American Airlines is expanding its sponsorship role with the National Basketball Association’s international grassroots events.

American Airlines will serve as the official airline of the pre-season 2008 Europe Live tour, which will feature four NBA teams playing games in Barcelona, Berlin, London and Paris.

This will mark the third year of the tour. Last year the tour included 23 marketing partners and drew 10.3 million TV viewers and 75,000 spectators at exhibition games.

That includes a prominent on-site presence at NBA grassroots events and the first NBA “Basketball without Borders” event that took place over the July 4th weekend. It was a three-day basketball camp for 53 basketball players aged 19 and younger from 15 Asian countries, including India, China, Korea, Iran, Lebanon and the Philippines.

Several current NBA players and former NBA stars, including Sam Perkins, ran the three-day basketball clinic.

American will also sponsor other “Basketball without Borders” events, including NBA 3 x 3 competitions for amateur players in Japan and Mexico, along with NBA events planned for France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Russia and the UK. It will have on-site signage at the events and will also be incorporated into local promotions around the events.

“We applaud the NBA and are pleased to help bring Basketball without Borders to the world,” Billy Sanez, American Airlines director of advertising, promotions and corporate communications, said in a statement.

American previously sponsored a “Basketball without Borders” event in Shanghai, China and a pre-season exhibition game between the Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat in Puerto Rico in 2006. Last year the airline sponsored a Boston Celtics-Minnesota Timberwolves pre-season tilt in London.

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