San Antonio Spurs centre Victor Wembanyama celebrates after a basket in front of Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace in the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023, in Oklahoma City.

French forward and star Victor Wembanyama will have a different kind of home-court advantage when the San Antonio Spurs play a pair of games in Paris next season.

Wembanyama’s Spurs and the Indiana Pacers will play two regular-season games in the French capital on Jan. 23 and Jan. 25, the NBA announced Thursday.

It will mark the first time that the NBA will play two games in Paris in the same season.

“The return of the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wembanyama to Paris to face Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers will be a landmark moment for the growth of basketball in Europe,” NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer Mark Tatum said in a statement. “With support from Tissot, the two regular-season games and surrounding events in Paris will galvanize fans in France, across Europe and around the world at a time when the momentum for basketball in the region has never been greater.”

Wembanyama, the favourite to win the Rookie of the Year award after being selected first overall in last summer’s draft, said, “I’m looking forward to it very much” when asked about playing in France back in March.