The NBA pre-season will begin with an exhibition game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Melbourne United, two teams from opposite sides of the globe intrinsically entwined in multiple ways.
The 76ers host United on Friday (Saturday 9am AEST) at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Centre.
It will be mate against mate.
The 76ers feature two Australians: reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons, and promising rookie Jonah Bolden.
The 76ers are also coached by U.S.-born Brett Brown. He was backpacking around the South Pacific in the 1980s, met his wife Anna on the Great Barrier Reef and then out-of-the-blue dropped in to the Melbourne Tigers and impressed the team's legendary coach Lindsay Gaze so much he was offered an assistant's job.