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Hinkle Fieldhouse, on the campus of Butler University, will serve as the site of the 2026 Emirates NBA Cup Championship.<\/p>\n
The countdown to the 2026 Emirates NBA Cup<\/a> Championship begins Thursday, Oct. 1, as the NBA, Butler University and the City of Indianapolis partner to give away five sets of tickets to the game with a scavenger hunt.<\/p>\n Tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET, the NBA will unveil a larger-than-life Emirates NBA Cup trophy outside of Hinkle Fieldhouse and, through @ButlerAthletics<\/a>, @IndSportsCorp<\/a> and @VisitIndy<\/a> on Instagram, reveal the locations of five Emirates NBA Cup game balls placed at locations in the city connected to Indianapolis\u2019 basketball history and the Championship game coming to Hinkle Fieldhouse.<\/p>\n People that collect one of the five Emirates game balls and return it to the Fieldhouse will earn tickets to the Championship \u2014 and a chance to take in basketball history.<\/p>\n Former NBA All-Star Gordon Hayward, now the executive basketball advisor at Butler University<\/a>, played his college basketball at the historic venue, which served as the home to the Indiana High School basketball title game for decades.<\/p>\n In 1954, Milan High School, with an enrollment of 162 students, defeated Muncie Central 32-30 at the Fieldhouse to take the state championship, inspiring the film Hoosiers.<\/p>\n The court there is still the same.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a special place, obviously, to play basketball,\u201d said Hayward. \u201cTo have a major NBA event at Hinkle and get more people aware of the magic that is Hinkle Fieldhouse, I think it\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n The arena opened in 1928, becoming, at the time, the largest basketball-specific arena in the country. It\u2019s the sixth-oldest college basketball arena still in use, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.<\/p>\n Over the years, Indiana basketball royalty has played there, Hayward said \u2014\u00a0John Wooden, Oscar Robertson, George McGinnis, Rick Mount, Bobby Plump.<\/p>\n Hayward got the chance to first play there in high school, where he \u201claid an egg,\u201d and came back in college when he committed to Butler.<\/p>\n The gym was cooled by large fans; pro players came in for \u201clegendary games\u201d during the summer; it served as an \u201celectric\u201d home for the Butler Bulldogs, which now play in the Big East.<\/p>\n \u201cI love it there. It\u2019s one of the big reasons I went there,\u201d said Hayward. \u201cThere\u2019s just this buzz in the air when you\u2019re around, hearing the basketballs bounce on that wooden floor. Growing up in Indiana, it\u2019s a special moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Hinkle Fieldhouse, on the campus of Butler University.<\/p>\n The Fieldhouse, sometimes called \u201cIndiana\u2019s Basketball Cathedral,\u201d is an integral part to the state\u2019s basketball tradition, which Hayward compared to high school football in Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s what we all do. We grow up with the hoop in our backyard and everybody plays, probably because there\u2019s really nothing else to do, especially in the winter. I remember going to games as a kid when it was a single class basketball state championship, and the whole town would go to the gym on Friday nights to watch the game, Saturday nights, whenever the game was,\u201d said Hayward. \u201cIt\u2019s just community-driven. I like to tell people that we play basketball the right way. The youth basketball in Indiana is different then any place I\u2019ve been.\u201d<\/p>\n He called for fans to come out and experience the atmosphere at the Championship, noting it\u2019ll be a unique chance to see the NBA in a \u201cclose-knit\u201d venue.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope (the players) feel like they\u2019re a part of basketball history after playing in Hinkle Fieldhouse,\u201d said Hayward.<\/p>\n Tickets to the Emirates NBA Cup 2026 Championship will go on sale at 12 p.m. ET at NBAEvents.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Emirates NBA Cup 2026 tips off Friday, Oct. 30 in NBA team markets.<\/p>\n Group Play will continue through Friday, Nov. 27, followed by the Knockout Rounds, before the tournament culminates with the winner-take-all Emirates NBA Cup Championship on Friday, Dec. 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse, streaming exclusively on Prime Video.<\/p>\n![\"Hinkle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-636560458-Cropped-1568x882.jpg\")
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