The Orlando Magic will face the Memphis Grizzlies in Berlin, Germany on Thursday, marking the first-ever NBA regular season game in the country
A first-of-its-kind NBA game will take place on Thursday, and it will be halfway across the world. The league will head to Berlin, Germany for the first regular-season game in the country in history. The 2026 Berlin Game will pit the Orlando Magic versus the Memphis Grizzlies as the National Basketball Association expands its international footprint in the latest installment of the NBA Global Games.
Uber Arena in Friedrichshain, Berlin will host the contest, which will take place at 8 p.m. local time. Uber Arena normally hosts pro sports teams from both Germany’s top basketball league and top hockey league, and it also hosted the first NHL regular season game in the country back in 2011. Both the Magic and the Grizzlies will have plenty of time to get acquainted with both the venue and the country, as a whole, as each team last played on Sunday before making the transatlantic flight.
There’s no secret why the NBA chose Orlando as one of the representatives for the NBA Berlin Game 2026, considering the construction of its roster. The only two Berlin-born players in NBA history happen to play for the Magic in brothers Franz Wagner and Moe Wagner. They began their professional basketball careers in this very arena, competing for Alba Berlin in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), so this is a homecoming for the Wagner brothers.
But that’s not all, as Orlando has a third German-born player in Tristan da Silva. He is from Munich and lived in the country for the first 19 years of his life before coming to the United States. With da Silva and the Wagners, the Magic have half of the six German-born players currently active in the NBA.
As for the Grizzlies, they also have a tie to the country in head coach Tuomas Iisalo. Though he is Finnish, Iisalo spent seven years of his coaching career in Germany, where he was a two-time Bundesliga Coach of the Year and also won the Champions League with the German squad Telekom Baskets Bonn.
In regard to the matchup, the Magic enter with a 22-18 record and are hoping to string together consecutive wins after prevailing on Sunday versus New Orleans. Consecutive anything would be a revelation for Orlando, as it has amazingly alternated wins and losses over its last 14 games. Part of that has to do with the team being without Franz Wagner, who is the team’s leading scorer and has been sidelined since Dec. 7. However, big brother Moe returned to action in that Sunday game after being out for more than a year due to a torn ACL.
With Memphis, the idea of alternating wins and losses over 14 games is something the franchise would desire considering its recent results. The Grizzlies have won just two of their last eight games and sport a 17-22 record overall. Star Ja Morant has missed the last five games with a calf injury, but even with that, plus speculation that the franchise is open to trading Morant, there is a chance he could return to the court in Berlin.
While the 2026 NBA Berlin Game will be the first regular-season contest in the German capital, it won’t be the first NBA matchup in Berlin. Preseason games in both 1996 and 2008 took place in the city, while the city of Cologne, Germany also hosted a preseason matchup in 2006. Thus, this will be the fourth NBA game of any kind in Germany but the first regular season contest in what’s the most populous country in the European Union and the third-most populous country in Europe as a whole.
The 2026 NBA Berlin Game isn’t the league’s first foray outside of the United States or Canada this season, as there have already been half-a-dozen games that have taken place on foreign soil. The preseason saw two games in Abu Dhabi, one in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and two more in Macau. Additionally, the lone international regular season game to already occur saw the Detroit Pistons defeat the Dallas Mavericks, 122-110, in Mexico City on Nov. 1.
The Grizzlies and Magic will get a couple of stamps on their passports over the next week, as Berlin isn’t their only destination before returning to the states. After Thursday’s game, the two will then meet in the 2026 NBA London Game on Sunday, Jan. 18.
These international contests come in the first year of a three-year slate of regular season NBA games in Europe. Next year, the league will host a regular-season game in Manchester, England for the first time ever, with another game also taking place in Paris, France. The NBA will then return to Paris again in 2028, and while teams have not yet been announced for Manchester or Paris, there’s a good chance the San Antonio Spurs are involved in the latter.
Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama is a native of the Paris Region, and when the NBA ventured abroad last season—to the Accor Arena in Paris—the Spurs took part in a pair of games versus the Indiana Pacers.
The 2026 NBA Berlin Game will take place on Thursday from the Uber Arena. Tipoff is at 2 p.m. ET and can be streamed on Prime Video.
