The London Lions are set to become the first British basketball club to play an NBA team in October when they face the Portland Trail Blazers.The reigning British league champions will face the Trail Blazers at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, in a preseason game on Monday, October 12. It is set for a 1pm local time (PT) tip-off, which will be 9pm (BST) in the United Kingdom.Lions head coach Tautvydas Sabonis, 34, is the son of Arvydas Sabonis, who spent seven seasons at the Portland Trail Blazers as a player across two spells between 1995-2001 and 2002-2003.London is one of the proposed markets for the NBA’s Europe League, which is to consist of 16 teams and targeted to start in October 2027. Final bids have been made for permanent franchises ranging from $500 million to $1 billion, with American technology billionaire Nikesh Arora in talks for the London franchise, The Athletic reported on Sunday.Last year, the NBA returned to London for an NBA Europe regular season game between the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic for the first time since 2019.On January 17, 2027, the San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans will meet at the Co-op Live in Manchester, United Kingdom, three days after playing in Paris.How significant is this for British basketball?There was hope that the London 2012 Olympics would re-energise professional basketball in the UK, with the Great Britain men’s roster including NBA All-Star Luol Deng.But the sport wasn’t able to build on it, and recent years have been damaging. Unsustainable funding partners led to the top league’s collapse in 2024, and a feud between the clubs and the federation saw the federation enter voluntary liquidation last year.This has not helped basketball, which is widely played in the UK, grow as a professional game.Many American players, who have played at the U.S. collegiate level and don’t quite make the grade for the NBA, play in Europe and the British league (Super League Basketball, which was established in 2024) — including four on the Lions last season.In a European context, the British league is not the strongest. There has not been a British team in the EuroLeague, Europe’s premier basketball competition, since the London Towers in 2009, who were coached by NBA champion Nick Nurse.But the Lions play in the EuroCup, one tier below the EuroLeague, and the Lions women’s side won the EuroCup in 2024 with WNBA talent.Despite the problems, talent is still being produced, with London-born Tobi Lawal drafted to the Dallas Mavericks in June.Due to the perceived gap in talent between the British league and the NBA, the worry is that the Trail Blazers blowout the Lions.But for the organisation, players and fans of British basketball, it will be a landmark moment. Sure, the Trail Blazers aren’t the Los Angeles Lakers, but it will help bridge the gap like never before and entice more fans in the United Kingdom to watch, with an NBA name involved.