Tyrese Maxey and Karl-Anthony Towns show out in Abu Dhabi

Basketball is a global phenomenon. Sure, it isn’t exactly soccer when it comes to worldwide fervor, but it is second in popularity behind that. Oh wait, ChatGPT says cricket is actually the second most popular sport in the world. But basketball is number three on the list and the only one in the top three that Americans actually care about, and well, you get it. People everywhere like it. The NBA is capitalizing on that popularity by playing international preseason games, and former Kentucky standouts Karl-Anthony Towns, Tyrese Maxey, and Justin Edwards repped the league in Abu Dhabi.

The New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers play their home games less than 100 miles apart, but the teams traveled 7,000 miles to the United Arab Emirates for a pair of exhibition contests in the world’s safest city. The New York Knicks won both games, taking the first one on Thursday easily, 99-84, and the second one on Saturday slightly less easily, 113-104. in both contests, each team’s BBNBA stars shined.

All-Star PGs led their teams in Abu Dhabi 🔥

Tyrese Maxey: 16 PTS
Jalen Brunson: 14 PTS

Knicks top Sixers 112-104! pic.twitter.com/0doOlYcsNh

— NBA (@NBA) October 4, 2025

Maxey led his team in scoring in both games

In their first matchup on Thursday, Tyrese Maxey led the 76ers in scoring with 14 points in 23 minutes on 5-12 shooting. He also led this team in assists with four and chipped in four rebounds. He followed that up on Saturday with another team-leading 16-point effort in just 18 minutes. Combined, that’s 30 points in 41 minutes of action, a good sign of what is to come this season for the former Kentucky guard.

Maxey is going to be Philly’s undisputed go-to option this season, an adjustment he told a pretty good story about.

He said, “Now, I’m going to tell a joke. Nobody laugh. My rookie year through my third year, I used to get so angry sometimes at Joel when he’d be getting double-teamed. I’m like, ‘Bro, I’m wide open.’ And he’s like, ‘Bro, I can’t see you.’ Then (opponents) started double-teaming me, and people were like, ‘Bro, I’m open.’ I said, ‘Trust me, I really can’t see you.’ But I’ve got a lot of film on it and I’ve had a lot of time to work on it. I do feel a lot more confident in it, and I think it’ll work out well for us.”

Towns is fully settled in as a New York Knick

Similar to Maxey, Karl-Anthony Towns led all his fellow starters with 12 points in just 17 minutes on the court on Thursday. Then on Saturday, he had six points and four boards in 18 minutes.

Now in his second season with New York, KAT says he feels like a Knick. He’ll have some adjustments to make, though, under new head coach Mike Brown. The biggest is his position fluidity. Towns spoke about the change:

“Usually, you walk into a game, you know you’ll be the five today. You walk into a game, you know you’ll be the four today. I think for me, it’s going to be more like I could be five for four minutes and then be four for two minutes, then go back to the five. So I think that’s going to be a little different for me, where I’m going to be so fluid on what my position is.”

It wasn’t just all business in Abu Dhabi. Towns linked up with Bollywood Star Ravneer Singh, one of the biggest stars in the world. Singh said of the NBA, “It is full of energy and electricity and when you sit courtside, you realize the sheer size of the players and the athleticism they possess.”

Consider Towns in that category.

The third former Wildcat to take part in the Abu Dhabi games struggled. Justin Edwards, who changed his jersey number from 19 to 11 this season, combined to shoot a woeful 1-15 across both contests for just four points. He also got rejected pretty badly at the rim by New York’s Guerschon Yabusele. Let’s hope these two games aren’t a sign of a sophomore slump.