The caller said that the EuroLeague CEO was in Dubai and wanted to meet him. Al Naboodah felt that from that moment on, the project had become a serious undertaking.

Dubai first joined the ABA League, and then the EuroLeague. Al Naboodah said that this rapid rise was part of a process that had been planned from the beginning.