NBA Live Europe To Unite the Best in Real & Virtual Basketball

NBA Europe LIVE presented by EA SPORTS will bring basketball action to fans this week as for the first time ever four NBA teams, the Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns and the San Antonio Spurs will be in Europe to conduct pre-season training camps and compete against top European basketball clubs. The series of exhibition games tips off today and will travel to seven cities in five countries through October 11th, covering France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia. As the presenting partner, EA SPORTS will also conduct a number of events around the launch of the popular new videogame, NBA LIVE 07.

NBA Europe Live creates an authentic environment for bringing together virtual and real life basketball and its heroes in one arena as France, Italy, Germany and Spain also host the playoffs of the NBA LIVE 07 videogame tournament on the Xbox 360 video game systems from Microsoft. The interactive competition will advance to a grand final at the KölnArena in Cologne, Germany hosted by former NBA star Detlef Schrempf and Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns on October 9th. The NBA Live 07 interactive champion will be crowned during the NBA Europe Live games in Cologne, Germany on October 10th and will receive the ultimate prize of an all expense paid trip to the NBA All Star Weekend in Las Vegas in February 2007. Preliminary rounds of the Gaming Tournament were played during NBA Basket Jam, an interactive fan tour that visited France, Italy, Germany and Spain from July 22 through September 17 as a lead-up to NBA Europe Live.

“EA SPORTS and the NBA share a passion for basketball,” said Jan Bolz, Vice President, International Sales and Marketing, EA. “We’re thrilled to work with the NBA to bring the real and virtual sport to life for basketball fans and gamers across Europe. Our on-going partnership is a joint commitment to celebrate the very best in virtual and real life on-court action.”

“We are pleased to have EA SPORTS as the presenting sponsor of the NBA’s most ambitious international competition in league history,” said Mark Tatum, NBA Senior Vice President, Marketing Partnerships. “NBA Europe LIVE presented by EA SPORTS is an unprecedented celebration of the game of basketball for fans throughout Europe – both on the court and with NBA LIVE 07.”

NBA Europe LIVE presented by EA SPORTS is an interactive basketball program developed by EA and the NBA as part of a two-year partnership agreement. An NBA licensee since 1991, EA expanded its relationship with the league last year to become an official global marketing partner of the NBA, the first developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software to be designated with this status.

For the series of events, the San Antonio Spurs will host camp and play games in Lyon and Paris, France; the Philadelphia 76ers will be in Barcelona, Spain; the Phoenix Suns will be in Treviso and Rome, Italy; the Los Angeles Clippers will be in Moscow, Russia; and the program culminates with the Suns and 76ers playing exhibition games in Cologne, Germany against the 2006 Euroleague finalists, CSKA Moscow and Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv.

For a complete list of training camp fixtures of the NBA Europe live sponsored by EA SPORTS series of events, please check www.nba.com/europelive.

NBA LIVE 07

NBA LIVE 07 plays as good as it looks by introducing the next generation of basketball gameplay through EA SPORTS Total Freestyle Control, a new feature that delivers gameplay realism like never before by providing users more control over athletes than ever.

The cover athletes on NBA LIVE 07 include the Suns' Boris Diaw (France), the Memphis Grizzlies' Pau Gasol (Spain), the Houston Rockets' Tracy McGrady (North America/Europe), the Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), and the Spurs' Tony Parker (France). To celebrate the top European NBA players, NBA LIVE 07 provides users the opportunity to select a team of European All-Stars, who are outfitted in special jerseys.

Additionally, with a new, more intuitive Artificial Intelligence system, advancements to fan-favorite features like All-Star Weekend and Dynasty Mode, and, for the first time, ESPN Motion and streaming ESPN radio podcasts, NBA LIVE 07 continues to deliver its award-winning gameplay experience to fans worldwide. NBA LIVE 07 is available on the Xbox 360 and Xbox video game systems from Microsoft, the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, and PSP (PlayStation Portable) system, mobile and PC.